SiriusXM is Free Through May 15 To Help With Coronavirus Isolation Boredom

Satellite radio giant SiriusXM announced today it's made its 300-plus channel streaming service available for free in North America starting today through May 15.

Will I get a refund?

[olsmeister]

No.

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[CohibaVancouver]

A refund for what? As a satellite radio subscriber the streaming service is already free.

Streaming only

[Frederic54]

Not to listen in your car or portable XM

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[kenai_alpenglow]

signal doesn't make it to the car most places anyway. Despite it being from a satellite.

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[DaTrueDave]

Do you drive in tunnels a lot?

Free Sirius XM, eh?

[DontBeAMoran]

Still not interested.

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[Darinbob]

Still not interested.

It was interesting in my car especially in longer trips, but since this offer won't work in the car and we won't be taking any trips longer than to the grocery store until may it's kind of moot. For streaming at home, why Sirius as opposed to other streaming services? Anyone else have free service?

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[tlhIngan]

It was interesting in my car especially in longer trips, but since this offer won't work in the car and we won't be taking any trips longer than to the grocery store until may it's kind of moot.

Duh. It would be rather irresponsible for them to promote the satellite product consumed mostly in the car when most of the people are under lockdown.

Last thing SiriusXM wants to do is promote people travelling when you're not supposed to.

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[DontBeAMoran]

Well, sure! Thanks for asking, I didn't know you were interested!

Let's see... I not interested in any of the bullshit Microsoft is offering, nor Sony. Apple's crappy in-ear airpods don't interest me either. Oh, and don't get me started on Facebook or Twitter...

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[Darinbob]

When I tried it in my car, I was surprised that there were most definitely not 300 channels. It certainly had some that I liked, but it seems that at least in my auto's 3 month preview it only had a subset. I don't understand the premium business, it all costs money anyway. The normal radio gets old and repetitive as well, your home music CD collection gets repetitive as well.

Probalby good for truckers but nothing special for anyone else.

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[BlindWillieMcTell]

The normal radio gets old and repetitive as well, your home music CD collection gets repetitive as well.

I've lived mostly in areas with decent underground, independent, public, or college radio stations, which I find give a much better curated radio experience in terms of variety and quality and now I can stream most of these online. Also, the streaming services when used well, can be superior to even the biggest CD or vinyl collections. They still have a ways to go with their predictive algorithms though

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[DewDude]

The biggest thing with that is what hardware do you have? Sirius, XM, Sirius/XM? There is a difference. You have to remember that XM and Sirius were competing technologies completely incompatible before the merger. They talked about a "unified" hardware platform...and they have come out with some "Sirius/XM" branded hardware that's able to get an extended set of channels. But they're still technically supporting both the Sirius and XM platforms which have more limitations than the newer platform. I don't e

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[pgmrdlm]

I was completely disappointed in the blues station. The comedy stations had tons of commercials. I think there use to be a station that did old time radio shows, like an audio book. But, I could never find it again when I tried. That is what I would listen to most on long trips.

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[Cy Guy]

<quote>I think there use to be a station that did old time radio shows</quote>

Radio Classics, channel 148

The web interface is much better than that available even on newer cars. If going on a trip, I recommend using the web interface to find your favorite stations before leaving.

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[Gilgaron]

The streaming has more channels, and if you call you can get them down to what it'd cost to sub to a streaming radio station. I agree that at full advertised price it may not seem sensible.

Does anyone else miss ShoutCast?

[BAReFO0t]

When it was at its height, in the 2000s.
Then the stations got murdered, on after the other. ... Thanks Content Mafia!

Nowadays it's only shitty Content Mafia services where you don't even get universal protocols or files to play nor a way to keep it offline, outside of some shitty app. And there's nobody anymore, who's paid to discover and play new stuff that fits the theme of the station.

At least SomaFM is still there.
And PlusFM.net.

