SiriusXM vs Amazoid Prime

[Botch]

When I bought my new car I got 6 months free SiriusXM, and sure enjoyed their Jazz Station, and they played just fusion on Friday afternoons. Before the 6 months was up they added Amazoid Echo devices to their distro systems, and that was really nice as I have an Echo between my kitchen and dining room, very nice.
Renewing the service, and getting the lowest price (some of my coworkers coached me how) was an irritating and 40-minute long exercise in dealin, waiting on hold for the next guy up the chain, ugh! So, when my year was up I wrote them a letter, and said, "If you can guarantee me 2 years at $100/year, I'll mail you a check for $200; otherwise, cancel". They cancelled, and sent me a note to call this number if I wanted to re-subscribe. I would've thought they'd rather have the $200, no extra effort or product required from their end, but I guess not.
Anyhoo, it finally occurred to me that I've got Amazoid Prime, and have been listening to their "Jazz Fusion" station. It's okay, but its all over the map stylistically (not necessarily a bad thing), and no DJs or live shows, just music cuts. Today's "Jazz Fusion" included:
Birdland, Weather Report (yay, actual Jazz fusion!)
Bitch's Brew, Miles Davis (ditto)
Breezin', George Benson (uhhh)
A bunch of "Smoove Jazz"
I'll Be Around, The Spinners (??)
Don't Eat the Yellow Snow, Frank Zappa (WTFF?!?)
Again, all good music, but not much fusion. I'll stick with Prime for now, although I can't get it on my car's stereo (I still have quite a library of CDs to choose from, and I drive very little these days anyway, so...)

I know I've seen a listing of the different channels on Prime, but I wasn't able to find it on Amazoid's website the other day. Any channel(s) you are fond of?

 

[Akula]

I've honestly never tried to listen to the Amazon audio channels. I ought to give them a go. I do use Apple Music, and I find the product a good value. While I liked SXM, I thought the price was rather exorbitant, even though I did like the product.

 

[mzpro5]

I use Amazon Music Unlimited as my primary source for music. It is the most expensive plan at $95/ year ( that's in address to regular annual Prime price.

I listen through my computer, phone and in my main HT via the Amazon Music app via Roku. I have some pretty esoteric tastes in music and have not found anything that was not available. In addition new releases are available on the release date.

Amazon Music does not have stations like Sirius and the sound quality is far superior compared to the high compression on Sirius.

There are hundreds of "stations" based on artist, genre, "mood" . There are also playlists and the difference is playlists will contain music from a single artist while stations feature music from various artists with a similar sound.

Not sure what device(s) you are using to listen but you should access via the Amazon Music app on any device

 

[Randy]

I have Sirius/XM and I love it.

If you pay attention and you are willing to make a phone call every 6months or so you can keep the price down.

I call, tell them I am quitting, they give me 6 months for $5/mo and I go on with my life. 7 or 8 months later when I realize I need to call them again I do.

 

[Botch]

I'm fine with continuing to pay $100/year for Sirius, but they didn't let me do it via mail. And those 40-minute phone calls, No.
And the last 3 days I've had Prime's "Jazz Fusion" channel on for about 4 hours each afternoon. Always a cut from WR's "Heavy Weather" (no other albums), always a cut from Bitch's Brew (60-some other Miles albums to select from, but no), always a cut from The Crusaders, always a cut from George Benson's "Breezin'" album, always a cut from Herbie's "Headhunters" album (no others out of, what, over 80?), and a bunch of Smoove Jazz cuts, especially from Marcus Miller, a bass player who covers so many pop tunes with uninteresting "melodies" of only two or three notes total, boring on most instruments but especially on electric bass; ugh!

 

[Akula]

I have Sirius/XM and I love it.

If you pay attention and you are willing to make a phone call every 6months or so you can keep the price down.

I call, tell them I am quitting, they give me 6 months for $5/mo and I go on with my life. 7 or 8 months later when I realize I need to call them again I do.

I just hate playing those games. If I have to call and threaten quitting on a regular basis to get an acceptable price, I've got better things I can be doing and other services I can be using. We had three vehicles and online streaming with SXM- pricing was getting nuts. And that was after they pulled a fast one some years back- when they introduced streaming, they gave it to existing subscribers for free for a length of time. Well, they also made sure that those existing subscribers with their free streaming was at an even lower bitrate than normal... if you talked to them, it was "too bad, so sad, pay up for full quality." I ended up reporting them to the state attorney general office for fraud. They didn't like that.

