Confused about SXM in 47.01 - a radio or streaming?

[JoelD]

I have SXM in another car and have the bundled streaming and a second streaming add on plan. I just spent 30 minutes on the phone with SXM and I’m more confused than ever. I thought the Rivian solution was just streaming like on your phone but built into the infotainment system, but I have a “radio ID” and a one month trial subscription on that ID. It doesn’t look like it’s streaming, and the SXM rep said it’s a real radio ID that can be activated. I thought conventional wisdom in the group was that there was no satellite radio (I have a gen 1 Launch Edition) and SXM would be streaming only. But it sure acts like it has a radio. I’m going to wait until the trial runs out to see if I want/need to “activate”

-Joel

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[zefram47]

It's streaming, but apparently SXM is being a dick and trying to treat it like an actual satellite receiver instead of internet only (there's no hardware in the truck). It's a money play and that alone makes me never want to use it. I might've gone for it if it was satellite since I'm frequently in areas without cell service. If I could've played their stuff in the truck AND on my phone for $5/mo maybe....twice, just no.

 

[JoelD]

It's streaming, but apparently SXM is being a dick and trying to treat it like an actual satellite receiver instead of internet only (there's no hardware in the truck). It's a money play and that alone makes me never want to use it. I might've gone for it if it was satellite since I'm frequently in areas without cell service. If I could've played their stuff in the truck AND on my phone for $5/mo maybe....twice, just no.

That’s what I thought I figured out by the end of the call. I’ll see if it works with my 2nd streaming account after the trial

 

[RWerksman]

SXM is being a dick

As is tradition.

I feel like almost everything they do is antagonistic toward their customers. And I say this as one of them both for the satellite product and Pandora. (don't get me started on the latter...)

 

[Dark-Fx]

This is pretty typical of SiriusXM. The system is tied to the device and there is a radioID.

 

[Fujitsujeff]

I’ve come to the same conclusion as well. I have a SXM streaming subscription account. It won’t recognize the subscription and wants me to subscribe for a new subscription for the Rivian stream. Looks like they want to treat Rivian as an official Car Streaming subscription as opposed to another computer, tv, mobile device, etc which we are streaming from.

Very disappointed in SXM since I believe it’s streaming from 4G LTE as opposed to any official satellite connection which is what most car streaming options function like. It should be have been set up just like how Spotify and Apple Music was set up. We log into our account and it sees if we have an existing subscription or not.

Hopefully they decide to backtrack and change their policy or maybe we all have this wrong and a satellite radio was put in mysteriously without all of our knowledge ?

 

[Zoidz]

A paradigm shift is taking place at SXM (I'm not saying that's good or bad, just sayin'). It seems that from their licensing perspective, old "satellite radio" is now "vehicle Infotainment".

It's probably a money grab out of desparation, but thinking about it, there could be some other reasons for this approach:
- It's possible they have poorly worded legacy contractual agreements with some content providers that is forcing this approach.
- With high res display devices in vehicles (which obviously did not exist previously for SXM), they could be dreaming of providing content beyond just audio. But I doubt they are that forward thinking/creative, lol.

Food for thought, nothing more...

 

[JoelD]

I’ve come to the same conclusion as well. I have a SXM streaming subscription account. It won’t recognize the subscription and wants me to subscribe for a new subscription for the Rivian stream. Looks like they want to treat Rivian as an official Car Streaming subscription as opposed to another computer, tv, mobile device, etc which we are streaming from.

Very disappointed in SXM since I believe it’s streaming from 4G LTE as opposed to any official satellite connection which is what most car streaming options function like. It should be have been set up just like how Spotify and Apple Music was set up. We log into our account and it sees if we have an existing subscription or not.

Hopefully they decide to backtrack and change their policy or maybe we all have this wrong and a satellite radio was put in mysteriously without all of our knowledge ?

It seemed to recognize my second streaming account (which is a separate subscription from my other car and streaming account).

i’m going to see what happens when the trial is up, but yeah, it’s dishonest or at least disingenuous.

 

[AZMurph]

It's streaming, but apparently SXM is being a dick and trying to treat it like an actual satellite receiver instead of internet only (there's no hardware in the truck). It's a money play and that alone makes me never want to use it. I might've gone for it if it was satellite since I'm frequently in areas without cell service. If I could've played their stuff in the truck AND on my phone for $5/mo maybe....twice, just no.

