I ordered audio package on my 07 MCS and I have been dissatisfied with the SIRIUS satellite radio so far. I have been listening to few rock stations and I noticed that they keep playing the same songs over and over!!! And I thought only my local crappy radio stations did that. Now I see how SIRIUS can afford to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Howard Stern, whose show I have absolutely zero interest in. SIRIUS saves tons of money on song royalties by playing the same crap over and over again. Had I known it would be like this, I would have skipped the audio package all together. I plan to call the SIRIUS customer service and complain. Any other fellow MINI owners out there who are dissatisfied with SIRIUS and who want to help me out by complaining to their customer service as well?

 

Completely satisfied with Sirius in all off my cars.

 

I have Sirius, and you're right, the songs are all pre-recorded and played over and over again. For a while I even noticed that they were played at the same time of the day, but it seems they've mixed it up a bit since........the only solution is to skip around the channels..........

 

I have Sirius with Dish Network TV and agree, the rock stations play the same stuff day to day. A local rock station does a much better job of playing a full range.

 

I love Sirius, my wife has XM and Sirius is 10x better. XM now has commercials on some of their music channels. I haven't noticed repetitive music at all and I basically listen to one station the whole time.

 

It's not only rock, I realize many of the electronic stations repeat songs as well. It's not in too extensive of a way though, never enough to be annoying or quite as bad as FM. Overall I'm quite satisfied. Then again I bought my car off the lot and listen to my iPod through the aux input about 50% of the time.

 

I had XM and found the same thing when I listened to it while driving for work. Listening all day everyday it got to be annoying and even frustrating to be able to recognize each song my listening to only 3 seconds of it. Eventually I would find myself turning to the classical or jazz stations just to hear something fresh.

 

I find myself flipping through a lot of stations and there really is a lot of different music on Sirius. There is a Springsteen station for goodness sakes. I bet if you go back to regular radio you will be very dissapointed. BTW, The Howard Stern Show is worth every penny of $500 million.

 

I've had XM for a few years now (ran Sirius as well for 2 years). The philosophy at Sirius is to play HITS, whereas XM focuses on DEPTH. I find there to be little duplication and few repeat mix sets ...ever. In the electronic dance realm, unless you are hearing a scheduled rebroadcast of a show like Deeper Shades of House (XM 80 - The Move), you are NOT going to hear repeats.

If Sirus and XM merge, it's all over. Mel K. has vowed to push Sirius's playlist strategy onto the XM side ... resulting in nothing more than the homogenous, limited sounds of Clear Channel beamed from space. Can't imagine how a merger will help the listeners in any way ... it's idiotic ... and completely driven by shareholder instant gratification.

Anyway, you like hits, over and over, a la corporate FM ... go Sirius. You want depth, variety, and lots of B sides, go XM. For electronic dance, XM is CLEARLY the way to go. Just my $0.02.

 

+1 not to mention the other talk stations... 3 NPR channels to say the least.

overall, i love sirius. i listen to about 30 different stations. btw, i spent 8 hours in a car today with XM and i resorted to listening to regular radio most of the time and just hit scan everytime a commercial came on.

 

it all depends on how often you listen. When I had it I was driving trucks full time ~ 12 hrs per day X 5 days per week, even if I put it on the channel titled "Deep Tracks" I would hear some of the same songs, maybe not 5 times per day but usually once every one or two days, and while driving trucks all day the days kindof bleed together
What bothered me the most with XM was the "DJs" who would come on and tell me what songs i just heard, as if I cant read! and then they talk about nothing ! bla. bla. bla. bla. etc

 

My wife complains about hearing the same songs on XM at the same time too. What you have to realize is that if you are listening to a very specific type of music you are going to hear repeat songs.

 

I should qualify my statements regarding XM. I only listen to the dance channels 80 - 84, where there is very little repetition. I'm probably one of the few folks here that dwells only in that musical landscape so take my prior comments with a grain of ... vinyl.