Honestly, like I said, I liked the product, but I found the company's practices to be pretty hostile to customers. I didn't want to give them any more of my money and went over to Apple.

 

[mzpro5]

I'm fine with continuing to pay $100/year for Sirius, but they didn't let me do it via mail. And those 40-minute phone calls, No.
And the last 3 days I've had Prime's "Jazz Fusion" channel on for about 4 hours each afternoon. Always a cut from WR's "Heavy Weather" (no other albums), always a cut from Bitch's Brew (60-some other Miles albums to select from, but no), always a cut from The Crusaders, always a cut from George Benson's "Breezin'" album, always a cut from Herbie's "Headhunters" album (no others out of, what, over 80?), and a bunch of Smoove Jazz cuts, especially from Marcus Miller, a bass player who covers so many pop tunes with uninteresting "melodies" of only two or three notes total, boring on most instruments but especially on electric bass; ugh!

I think you would find that the limited number of tracks provided is at least in part due to you are using Amazon Music Basic which has a limited number of songs available .

Worth the unlimited plan i have ($95/year) I do not experience such repetition

Here's a breakdown of the plans offered for Amazon Music. Note the basic plan has access to 2 million songs while Unlimited has access to 50 million.

https://www.androidcentral.com/amazon-music

 

[Botch]

Ah, okay. Jeff you said in an earlier post that you were paying $95/month, and that was a non-starter for me; I'll look into this.

 

[mzpro5]

Ah, okay. Jeff you said in an earlier post that you were paying $95/month, and that was a non-starter for me; I'll look into this.

Sorry for the confusion

 

[Botch]

Heh.
My farcebook feed is now saturated with "we want you back" ads from SiriusXM, offering $5/mo for the next year (after they turned down a written $100-for-one-year offer from me).
Give Us Your Moneyyyyyyy!!!

 

[Randy]

I just hate playing those games. If I have to call and threaten quitting on a regular basis to get an acceptable price, I've got better things I can be doing and other services I can be using. We had three vehicles and online streaming with SXM- pricing was getting nuts. And that was after they pulled a fast one some years back- when they introduced streaming, they gave it to existing subscribers for free for a length of time. Well, they also made sure that those existing subscribers with their free streaming was at an even lower bitrate than normal... if you talked to them, it was "too bad, so sad, pay up for full quality." I ended up reporting them to the state attorney general office for fraud. They didn't like that.

Honestly, like I said, I liked the product, but I found the company's practices to be pretty hostile to customers. I didn't want to give them any more of my money and went over to Apple.

Ya, I get it and I usually have better things to do than fuss with companies like Sirius but for some reason it hasnt bothered me to play the game.

 

[Botch]

>BUMP!!<

It was good reading thru this post of mine from over a year ago; I've mis-remembered a few things but the overall gist is the same. On another forum I wrote:

I finally got out of my SiriusXM contract, after 3 months.
I got a free 6-mo subscription when I bought my last car, and kind've enjoyed it, was able to extend the service for 12 mo/$99, which was worth it to me. Then it jumped to $26 or so per one month, and I cancelled it.
Three weeks later I get an offer from them, via mail, $99 for 12 months, again. I re-signed. Rate jumped again, and I called to cancel; they now had a very clever system of putting you on hold and referring you "to their supervisor", twice, and I was finally able to cancel. It took 45 minutes. Again, 3 weeks later they offered $99/yr and again I stupidly signed back up.
But THIS year, when the $26 fee came up, I didn't call. I wrote them a letter stating that I'd stay with them if they kept my $99/yr rate; otherwise, Cancel. They called me on the phone and tried the same trick but I immediately told them, "You have, in writing, my final offer" and hung up.
Got an email from them: if you wish to cancel please call us at... I replied to the email, again, "You have, in writing, my final offer". $26 fee showed up on my CC bill, and I called USAA. Was able to have the fee cancelled. USAA told me they didn't have the ability to block future charges from SXM, all I could do is change my CC number (which is full of other headaches). Fortunately, I got another email from SXM saying my account was cancelled. But, in a final stab of wicked business practice, they sent another email, the next day, stating that $13 was refunded to me, but not via cash or CC; it would only be added to my "account". F*ckers.

I have no doubt I will be receiving a letter from them offering $99/yr again, in about three weeks. I will open the letter with cotton gloves (no fingerprints), and using an Xacto carefully remove all ref. numbers and names, write an appropriate message (still in gloves), put it into an envelope, along with 2 tsps flour, and seal the envelope with a paintbrush dipped in water (no DNA).

