Ahhh see what I did there? Way too much time on my hands. A quick level set first. I don't, now or in the future, plan on using Sirius XM. Just not for me so this is just for my own edification.

I saw a Sirius unit in the member marketplace and I have a couple of questions for those of you in the know and also time on your hands.

If you sign up, you have a radio unit installed and a service launched with a monthly fee.

There is also an app you can download from the play store or whatever Apple's equivalent is to you phone and run your subscription from the phone.

So my question is that if you can download the app, why install the radio?

I think the answer is simple but I don't want to guess.

With the app, you have to pay for data usage plus the XM monthly fee.
With the stand alone radio unit, you just pay the monthly fee.

Is that correct?

 

Had a free 2 month subscription that came with my other car, and used it Nov-Dec this past year. Found it pretty useless, but did listen to a 'holiday channel' while driving to/from relatives for the holiday.
In the info I got, it appears that not all channels are available on both (Satellite and data stream). There were a few only available on one or the other.

But otherwise, I think you are right.

 

We have SiriusXM on our cars and pay the radio subscription. Honestly, I don't pay a lot of attention to the bills, but I believe the way it works is, you have to have a subscription to a radio in order to use the streaming app. I don't think you can log in or use the streaming app without a paid account of some sort. And I think the streaming app access is included with the radio subscription and thus no extra charge for the streaming app access with a paid radio subscription.

 

It's $12.50 per month for the basic music package but I just got something in the mail about the royalty payments going up so I expect my bill will too. For basic radio without dumb repetitive commercials it's worth it (and I'm a tight wad). I don't think the app is free with a radio subscription. You do pay a subscription for each radio (auto or home) that uses the service. Adds up pretty quickly.

Per the music, the selection is not that great. Lots, and I mean lots of oddball low royalty songs between the popular ones. Oft I'll bounce from channel to channel trying to find something interesting, all the way to the jazz ones. Some day's it's a toss up if it's worth it. I do Lithium, Ozzy's Boneyard and Hair Nation mostly. I am no fan of rap so the decade channels fall out of favor after one or two songs.

Satellite also has trouble in town, or around trees and definitely big hills. Hard to be cool listening to you doo wop with the windows down while cruising through town on a Saturday night and the tunes keep dropping out.

 

My car has had the Sirius on since I got it. I really like it, especially since so far it has been free. When it finally stops, I will likely sign up for it since I do like it.

 

Sean the over the air satellite broadcast is much higher resolution than over the internet or 'streaming'. But still fairly low quality.

If you stream it to your phone, your reception is whatever your cell signal is. Then the audio quality is further deteriorated when the audio is sent from your cell to the headunit. However, you can pause live broadcast, rewind and fast forward. On the factory sat unit, you can use your steering wheel and headunit.

Content- its very good. Everything really, Sinatra to Trance to BBC!

$30 for six months is what you should pay.

 

I had it for six months, used it maybe a total of five hours. I found it more a pain to find content I liked than to just play my USB stick or CDs.
PLUS, two weeks after I registered with Sirius/XM (stupidly used my real phone #) I started getting literally hundreds of Scam Phone Calls per week. Coincidence??? Methinks not.