Its Official: XM Price Hike

[Jesda]

I heard rumors at xmfan.com, but brushed them off. Then XM accidentally sent price hike letters to some customers, and now its official. It'll be the same price as Sirius in April, BUT Opie and Anthony and online streaming will be free instead of a premium charge.

Seems like a strange anti-competitive move. Doesnt bother me though. Both satellite services have the content I want on a long road trip: Country, 90s, talk, comedy, cable news -- so programming wasnt a deciding factor.What always sold me on XM for the last two years was the equipment.

[PoorManQ45]

You should have known this was coming. They give you a little taste for a relatively cheap price, then they jack up the price.

[Silvia2b]

Plus now you can buy equipment that is capable of being used with all brands with the exception of Rockford Fosgate and Eclipse headunits. Pioneer, Sony, Alpine, Kenwood, Clarion, and Panasonic all have possiblities now.

[Jesda]

I'm eager to try a car with XM navigation. GPS mapping + XM traffic warnings that come up on your nav screen -- no need to tune to your local traffic channel, its right there on your screen. Gotta love it!

[Silvia2b]

Is this the same as the Aviation System XM was trying to market with weather info updates all along the route? Acura has been advertising a system like that I didn't know if they were using XM or something like the serivces of the company that went out of business called CUE.

[elwesso]

Hopefully we will be able to get XM nav head units... Thatd be golden.!!!

Jesda I prepaid for 3 months... So im good thru june.. As long as I renew that before june, can I still lock in the 9.95 price? Seems stupid not to pay for a year now..... especically since whatever you dont use (shoudl you cancel) is refundable...

[Jesda]

The price hike takes effect in April, so if you call XM now and prepay a year, you can lock in the lower rate.

[Jesda]

You should have known this was coming. They give you a little taste for a relatively cheap price, then they jack up the price.

Its usually the other way around with technology subscription fees: Cellular service, ISP, cable, etc. Either the price goes down or the level of service goes up. In the case of XM, the service offerings and price increased at the same time.

[Silvia2b]

I am considering the price hike as an opportunity to cancel my subscription, or renew for another year at a minimum. Hmmmmm, which one should I pick?

[PoorManQ45]

Its usually the other way around with technology subscription fees: Cellular service, ISP, cable, etc. Either the price goes down or the level of service goes up. In the case of XM, the service offerings and price increased at the same time.

Um.. NO. What happens when you sign up for Road Runner? You usually get like 6 months for $15 less then the normal fee. Then what happens? They jack up the price without increasing the service. You know why people stand for this? Because they get hooked on it and can not return to dial up after using RR.

It's the same way with satellite radio. But the thing about satellite radio is that it would still be a good deal at $20 a month. The way I look at it is: you could buy 2 cds at $10 a peice, or you could buy satellite radio for $20 a month and you'd get an unlimated supply of music for a month. Now you probably know those people that have to buy new Cds every month. Well, Satellite radio would be a perfect, and cheaper, alternative to those people. IIRC, there's a few stations on XM and Sirius that ONLY play brand new music, correct?

[Red coupe]

you talking about offering a low rate for to get users to come to a servise and then once a trial period ends then price coming up to normal, this thread is about price increase wich is totaly differant. No one is getting lured in with a lower price then hit with a higher one once they sign up, everyone who baught a cheaper subscription gets one, any one who signs up later gets the new higher price, wich is as rex said backwards, normaly price comes down after a product has been on the market a while , it doesnt go up.

and you dont need to quote yourself in your sig, we quote others not ourselfs, otherwise we would just quote everything

[Silvia2b]

Dudes, I just found out my employee pricing promo for netflix is going to expire too. Everybody just start raising you rates, and see how long I keep subscribing to your stupid services. Ugghhhh....

[PoorManQ45]

It's actually not a stupid service, and you should listen when I say that because I don't buy anything that causes money

Do you buy any CDs? If so, they probably cost $15 each. Oh look, that right there is a months subscription of satellite radio. And instead of having to listen to the same songs over and over, you have literally a million songs at your fingertip. So, if you average 12 Cds per year, Satelite radio would actually save you money.