And a related lesson: don't ever buy a magazine subscription thru amazoid or similar; they send you the "to keep your subscription current you don't need to do anything!" message, and won't mention the rate triples or so. Snail mail, and written checks, still have their use. Sorry for rambling so long.

Based on my above post from today, I officially HATE SiriusXM, and will never do business with them again, and go out of my way to tell others about their draconian business model.
I actually have a few CDs here that I have yet to listen to. My Audi does have a CD player but it is inexplicably inside the glove compartment, which I keep locked (car's a convertible) so that's kinda inconvenient (yeah, First-World Problems). That player also has an SD slot, so I guess I could build my own playlists and plug that in, haven't done so yet.
I'm also about half-in to the full Apple ecosystem (desktop, laptop, tablet, and even phone, but no iTV, earphones, Watch, or Home thingies) so I may look into Apple's music streaming service(s).
But I gotta listen to a few CDs, first! Since retirement I've been buying a tank of gas for the car about once every two months, and for the truck once every six months, so it takes me awhile to learn a CD in a vehicle. Guess I need to listen to music more at home, like I used to, and quit watching all these damn cat videos....

 

[Akula]

>BUMP!!<

It was good reading thru this post of mine from over a year ago; I've mis-remembered a few things but the overall gist is the same. On another forum I wrote:



Based on my above post from today, I officially HATE SiriusXM, and will never do business with them again, and go out of my way to tell others about their draconian business model.
I actually have a few CDs here that I have yet to listen to. My Audi does have a CD player but it is inexplicably inside the glove compartment, which I keep locked (car's a convertible) so that's kinda inconvenient (yeah, First-World Problems). That player also has an SD slot, so I guess I could build my own playlists and plug that in, haven't done so yet.
I'm also about half-in to the full Apple ecosystem (desktop, laptop, tablet, and even phone, but no iTV, earphones, Watch, or Home thingies) so I may look into Apple's music streaming service(s).
But I gotta listen to a few CDs, first! Since retirement I've been buying a tank of gas for the car about once every two months, and for the truck once every six months, so it takes me awhile to learn a CD in a vehicle. Guess I need to listen to music more at home, like I used to, and quit watching all these damn cat videos....

Yeah, I enjoyed the SiriusXM product. I can't stand the company. My VW also has a CD player in the glove compartment... I've never used it. I don't think I've actually used a physical CD in a vehicle for over a decade.

I do generally like Apple Music- when bundled with other iCloud services it's pretty reasonably priced and very flexible, but I do with their "radio" stations worked better (they get confused rather often) and I'd like to see some more variety there as well.

 

[jomari]

i dont have a cd player in my new car. sucks but whatever.

i am up for subscription renewal i think in september. i dont think im going to renew despite loving going home listening to willies roadhouse grand ol opry heading home.

i tried pandora for the 5 bucks program, and kinda liked it. i used the free one for ages, but when im at work i can blast it now without worrying about the ads etc.

one thing thats nice about siriusxm, is that i dont have to worry about data from my phone etc, and its already 'built into' my car. no fiddling with connecting usb cable, bluetooth etc. but we dont use my car for long road trips anyhow. plus pandoras got offline mode too.

thanks for the heads up on their company as a whole. definitely going to reconsider it in a few months.

 

[PaulyT]

Never tried sirius but now I'm glad. We have spotify family which works fine for all of us. Their classical coverage isn't too great, but when I'm in the car I listen to 90% Joe Bonamassa (with 30+ albums there's not frequent repeats) and 5% Mumford&Sons and occasionally other stuff (jazz, blues).

 

[Botch]

And, it starts again.
We're getting into the season where the unwanted political pollsters start calling more often than the "BuyYourHouseCash!/ You'reVehicle's Warrantee'sExpired!" irritations, so I'm answering my phone every so often. Today I got a call from an (877) number, and the (I think) human voice said "Hi, I'm SherryShit-head from SiriusXM, may I speak to Botch?"
Me: "NO YOU CAN'T, YOU G****D A******S!!" >click<

I have no doubt, No Doubt!, that I'll be getting a letter from them two weeks from now, "We want you back, and we're offering a $99/yr Introductory Offer!!" I really, really want to know where their US headquarters are; what the hell, I have nothing else to live for at this point.

 

[Towen7]

Wait ... people answer their phones?!?!?

 

[Botch]

Occasionally.
And I underestimated SiriusFU: the written offer for $6/mo for one year arrived today.

 

[Randy]

Wait ... people answer their phones?!?!?

Im done answering my phone.

 

[jomari]

so no one wants to buy my extended car warranty?