Sirius XM Now Available On iPhone
Allow me to again challenge the pessimistic views of the contingent that has formed, aligning itself against Sirius XM regarding free web based applications. Sirius XM will always win out due to its content and subscription business model. The Internet offers very little in the way of real competition and there is nothing on the horizon that remotely changes that.
No matter how hard you look, you will not find the NFL, NHL, NBA, PGA, MLB, NASCAR, Premier League Soccer or the National Lacrosse League on Slacker. No where on Pandora will a user find CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, Fox News, Bloomberg, the BBC or proprietary channels such as P.O.T.U.S. (Politics Of The United States) and emergency traffic and weather. No free Internet streaming method will afford the user access to Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Martha Stewart nor the array of stars on Sirius XM’s comedy channels.
The preceding factors are the reasons that Sirius XM subscribers and investors are excited about Sirius XM’s soon to be released iPhone and iPod applications. For iPhone users, the wait has ended.
News broke late last night that there is now an application that allows Sirius XM to stream through the iPhone. Honestly, at first I thought it could be an April Fools joke, however iPhone users across the Internet this morning are reporting that it is in fact working. Credit was given to Todd of Nicemac for providing the information.
Yesterday I surmised that Sirius might be working with Nicemac on such applications. The news broke last night and just this morning, Sirius XM began running ads that target iPhone users. While listening to CNBC on Sirius, Sirius ran a commercial for LogMeIn, an iPhone application that allows the user to log into their home or office computer.
Position: Long Sirius XM
Wha wha what? new ads “from” Sirius XM for the iphone this morning??
Well.. they did say sometime in Q2. And Sirius has always been on the ball and prompt with everything… so first day of Q2. Not bad.
I have been playing Sirius on my HTC for 9 months now and I use selectRadio
This is __NOT__ the official iphone app though!. If it was it would be something to get excited about. If Sirius XM had their sh$t together THIS would be their chance to shine, releasing the free app on the first day of Q2.
this is awsome.the best 10 bucks i ever spent.Sirius on pocket tunes now i dont have to carry my laptop around the house for stern
It’s nice to finally get Sirius on the iPhone, but you do have to admit that the Starplayr had a VERY nice interface…..
patience grasshopper
Ya, it’s just awesome, as the stock sinks and sinks. Are you guys all just in a fog over this thing? Why is this stock not over $1.00? I love this blog, but there is more discussion about how great the product is than the stock price, as if it will follow a great product. This is not happening so how do we explain this? It’s crap.
Scott, You are right. With all the good things happening w/ Sirius Xm we should expect the stock to be much higher. I think that will come in a few more months. We had the Shorts & the Media & the FCC & the DOJ & the Economy & the Auto Industry & last but not least the threat of BK tugging this stock down. People are still gun shy about this stock. But if u sell now I think u will regret it very much in a few months. Once they prove they are on the right track the momentum of positive emotion (backed by positive numbers) will carry this stock up higher and higher. After all the things mentioned above (each a high hurdle in its own right) know is not the time to give up on this company. They fought & won all the battles and next they will win the War. Hang in there!
Thanks dude, I needed the boost, I’m staying in.
I guess maybe they haven’t got the word yet down at Wall Street cause you sure couldn’t tell it by the stock. Oh yeah, I forgot, good news makes this POS go down, that’s right.
This is only good news for Pocket Tunes. This will have no impact on SIRI.
What makes this app different from starplayer?
Why would SiriusXM allow this app to stream their channels, and not NiceMac? Is there not a copyright violation? Also, when will all the online royalty rulings come down. Thats when slacker, and Pandora go out of business. SiriusXM seems to be the only one playing by the rules.
So, do I pony up the $10 for this app or wait until the official (and probably, free) app comes out?
Is there any word on the specific release date of the official app?
As far as we can tell (and where are not lawyers here), but Pocket Tunes relies on the Sirius Web Player for the Sirius streams. StarPlayr did too, but it used its own skin and it more user friendly, however it conflicted with Sirius XM terms which they post on their EULA.
Since Pocket Tunes is using a Web Browser to access the stream and if Sirius XM wanted to shoot it down, one could argue that the iPhone is a computer and using a web browser is perfectly acceptable. Since the Anti-Trust case with Microsoft bundling IE with Windows; this caused operating systems to open up an allow other web browsers. The iPhone is running OS X. It is an operating systems and users do have a choice to use Safari (which does not work with Sirius on the iPhone) or the Pocket Tunes browser which works with Sirius Web Player provided you have a valid Sirius Internet/Streaming Radio account.
Brandon: Blame Cos for inviting me to come over. I think the new app is good news, but doesn’t change the ultimate fate. Many of the Sirius contracts apply ONLY to satrad, and the actual content you site as exclusive, is in fact, not! Here’s an example:
“On Mar. 30, MLB will release an iPhone (AAPL) mobile application that will stream games live from all 30 teams—which is what Sirius customers get now—and offer video clips and live score updates for $10 for the entire season. Sirius’ subscriptions that include MLB games start at $10 a month. The new app doesn’t violate baseball’s contract with Sirius XM, which covers rights to stream games only on satellite radio.”
