How We Got Free Satellite Radio
With our most recent vehicle purchase, we received a one year free trial of XM satellite radio. This free trial will end in the next two months so I have been preparing the family especially the teenagers for this eventuality since I refuse to pay for this service. Well, it turns out that they really don’t care since they have their own way of getting free satellite radio. This is just one of those ways of finding a cheaper alternative to achieve a similar lifestyle without adding additional cost.
It turns out that my college age daughter has been listening to Pandora on her smart phone and is able to run it through the speaker system of the car. She has several “stations” set up through Pandora’s service and can really live without the satellite radio. Pandora’s service is just as good anyway. You don’t have to worry about getting out of range on a long drive and the occasional ads which allow the service to be free are certainly tolerable.
I used my Droid phone this weekend to listen to the station that I set up while driving in a section of Illinois that had five radio stations, four of which were country music. It worked out very well and provided some needed entertainment on a long, solitary drive. The ads appeared every five or six songs. It was really only one ad for Living Social which ended up being pretty short. Mostly, I was able to listen to music from the 80′s which I hadn’t heard in a long time.
I am actually enjoying the concept of Pandora although I would never pay money for the service. Not that it wouldn’t necessarily be worth it, but why pay for something that I can get for free. I would revert to the regular radio rather than pay. That is why I wonder whether the business model of Pandora is really worth all that much. They will have to depend on advertising, but could do OK if they get enough market share of listeners. As far as investing in Pandora stock, that is a post for another day.
Thanks for reading all of my free content and feel free to comment.
I’ve used Pandora for a short stint of time in the past too. I would listen to it more, but the company blackberry that serves as my phone has block out all of the benefits of having a blackberry for fun and made it an electronic leash…
It was a good service and one that I’m considering running on my PCs at home.
Nice frugal spin, by the way! tweeting this article now!
Too bad your company does that. It is no wonder that many employees are preferring iphones for more choice in applications and some fun to boot. Thanks for the tweet. That is the first one that I am aware of.
My daughter also introduced me to Pandora, it’s very cool. But…. we are caravaning across the land to move to a new locale and bought subscriptions to satelite radio for each car. For us, it is fantastic. Even though we haven’t left yet, hubby and I are addicted to the satellite radio!!!
First, let me say that I wish you have safe travels as you move. Satellite radio is cool but just isn’t an expense that I would want to add to the spending plan right now. Hence, we will get by with the free alternative.
Haven’t tried Pandora. But I agree, why pay if you can get it for free? Funny, I see a lot of businesses collapsing because the internet has a lot of free alternatives!
Pandora is fun and I use it all the time at work. The real problem with Pandora is it is not a sustainable business model. They literally lose money everytime someone listens. So enjoy it while it lasts (which could be a while since they just had a decent IPO and got some more cash), or until they decide people have to pay for it.
I currently have SirusXM and love it. I mustly enjoy the original talk content it provides me and the sports coverage when I am on long road trips. I would not pay much more than what I am now ($77/year). Basically anyone can get it for that cost, just have to ask.
I’m not that in to talk radio, but if you were, I can see where SiriusXM might be worth it. I can certainly get by with my iPod during long trips if Pandora bites the dust.
We bought a new (to us) car last year and got free SiriusXM. Used it a few times, but couldn’t really find stations we liked. Then after about 3 weeks, it cut off. I called SiriusXM and apparently, we were using an old license that expired. We could either buy a year’s contract or try to get a new license from the dealer. I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble (or the money). I’ll admit my “trial” wasn’t long enough to make a good judgment on the value of SiriusXM, but I’m not spending my $$ to find out.
Boy, you would think they might have extended it a little to try to get a new customer. Oh well, in my opinion, it isn’t worth it.