XM go bye-bye

Lately I've been contemplating a shift in my existential paradigm. I've been thinking about canceling my subscription to XM. It's not that I'm unhappy with the service. Quite the opposite, actually, as I mentioned in a recent blog comment at work, the merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio companies worked out well for me. I'm now able to get the best of both satellite radio worlds.

But these days, I find myself listening to my subscription less and less. In the car, where I do the bulk of my music listening, I've been listening to podcasts (more on those in an upcoming post) and my CDs. At home, I still listen to satellite radio, but since I get my TV programming from Dish Network, I also have access to satellite radio programming through that. And there's really no sense in me paying for the same content twice (theoretically, part of my Dish Network fees cover that music programming).

All of the above leaves me wondering why I'm spending $13 a month for a service I'm not using. Do I believe in what satellite radio has to offer, namely unparalleled music offerings? Hell yes. Do I enjoy access to 120-ish channels of music, news, sports and entertainment? Well, hell yes. Would I give $13 a month to some grimy dude on the street just because he asked for it? That depends on whether he could appeal to one of my geek interests (I'm already doing that at the comic book store), but likely, no. Yet that's what I'm doing, letting some grimy, corporate bum hit my Visa card for a baker's-dozen-bucks every month for something that I'm not using. It's time to drop a dime and cut off that needle in my arm.

Thanks for listening; I have a phone call to make.

Playing on XM: um, that's my point. I don't know. I guess it's time to change my sig line too.