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[drinkypoo]

We listen to Sirius at work because one of my coworkers has a subscription, and you're right, it's extremely repetitive. They play basically the same songs every day. The only thing that I really enjoy there is Tom Morello's One Man Revolution, and that's only new once a week.

Commercial Free?

[bob4u2c]

The last three cars I have owned all have Sirius, they keep giving me free offers or low $5/month rates. But every time I tune in I realize its just the same basic radio stations I have around here. The only difference, is the local stations are free. And I hate the local stations, too many commercials and mixes that make no sense (ie lets go from Lionel Richie to ACDC).

Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stick to a memory stick and 64 gigs of music I actually want to listen to.

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[drinkypoo]

The meaningful difference between Sirius and local radio is that it doesn't have commercials. At least the streaming doesn't, I don't know about the broadcast. I would hope it's the same. You do have to listen to the DJs blather occasionally, and they are almost all idiots, so that's sad. But that doesn't differentiate it either.

Sirius XM? Spam Fountain!

[TechyImmigrant]

I don't need another avalanche of Sirius spam. When I got my Nissan Leaf which as a Sirius receiver in it, some bastard, presumably the Nissan dealer, sold Sirius my details and they've been emailing and physical mailing ever since.
 

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[bob4u2c]

Yes, the dealership sends the information to Sirius XM and they send out regular reminders to join up!

Sadly the only known way to stop the mail (and e-mail) is to sign up an account, go into the account and disable all notifications. They don't have an opt out link or page.

I guess the really sad part is that my old car was totaled about a year ago and I still receive offers to sign up that car for service.

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[TechyImmigrant]

I got no detectable spam arising from my Tesla purchase. I guess that's another black mark against the dealership model.

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[koick]

No account setup or email address is needed.
Simply:

1. Open your browser of choice
2. Head to https://siriusxm.com/streamfre... [siriusxm.com]
3. Click on Start Streaming
4. Click on Start Free Preview

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[Cy Guy]

<quote>It looks like the No Account Setup option is gone.</quote>

It's still there. Just click where it says "Start Free Trial" and ignore the instructions to create an account.

It will will even work from Chrome on Android phones if you request the Desktop version of the page from Chrome settings. But the stream will stop on you phone if power-saving puts the Chrome app to sleep.

The desperation of e-mail printers.

[BAReFO0t]

Did somebody tell them about the series of tubes?

I gave up on them

[p51d007]

After XM was bought by Sirius. Their so called "no commercial" channels have nothing but commercials. "you are listening to bla bla bla on channel bla bla bla. Be sure to check out channel bla bla bla. Or, "hey! this is dopey dave, I use to be an MTV Vjay! Here's a song and boy do I remember how whacky this guy was in the studio. Sorry, I'll stick with Spotify....NO, absolutely NO commercials!

Nope -- only ch.121 Coronavirusnews

[redelm]

Maybe my radio will update overnight, but right now I only get Ch.1, Promos and a new ch.121 Cormoanavirus.

They over-compress their audio

[BaboonPoop]

The sound quality is poor on music stations. I prefer to use Spotify with a high quality WiFI-downloaded playlist. Sirius are good if you like talk radio. I used to enjoy the Howard Stern show, but you need a $20/month subscription for that. I didn't like Howard that much.

Requires creating an account

[caseih]

Seems a bit ridiculous to require an account to listen temporarily for free. But apparently still want us to donate information for them to sell. If they really wanted to actually help people get through difficult times, they should just make their stream player open up without any login at all during this free period.

No thanks. I'll stick to my existing music sources and podcasts for infotainment.

Excelent

[carmencabrera]

Many companies are opting for these strategies and boy will we see the results at the end of this pandemic.

too many commercials.

[kd4rdb]

Tried XM back in 2005.... it was good until they added commercials. Then more. Then more. I reached a point where I asked my self why I was paying to hear commercials. I remain amazed by their simulcast tech however.