Thanks!

 

I love my SIRIUS. I have had it since purchasing my 2003 MC and can't imagine driving without it. I haven't noticed a repeating of songs on the station I listen to as of yet. I never have a problem with customer server either. They are always responsive to requests and everything is handled quickly.

 

Thats what I have an IPOD for. I listen to XM mainly for talk radio, sports talk, CNN, college and pro games etc etc not for the music.
And now with the Sirius installed in the mini, I will be listening to the same stuff.

 

Since I installed Sirius 3 years ago, the only CD's I have played in my car were some Spanish language instruction CD's and a Christmas mix cd given to be my a MINI friend.

I couldn't be happier. Sure beats the hell out of what the local stations here play (mostly commercials).

 

Love Sirius. Have it in all the cars, a home and on the computer at work.

 

I've only listened to satellite radio when renting vehicles or when hosting parties (we've got DISH Network, which transmits some Sirius channels), so I can't really comment on repetitiveness. My driving music habits at the moment tend to involve having a CD/MP3 disk in the player at all times, but predominantly listening to the local stations. Whenever a track or commercial shows up that I don't care for, then I listen to one track off of my current player.

Opening my options up to satellite radio (for which there will be around five stations in genres for me to pick from) and HD Radio ("my" local station has an HD2 option that does not broadcast commercials) seems to be an ideal fit. And with all these additional options, I can't imagine repeated tracklists on Sirius becoming too much of a bother for me, but I suppose I'll find out eventually.

If Sirius absorbs XM, what's the intent regarding some of the exclusive sports packages. I'm a big fan of the NHL -- should I expect to be able to hear NHL Radio (currently an XM exclusive) on Sirius at some point in the future? If yes, then when are these things supposed to merge?

~Neal

 

That's interesting to hear they play the same songs over & over again like regular FM radio. I have it only for Stern & never really listen to music channels, sometimes I'll tune into 60's hits or one of the Jazz stations, but for the most part I use my ipod for music.

 

I bounce between a couple of XM channels. If you listen long enough you will hear them repeat a series of songs, not as bad as regular broadcast, but annoying.
I live in central Texas. I don't like country, western or wrap, and I don't speak fluent Spanish. Limits my radio selections to teeny-booper, sports, or elevator.

I'll take XM.

 

The Sirius coming out of my car radio is repetitive and is pretty much popular cuts. I had XM for two years prior to this and I agree with Halifax (not the dance part though), that XM has more depth...you can hear many more esoteric cuts than with Sirius. I've always found my taste in music to be at complete odds with what the commercial promoters believe I should listen to. XM's "Fine Tuning...the art of no genre" was my station and I have found nothing comparable on Sirius.

 

I'm really into Indie Rock and Indie Folk stuff and Sirius has a great channel for that called Left of Center. That channel also seems to have a real person that makes song selections which is probably why I haven't really run into repetitive songs on Sirius. I do think that some of the 80's, 90's, 70's type channels use a play list.

 

Have you tried Sirius's Disorder channel.... It used to be 34 but has since moved so I'm not sure where it is now. They promote themselves as no genre also. I used to listen to it but have now found something I like better.

 

I listen to that channel and I agree! You get a very good mix of older selections and new music. Plus they are really good at playing something else off the CD not just the current release.

 

I had XM for three years in my previous vehicle and really enjoyed it, my wife still has it in her Acura. I switched to Sirius only because of the so-called lifetime subscription with MINI. I'm a traditional Jazz and Blues guy who also listens to classic, 50's and 60's rock 'n roll rock, CNN Headline News, an occasional talk show and the uncensored comedy channel. I prefer the variety of Jazz on Sirius, I prefer the primary DJ on XMs Bluesville but the music is the same; Sirius seems less repetitious than XM in those genres. Other than that I grew up with 60s DJ Cousin Brucie so I love listening to his Sirius show. I guess for my musical interests the two are pretty similar.