It is $5/mo for both the vehicle and phone app access. Only for 12 months but they always drop the renewal when you call to cancel.

 

[dstraede]

Tidal, Alexa Music, and TuneIn are the same thing. You pay for the content. I picked the $15 monthly plan, a bit more than I pay for Tidal but with much more content. Yes, XM is making money, as are the artists who get a tiny amount of money when you listen to a song.

To me, this is well worth not using Bluetooth. It auto-starts every time and works perfectly so far—more than I can say for any of the other music sources. XM satellite is great when you are in the middle of nowhere, but the quality is not as good. Plus, in most towns, XM satellite cuts out under every bridge.

 

[MetalHorses]

It is $5/mo for both the vehicle and phone app access. Only for 12 months but they always drop the renewal when you call to cancel.

I think it's $5 "Just for the Rivian", $10 for Rivian and phone app access and $25 for another vehicle which includes Internet access.

I was able to get that $25 deal for about $6.50 just by calling up every year on my previous car

So when this 30 day trial expires, I have a "3 month free" offer on my wife's vehicle, then I'll figure it out after that

 

[vandy1981]

Sirius would only be worth it if the Rivian had a satellite receiver. As it stands, the sirius app looks like a bloatware money grab.

It's a shame that the premiere off-road adventure EV didn't provision for satellite reception.

 

[AZMurph]

Tidal, Alexa Music, and TuneIn are the same thing. You pay for the content. I picked the $15 monthly plan, a bit more than I pay for Tidal but with much more content. Yes, XM is making money, as are the artists who get a tiny amount of money when you listen to a song.

To me, this is well worth not using Bluetooth. It auto-starts every time and works perfectly so far—more than I can say for any of the other music sources. XM satellite is great when you are in the middle of nowhere, but the quality is not as good. Plus, in most towns, XM satellite cuts out under every bridge.

Totally agree. The quality is better than the radios and you get the extra channels and Pandora stations you don’t get on a radio. They have to move to charging for this at some point. Another company is moving into satellite internet (I forget who) to compete with Starlink so sometime soon it won’t make sense for SiriusXm to have their own satellites and if they’re not charging for streams they’ll be done.

I also originally assumed this would just be a login like the phone app and no extra charge but once I heard about Tesla’s implementation, which is the same as Rivian’s, I knew it was coming. And it makes sense from a business perspective. I wouldn’t pay for 2 “radios” at full price of $20+ each (avg assuming a family discount to $15 ish on one), but I’ll pay $5 each. And right now that’s what I have ($3.99 on an existing “classic” radio + $5 on this for the next 12 months). I just call (and temp cancel if needed) and get the low price each time.

Free is awesome, but free is temporary since they’d go out of business.

 

[AZMurph]

I think it's $5 "Just for the Rivian", $10 for Rivian and phone app access and $25 for another vehicle which includes Internet access.

I was able to get that $25 deal for about $6.50 just by calling up every year on my previous car

So when this 30 day trial expires, I have a "3 month free" offer on my wife's vehicle, then I'll figure it out after that

We’ll have to see but I don’t think so. I signed up for “Music & Entertainment” the same as the hard radio and that was under the Radio + Streaming option so I could enter the radio ID. And the pricing it says will take effect after the 12 months is the same as the regular Radio + Streaming price. I’ve also added a streaming login distinct from the account for my wife’s radio and have used it on my phone.

 

[MetalHorses]

We’ll have to see but I don’t think so. I signed up for “Music & Entertainment” the same as the hard radio and that was under the Radio + Streaming option so I could enter the radio ID. And the pricing it says will take effect after the 12 months is the same as the regular Radio + Streaming price. I’ve also added a streaming login distinct from the account for my wife’s radio and have used it on my phone.

Yeah, looking into this deeper.... Looks like I was wrong. The $5 after the free month is STILL a promotional deal, going to to $23 after a year.

This must be the same "Deal" I had on my Mach-e. I'm pretty sure this $5 has another $1.50 or so in fees and taxes, which is that $6.50 I was always paying.

I just called up in the 11th month and said I want to cancel unless I got the same deal for another 12 months.

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