Sirius | Gumballs Plays Games

An annoying trend with SiriusXM lately

Posted on December 6, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

Just a few weeks ago the Foo Fighters were set to take over the station Lithium to promote the release of their latest album, Sonic Highways. This would’ve been fine, however it seemed like SiriusXM as a whole would stop at nothing to promote the takeover and the album. Foo Fighters were getting played regularly on channels that I’ve never heard play the Foo Fighters (or at least not very often) such as Octane and Faction. It seemed like every time I got into my car I was hearing “Something From Nothing” on just about any station I turned to. If I wanted to listen to the Foo Fighters, I would’ve tuned into Lithium and listened to them there.

Foo-Fighters-SXM

Not only was “Something From Nothing” receiving an abnormal amount of airplay all over the place, but every station was promoting the Foo Fighters takeover excessively. You could easily hear a plug for the takeover what seemed like several times an hour, all day, all over the place. It quickly got on my nerves.

Now AC/DC has taken over Classic Rewind and it seems the same thing that happened with the Foo Fighters is repeating. I can’t say that I’ve ever heard AC/DC receive airplay on Octane, but over the last few days I’ve heard “Rock or Bust” on Octane more often than it should be. I’m not saying it’s terrible, heck I enjoy it a lot more than the Foo Fighters, and the band fits in better on Octane than the Fighters, but still I feel like money and promotion is causing songs to get preferential treatment over the music listeners might actually want to hear.

I understand this is nothing new to radio, but I always felt like satellite radio was at least just a little above that. I’ve listened to Sirius for several years, and maybe this has been happening for awhile, but it seems like it’s been getting more frequent lately.

I know I’m not the only one reacting this way. For example Octane has had exclusive content from In This Moment and Twelve Foot Ninja recently and around the time those events aired both bands saw an abnormal spike in airplay. Posts promoting the bands on Octane’s Facebook page saw an overwhelmingly amount of negative comments about both bands. For as often as they promote the Octane “Air Force”, where listeners get a say in what should be played more often and what shouldn’t, it’s difficult to believe they really listen to their audience’s feedback when these promotions take over the airwaves and the music their listeners want to hear gets put on a back burner.

More often than not lately I find myself plugging my phone in and listening to Spotify where I can control what I want to listen to. Most of the time I do still enjoy listening to SiriusXM, but I’m getting a little sick of having all this promotional stuff shoved down my throat over and over again. Anyone else feel the same lately?

The new SiriusXM web player

Posted on March 22, 2013 by GumballsPlaysGames

I listen to SiriusXM often in the car, but just as often on my computer or phone while I’m working out, cleaning or reading. The other day I was surprised to find a new and improved SiriusXM internet player. You can still listen in on the live broadcasts on the hundreds of channels available, but now there’s a new feature called MySXM.

As you can see below the MySXM logo appears next to the player and you can click on it to switch between your personalized MySXM channel and the live channel.

MySXM will let you adjust the types of songs a channel plays, giving you an experience somewhat similar to Pandora or Spotify. For example Alt Nation lets me choose whether I’d prefer more familiar songs or newer songs. Guitar based songs or more electronic based songs, and lastly newer or veteran artists. It’s an interesting addition to a great music service.

Sirius XM, worth another shot?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by GumballsPlaysGames

Nowadays nobody listens to the radio. Instead most people have turned to streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify, and that’s not such a bad thing, but I think you lose something when you turn to these automated services. I’m a Pandora One subscriber and I enjoy the service, however I find myself skipping unfamiliar songs all too often, trying to listen to only my favorite songs. Also Pandora is just too robotic. By that I mean there’s no human interaction. Just song after song. For some this is a good thing, however I’m starting to think it’s not for me.

Furthermore, Pandora doesn’t often play brand new music. That’s why I’ve decided to give SiriusXM another try. I had been a subscriber to XM before the merger and enjoyed it, however in the long run I had to cut the service from my budget. Now I think I may end up getting a Sirius radio for my car.

I’m currently on a 30 day trial of SiriusXM Internet Radio, which lets you stream the service via your computer or phone and it’s been quite enjoyable. I’ve already discovered quite a few new songs I hadn’t heard through Pandora, and I like the human component. I love the news breaks and commentary by the DJ’s. Furthermore it’s nice to be able to listen to the news via CNN or MSNBC if I feel like it, or check out ESPN Radio and SportsCenter throughout the day. There’s also streaming play by play, and of course Howard Stern!

I’m enjoying it so far, and look forward to having the service in my car again. I’d use the app on my phone in the car, except I don’t have 3G coverage until I drive an hour off base.