So in many of the above listed cases, the content producers will ultimately ramp up and no longer need Sirius. They will follow the lead of MLB and become distributors of their own product.
No one in his/her right mind would just pay for baseball when they can get a whole lot more (music, Stern, other talk shows, ……..) with Sirius XM — just wait till the new Iphone app by SIRI becomes available.
Me thinks thou dost protest too much!
I could easily defeat this argument by using a reverse methodology. What channel on this MLB application offers Stern, Oprah, Martha, NFL, Music, etc, ad infinitum!
More easily still is the simple fact that your supposition would eventually lead to a scenario in which a consumer, rather than pay 12.95 a month, would rather spend 10.00 for baseball, 10.00 for NCAA, 10.00 for the NFL, 10.00 for Soccer, 10.00 for comedy, 10.00 for LaCrosse, etc.
Do I make myself clear?
Brandon: (and everyone else who believe this argument) Please repeat after me “SIRIUS DOES NOT MAKE MONEY AT IT’S CURRENT PRICES, NEVER HAS AND NEVER WILL. SIRIUS IS NOT A PROFITABLE COMPANY, NOT EVEN BY EBITDA STANDARDS, NOT EVEN CASH FLOW POSITIVE!” Ah, I feel so much better now. You see that any comparison that you make such as above overlooks a fundamental law of business. The listed content providers OWN their content, while Sirius has to pay for it. They determine to a signifcant degree what sirius has to charge but Sirius has no control over what MLB and the like can charge. If they choose to MLB could charge $5 or $3 to undercut Sirius.
I think Sirius is a fantatic trading stock, and many of us have and will continue to make money doing so. Just don’t put this in your kid’s college fund. Sirius will not be a publicly traded company within 3 years, unless God calls John Malone home in the meantime.
Brandon: you also missed the point that MLB is charging $10 for the ENTIRE season (8 months) as opposed to $13 a month for sirius. So yes, if the others followed similar plans, a consumer could choose his or her 6 or 7 favorites from your above list and be either cheaper than sirius, or comparable. Music is totally irrelevant to pricing because no one will pay for broadcast music anymore, not even advertisers. Satrad would fold tomorrow without sports and comedy/talk.
INJC, I had those exact concerns and tried to weigh things a couple different ways. Brandon’s counter argument is valid; however, I’ll counter with SiriusXM’s feed is merely a listening experience for sports. MLB’s app is full featured with stats and looks like you get video of great plays as well and guess what? It’s on iphone/winmo/blackberry/PC.
Brandon is also right that some folks won’t want to go to a bunch of different providers. But with an online app that provides listening with stats and highlights, I say enough will opt to pay extra for MLB/NFL/NASCAR. It’s just not that hard to hit a web site/put in your CC number and buy a year’s sub.
I think you are going to see every major sport going the way of MLB with an online offering. They would be dumb not to and Sirius XM won’t even be getting a taste of that pie. Everyone has their own reasons for listening to Sirius. Some like the music variety, some only listen to Stern, some only give a crap about the sports and all the rest is just gravy… SiriusXM is IMO going to lose those subscribers that care only about, in the case of right now, MLB and don’t care about having the satellite coverage wherever there is no 3G coverage. Remains to be seen how many subscribers that turns out to be now and in the future… hopefully not many.
I couldn’t agree more with INJC and Otone.
Brandon, you seem to be making an assumption that all the subscribers listen to all the content. That’s completely untrue and to be perfectly frank, is indicative of your articles. Too often, in defending you obviously biased beliefs, you take a broad look at a product (in the case of content, it doesn’t matter what you have if you’re paying too much for it) or concept without really looking into the pieces that compose the product or concept. You’ve demonstrated this recently with your market manipulation articles that were more about screaming at the rain than factual, and now you’re doing it again.
I own the stock and the product and I’m hoping for the best, but in trying to gauge the future, I (and everyone else on this site) need to look at all the possibilities rather than letting emotions, fear, and anger over the stock price cloud judgment. This isn’t meant to be argumentative, but someone has to say this because you’re certainly not. I never post on these sites, but when I see biased, unbalanced articles affecting and skewing investor perception, I’m compelled to comment.
I still like Stern and still like their music stations. 🙂 It’s great to finally listen anything I want to via the iPhone and while driving for 3 hours a day.
I hope SIRI releases 1st qtr. numbers sooner than later. I expect that there might be a nice pop in deferred revenue. Hopefully a lot of customers (like myself) extended service plans to lock in free online service.
iPhone APP for Sirius is nice, but Sirius Podcasts of Chris Mad Dog Russo’s shows would be much, much, much better.
I cannot listen to Mad Dog Show live and would be very, very happy to pay for the ability to download podcasts so that I can listen on “my” time.
Thx much and please consider Podcasts for Pay of Mad Dogs Show
Get an XMP3 and Record the show…and 4 others at the same time…then take it with you where ever you go.
I did and love it. one day without it is an awful day.
How is it this iPhone App company can offer Sirius XM via their interface but NiceMac can’t?
