Satellite radio is here to stay
Is Satellite radio going to rule in the long term? I think not. Above article at Rediff extols the virtues of satellite radio but have nagging doubts.
I see Internet derived music, iTunes/Rhapsody for example to be more enticing than satellite radio. Or Yahoo's free radio stations.
My reasons are as follows
First the Pros of Satellite Radio
1. It offers great variety of music
2. Its relatively chatter free. i.e. it does not have jockeys and Ads that are sometimes irritating.
The cons of satellite radio are
1. It does not allow one to choose ones own music
2. Its installation process is a little cumbersome. For example, my flat is on the 4th floor of a 24 story building and I do not have a window that faces north-east. In short, I can't get the signal so I can't subscribe. I'm sure many people in metros would have similar problem.
3. I pay for channels I do not listen to.(Same as Cable)
Now compare this to Internet derived music.
1. I choose what I wish to listen to. For iTunes I pay a monthly subscription fee and I have an instant access to hundreds of thousands of tracks. I can create my List to reflect my mood and interest and play it as many times I wish.
2. Now I can store / play encrypted music on my iPod and I can carry it anywhere I wish
3. For the internet Radio Stations I do not pay anything except my broadband charges. Music would be just one of the interests I'd use that connection for.
I honestly can't think of any reason why I'd like to pay for Satellite Radio when I have the mighty Internet and iPod...
2 comments:
I love internet radio as well....the choices are amazing and I love the fact that you can fine tune it to the kind of music you want...ie, not only of one genre as it is in satelite radio, but instead by selecting bands.
I must be one of the few people in the world who isn't an iPod fan though....somehow, never much cared for any headphone, earplug type music systems.
Ins pite of all the blabber I subscribed to World and regretted it(2006).
Now i have subscribed to Yahoo music and I find it excellent. For starters, its recorded at 192kbps sampling rate compared to others that only sample @ 128 kbit or so. This makes a marked difference in quality if you connect you music to a Hi-Fi system. Secondly they connect seamlessly to my Roku Sound bridge, allowing me to stream my music from my laptop to my Amplifier digitally, wirelessly, ensuring lossless transmission. And now my collection is 2 million songs+ as entire Yahoo library is available to me. Also, the controls for the soundbridge are available on my laptop so that I can control it from my laptop directly.
I'm thrilled to see how technology has made life for me so much easier.
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