Sirius XM raising their rates
Remember when the FCC and Congress stepped in and changed the laws that allowed XM Radio and Sirius Radio to merge? Part of the deal included the agreement that the merged company could not raise it’s rates for a predefined amount of time. I don’t remember how long the price freeze was going to be in place, and I’m too lazy to go look it up right now, but I know that it was going to be a while before my rates went up.
That’s about to change. I got an email today from XM Radio telling me that my monthly fee is going up an additional $1.98 a month. From the email:
Music royalty rights were established by the U.S. Congress as part of the Copyright Act. This Act requires payment of copyright music royalties to recording artists, musicians and recording companies who hold copyrights in sound recordings.
These royalties have recently increased dramatically, principally as a result of a decision made by the Copyright Royalty Board, which is designated by the Library of Congress to set royalty rates for sound recordings. Beginning on July 29, 2009, a “U.S. Music Royalty Fee” of $1.98/month* for primary subscriptions and $.97/month* for multi-receiver subscriptions will be effective upon your next renewal. This fee will be used directly to offset increased payments from XM to the recording industry.
The real kicker is that I don’t even listen to music on XM Radio. They canceled the only music channel I ever listened to, the Punk Channel. When I want to listen to recorded music, I listen to my iPod.
I only listen to XM Radio for the live talk. I listen to Opie and Anthony, Ron and Fez, the Dan Patrick Show, the Steve Czaban Show, CNN, and Howard Stern. I used to listen to World Soccer Daily until they started asking listening for “donations”.
Why should a person like me who only listens to talk radio have to pay royalties to the music industry?
The answer is that I shouldn’t, but I have no way of stopping it. If I want to continue listening to live talk and news on satellite radio, I will have to pay it.
I’m already paying $4.04 more each month to listen to the “Best of Sirius”. Mostly that’s so I can listen to Howard Stern. I’m also paying another $2.99 a month to listen to Sirius XM on the computer and my iPhone. Since he only does a show four days a week, and his show for some reason is not available on the iPhone, I’m going to go ahead and cancel the “Best of Sirius”.
I have joined the iPhone revolution
Sheri and I stopped by our local neighborhood AT&T store and purchased iPhones. Instead of getting the fancy brand new 3G S iPhones, we purchased the regular old 3G iPhones. Even if we wanted the newest model, AT&T were all sold out. I heard them telling someone else that they only initially received 18 of the newest models and they sold out the first day. They didn’t think they would get any more for at least a month.
I didn’t see how the newer 3G S iPhones were that much of an improvement. Essentially the biggest difference was that it was capable of shooting video. I couldn’t care less about that.
I picked up a white 16 gig model and Sheri chose a black 8 gig model.
I’ve got to admit that I’m even more impressed with the iPhone than I thought I was going to be. Having constant access to the World Wide Internet Web is a life changer. While sitting on the sofa yesterday at my mother-in-law’s house, I was able to read my email and delete a spam comment here on my blog.
Speaking of my blog, I installed a special WordPress theme made specifically for iPhones or other smartphones, Carrington Mobile 1.0.2. Visitors reading this from a computer see the regular theme, visitors from an iPhone see a different theme all together that’s much easier to read on a tiny screen.
So far my favorite App is the Sirius XM App. It allows me to listen to Sirius XM directly from my iPhone either over the 3G network or any WiFi network. This is huge. This means that I can listen to Sirius XM anywhere I go. Oddly enough, just about everything that I listen to on Sirius XM is available on the iPhone except Howard Stern. His show is strangely absent from the lineup. What’s weird about this is he’s been speaking about a Sirius XM iPhone app for months. One finally comes out and his show is not on it? That’s weird. I guess he wants more money.
Evidently $500 million isn’t enough.
Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez are on it, so it’s not that big of a deal. The thing that gets me is that I pay extra to for a Best of Sirius package that allows me to listen to Howard Stern (and the NFL). I also pay extra to be able to listen to Sirius XM over the Internet. I can listen to Howard Stern over the Internet on a computer, but not from my iPhone.
That’s really weird.
New ‘Watchmen’ lawsuit, this time it’s over coffee
Massimo Zanetti, the maker of various crappy grocery store coffees including Chock Ful o’Nuts, is suing Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and the Organic Coffee Cartel over coffee that looks an awful lot like a can of Chock Ful o’Nuts. The coffee, Nite Owl Dark Roast, is being sold online with a percentage of the proceeds going to charity.
Clay Enos, the official still photographer of the Watchmen movie, came up with the idea to sell the coffee. Shortly before the movie was released, he was a guest on the Ron and Fez show where he talked about taking photos for the movie as well as his $100 photo book from the movie.
He also talked about this coffee.
Massimo Zanetti is asking the courts for an injunction against any further sale of the coffee, plus they want a percentage not from the coffee sales, but from the actual movie.
So much for the Sirius-XM merger not requiring a new radio
To say I’m not happy with the reality of the Sirius-XM satellite radio merger is an understatement. I’ve already blogged about the fact that they removed one of my favorite music channels. I’ve now learned that my $150, 6-month old radio does not support the new A La Carte pricing packages.
Back when the two companies were attempting to get the federal government to change the law and allow the two competing satellite radio companies to merge, this was one of the things that would make the merger cheaper for the consumer. Instead of having to pay for channels you do not want, you could select 50 total channels that you wanted and pay less then the standard $13 bucks a month.
This past May I purchased a Sirius Sportster 5. It was (and still is) the most expensive radio sold by Sirius. It does not support A La Carte pricing.
Instead of paying less, I am now paying even more. The reason? To get some of the XM-only radio programing such as the NHL and NBA along with Ron and Fez, I had to cough up another four bucks a month for their “Best of XM package”.
You can’t tell me that they could have made the A La Carte pricing package available to everyone if they chose to. Instead they are using it to sell new radios.
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