Just installed Pocket Tunes on my iPod Touch and I’m listening to Dough Stanhope on the Howard Stern Show and it is working fine. This app maybe the reason to buy an iPhone.
The whole future of sirius, such as it may have, hinges on getting the content on to cell phones and the internet. Satellites are a dead business because the fixed cost, the capital costs, are huge when compared to offering the same content in other mediums. I read a story several weeks ago on the close of a Circuit City store where the author describes the only thing left in the whole store to be shelving, and a bin full of Sirius portable receivers. The customer base of satrad has really never changed since it’s inception, namely white males over the age of 30. They have made no in roads among minorities, women, and young consumers. Ask your friends, satrad is unknown among teenagers unless their parents play it in the cars. They do EVERYTHING by cell phone, and the internet. That’s why Howard, who quite literally saved satrad, has an aging listenership, because he is no longer where young people hear him. This app is the ONLY thing that Sirius has done in the last two years that makes any sense, but it probably comes too late because 40% of the company has already been given away.
Your argument may be correct but its for the wrong reason.
How many teenagers have the $550 it cost me to get an XMP3 and a 2 year subscription. This is for the working man and woman, and the wealthy man and womans children.
Very soon you will not have a choice to pay for sirius, one because everyone you know will have it and you’ll be the odd one out, 2 because FM will go the way of AM, 3. Internet radio sucks and will be forced out of business or have ridiculous commercial advertising between content…also, im sure you noticed apple raised prices on popular itunes content?
Go sirius xm!
It could cost $550 or $50 and it wouldn’t matter. Teenagers always have the money they need to buy what they really want. The point is they don’t WANT Sirius, because their cell phone is the center of their universe. If they carry another device it will be an Ipod.
imromo24 says:
“Internet radio sucks and will be forced out of business or have ridiculous commercial advertising between content…also, im sure you noticed apple raised prices on popular itunes content?”
Internet Radio is limitless. It is the future. iTunes content has gotten cheaper with songs starting at .69. It’s amazing how people come on here and just blather on as if by saying it will make it so. Well it just ain’t so!
Satrad is dead. They just haven’t thrown dirt on it yet.
$550? There are teenagers rocking iPhones at $80+ per month plans! That is almost $1k per year alone without the cost of the phone itself!
I’m Not Jim Cramer,
“The point is they don’t WANT Sirius, because their cell phone is the center of their universe.”
That, my friend, hits the nail on the head. Teenagers and Twenty somethings are tied to these phones as if there were an umbilical cord between them; it’s not so much a phone as it is a form of life support. I’ve really never seen anything quite like this bizarre fascination in my entire life, and women in particular seem to have a symbiotic, almost sexual relationship with these damn things. Forget having a penile implant – just have a cell phone surgically installed in your “member’, and you’ll get more action than Sanjaya at a NAMBLA convention!
You are right about the demographic that satellite radio seems to appeal to. In the almost 3 1/2 years that I have been a subscriber, I have only met one woman, at a gas station, who had satellite radio. She was driving an Infiniti G35, and I struck up a conversation after seeing the antenna on her car. She stated that she absolutely loved it, and couldn’t imagine being without it. Since then, not one other women! There are literally tens of millions of people out there who don’t know about it, don’t care about it, or just plain hate it.
One of the great mysteries of all time, to me, is the adamant claim by so many people that satellite radio is too expensive. I guess it’s true, because the people who DON’T have satellite radio DO HAVE cell phone contracts, cable TV, computers, automobiles (and the incredible expense inherent in owning and operating one), and my best argument against their bullshit excuse – BOTTLED FUCKING WATER!!! Evidently satellite radio is so cost prohibitive that if you decide not to have it, it affords you the luxury of having whatever the hell else you want. Maybe I will cancel – there are a ton of things I could really use that I thought were too expensive; if I cancel Sirius/XM I won’t have to do without ever again! This could be the secret to reviving the economy.
My shithead cousin spends more on bottled water in a week than satellite radio would cost for a month; thats right – his factory installed XM radio sits dormant in his $27,000.00 Accord (how did he afford that?) because re-activating it would be too expensive! What a pathetic, shit for brains imbecil my asshole cousin is. I swear to God I can’t stand this loser. I am embarrassed to be related to such a slob.
This is a great product in search of an audience. I love it, and so do millions of others. My satellite radio doesn’t ring, it doesn’t text, it doesn’t take pictures, I can’t play games on it, there are no cool ring tones or calculator, and last but not least… I can’t waste half the day bullshiting with people, pretending they are my friends – even though they aren’t (just desperate for attention) – with my satellite radio jammed to my ear every waking moment. I am not only not that popular (I lied in my other post), but if I remove it from the dock it is useless. Just like 90% of all the calls made on cell phones. BUT…. until satellite radio has all of these additional capabilities, one thing seems certain; an entire generation will NEVER, EVER give satellite radio a chance. The CELL PHONE – the trusty little placebo that has captivated, manipulated, and spiritually castrated more people on this planet than anything ever invented. It is so much more than just a phone to many people – it’s their friend, their confidant, their security blanket, and as you said… their universe. How incredibly sad to see people become so dependent on such a souless little invention.
imbecile