Remember Sirius satellite radio? How about its competitor XM? In the early aughts, these two companies battled it out for satellite subscription dollars only to merge in 2008 to ensure survival. The new company, SiriusXM, rolled on, servicing both Sirius and XM account holders by dropping duplicate stations, and adding new stations, features, and radio receivers. But you don't need hardware to enjoy SiriusXM's commercial-free mix of news, talk, comedy, and music. A SiriusXM Internet Radio subscription lets you stream over 140 satellite radio channels to your computer, tablet, smart phone, and Internet radio devices. It's a lot like streaming audio services such as Slacker, Spotify, and Songza, but with a major difference: 100 percent live radio. SiriusXM's 2013 update bring a new feature, MySXM, which lets subscribers personalize the listening experience.
Radio Days
Slacker began dabbling in live radio in 2012 with ESPN content, but SiriusXM bases its entire model on that idea. You arrive at a home screen featuring a variety of categories after logging in with your credentials: All, Music, Sports, Howard Stern (yes, the King of All Media has his own category), News & Issues, Talk & Entertainment, and Latin & World. SiriusXM doesn't have as many top-level stations as Slacker, but once you drill down, you'll discover several genres, ranging from decade-specific music ('90s on 9) to more niche offerings (Cinemagic, which plays strictly movie soundtracks). There are over 140 channels to sample.
The main content area shows all the channels within a category (Opie & Anthony under the Talk & Entertainment heading, for example) and related information such as the name of the song that's playing, as well as artist name. A bar across the top of the interface lets you favorite songs (for fast access), share tracks (Facebook, Twitter), buy songs (Amazon, iTunes), and set alerts (learn when a song is playing anywhere within the SiriusXM universe). Despite these many options, the interface is remarkably clean and uncluttered.
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Talk to Me
TuneStart is my favorite Sirius XM feature. When you channel-hop you'll never jump into the middle of a song; TuneStart automatically plays songs from the beginning when you stumble onto a track. Sometimes it catches the tail end of a song that played before the one you wanted, but it's not a dealbreaker. This is, after all, a feature that traditional radio stations lack and is a welcome addition. On a similar note, you can also pause and rewind live radio courtesy of a five minute buffer. If you really need to capture a sizeable programming chunk, Start Now lets you turn back the clock a massive five hours, which is perfect if you miss a morning show on your commute. You simply click the Start button to hear music from hours ago.
There's a search box that works differently than other streaming music services. Sirius XM broadcasts live radio, so you can only search for content that's currently playing. For example, an Aerosmith query may return either no results, or display the songs playing across the network. Slacker has the vantage here with its on-demand features (if you have a paid account).
The 128 Kbps streaming audio delivered clear, crisp audio to a Razer headset. When I fired up the Studio 54 channel?which plays some of the '70s best dance tunes?I enjoyed satisfactory bass and other low end sounds that didn't overwhelm other parts of the track. It sounded a hair better than Slacker's audio offerings.
Private Dancer
SiriusXM's new MySXM feature lets listeners adjust each channel?s controls for a more custom fit listening experience. The channel-specific sliders allow users to tweak library depth, familiarity, music style, tempo, region, and other attributes.
90s on 9, for example, served up songs based on how I adjusted the Era, Popularity, and Style sliders. The options let me adjust the range between early 90s and late 90s, the decade's biggest hits vs. a greater variety, and more rhythm-centric works vs. pop/rock. I tweaked 90s on 9 to play only the biggest hits of the early '90s?and it delivered. Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" ('92), Boyz II Men's "Motownphilly" ('91), Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" ('90), and R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" ('91) played in succession. That high school-era programming really took me back to my late teens, and I loved every minute. I found myself wishing that Slacker, my current go-to stream audio service, had a similar personalization feature. After all, music released in 1990 sounds radically different from music released in 1999.
There are just over 50 MySXM-enabled at the time of this review, but SiriusXM plans to add more channels to its MySXM channel line-up over time.
Play Misty for Me
If you're a radio diehard?especially one disgusted at the state of traditional over-the-air music, news, and talk?consider Sirius XM a must-have. It not only puts decades of music at your finger tips, but the comedy circuit, and lifestyle and political talk, too. If you're looking to discover new artists, you may want to check out streaming music sites that offer recommendations based on your mood and time of day (Songza), or favorite artists and songs (Pandora, Slacker). Still, SiriusXM gets an Editors' Choice nod for crafting an excellent all-purpose live radio service.
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