It came down to cost, versus how much use I got out of it. The radio in my car has an XM receiver built into it and every now and then they do a two week free service test for people who have their radios. I listened to the comedy channels while they were unlocked and I enjoyed them while in traffic. I asked for and recieved a subscription for Christmas last year. It was a package that came with a radio and originally I thought the subscription could just be moved to my car. Nope. Sirius forced me to install this 2nd radio in my car just to listen to the service already paid for. The free subscription was not transferable.

But I liked it. I found I didn’t use it much on the morning drive to work as I preferred to listen to the local news, but on the drive home, when traffic is worse, it was preferable to the radio. I especially enjoyed the comedy stations and the Classic Vinyl channel.

So why not renew when my year was up? Because I only ever really listened to those four stations and at $16.99 a month that is not a price I wanted to pay for only four stations. They have a cheaper plan, it is only $10.99, but you don’t get to choose your stations and the ones I listened to were not in the $10.99 plan.

If I were in the car a lot more, traveling to customer locations around Canada like I used to, it would probably be worth it, but for only about an hour to an hour and a half a day? I could use their streaming service to listen to it at my desk, but that’s not included in the $16.99 plan, you need to pay extra to add it to your account, or subscribe to the All Access plan for $21.99 a month. That’s pretty freaking expensive compared to… well just about anything. Spotify Premium is only $9.99, Amazon Music Unlimited is $7.99 and Apple Music is $9.99. Now it isn’t completely fair to compare them to Satellite radio, it is structured more like radio after all, with DJs and talk shows, sports and news, although the other services offer podcasts if it is talk you want. Sirius also doesn’t use up your data minutes.

So, it’s not a bad service really, there’s a lot to like about it, but the price… Netflix costs me $16.99 a month now, but I have no issue paying that because I can watch it on any device I choose, any time I want and three other people in my family can use my account at the same time, wherever they want, on whatever they want. Because I can use Netflix on my choice of device I use it far more than I do my SiriusXM subscription. Did I mention that if you want to add another radio to your existing account it costs extra, or did you figure that out for yourself? Oh, and the comedy stations I like so much? Filled with advertisements. That’s right, a subscription service more expensive than anything but Netflix and you STILL have to listen to advertisements. If I was okay with ads, I would stick to the Spotify FREE account.

Oh and on top of that, when I called to cancel before they auto-renewed, suddenly they were able to offer me a significantly lower price for the year. If I had said nothing it would have been full price, but by threatening to quit, they magically had no issue accepting less money. I know this has become almost standard practice will cell phone, internet and TV companies now but you have no idea how much this behavior pisses me off.