XM Radio Online Review

[Scott Greczkowski]

Tommorow XM is supposed to launch it's new XM ONLINE Music Service.

Tonight SatelliteGuys was given a special look at the new online service from XM which will be available to everyone by tommorow afternoon.

(You can also get your own look at http://www.xmradio.com/xstream )

This new online service will let you listen to all of XM's Music Channels plus a few other select channels and shows. I will include a list of all the channels offered below.

The new online service ONLY works with Inetnet Explorer 6.0, it will not work with other popular browsers such as Mozilla, Firefox and Opera. In reality is SHOULD work with any browser since the XM application is just a FLASH application.

The application lets you listen via a low bandwidth connection (with a 33 K bit stream) and a High Bandwidth stream of 65 K Bits. The audio player used is Windows Media Player.

The audio quality is good but nothing to write home about.

I have not yet reviewed the audio quality side by side with my regular XM unit, but I plan on doing that tommorow.

XM Online includes the Online Only returns of two former XM Channels Special X and On The Rocks, these channels were removed in the last year from XM's Channel linep but live once again online. XM is also offering Opie and Anthony for FREE for a limited time via the online streaming service.

XM Online only allows only 1 listener to log in at a time. I tried loggin in again from a second computer and my first computer was disconnected saying my username logged in at another location.

Because the service was not actually live to the public many of the channels were not on the air yet, this should be fixed tommorow.

Here is a complete list of everything offered on XM ONLINE.

4 The 40's
5 The 50's
6 The 60's
7 The 70's
8 The 80's
9 The 90's
10 America
11 Nashville
12 X Country
13 Hanks Place
14 Bluegrass Junction
15 The Village
16 Highway 16
20 Top 20 on 20
21 Kiss XM
22 MIX
23 The Heart
24 Sunny
25 The Blend
26
27 Cinemagic
28 On Broadway
29 U-POP
30 Special X (Online Exclusive)
31 Torch
32 The Fish
33 Spirit
40 DeepTracks
41 Bone Yard (xl)
42 Liquid Metal (xl)
43 XMU
44 FRED
45 XM Cafe
46 Top Tracks
47 Ethel
48 Squizz
50 The Loft
51 XM Muisc Lab
52 Unsigned
53 Fungus (xl)
54 Lucy
60 Soul Street
61 The Flow
62 Suite 62
64 The Groove
65 The Rhyme (xl)
66 RAW (xl)
67 The City
70 Real Jazz
71 Watercolors
72 Beyond Jazz
73 Franks Place
74 Bluesville
75 Hear Music
76 Fine Tuning
77 Audio Visions
78 On The Rocks (Online Exclusive)
80 The Move
81 BPM
82 The System
83 Crome
90 Alegria
92 Aguila
94 Caliente
95 Luna
100 World Zone
101 The Joint
102 Nogma
110 XM Classic
112 VOX
113 XM Pops
116 XM Kids
133 Bob Edwards Show (ONLY the Bob Edwards show)
150 XM Comedy (xl)
151 Laugh USA
202 High Voltage (Opie & Anthony for a limited time only)

XM online is great if you can't get XM in your office normally, however missing are many of the talk channels including my favorite talk channel 152 Extreme.

The online player is neat, although I would like to see the option to make your own favorites list, so it only displays the stations you want to see.

A photo of the player is attached below. I am sure I will have more comments on XM online as I use it more.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

XM Radio Online is now available to all at http://listen.xmradio.com

All the above stations are now up and working.

Let us know your feedback if you try it.

 

[Ned Dorsey]

I've been anxiously awaiting this since last month's announcement. In a word my impression... "disappointed". It's "high" speed is only 65 Kbps, compared to 128 Kbps for some Shoutcast streams. Only about 75 of their channels are available - no news, no Bloomberg, no traffic, no Radio Disney (for my daughter). They do have a 3-day trial. But until they get more content, I won't be adding $4/month to my car's subscription. In the mean time I'll be continuing to listen to the free streams of Club977 http://www.club977.com

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have been listening to it this morning, and I am disapointed with the audio quality. Give us at least a 96k stream.

I am however enjoying Special X once again.

Sometimes you just got to take the ups with the downs.

 

[oby]

Do the "special x" and "on the rocks" channels over the internet feature just old programming from the prior radio channels--or are they , in effect, new channels with new programming?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

So far it only seems like they are on Auto Pilot, lets hope they keep the channels fresh.

I am waiting for RABBIT TRAX and the Magical Mizzery Tour to come on, then I will be happy.

 

[carload]

If they had asked me to pay an extra $4/month for Special X and On The Rocks for my car, I'd do it. But if I'm sitting at home, I can find my own unusual music, and if I'm on the road, I'd need to go to the trouble of burning CDs from the streams and bringing them with me.

 

[ravma479]

No Firefox = No Sale

Sorry XM, but I dont need streams that bad. I think it is a bad move for XM to lock their service to IE only. So, you have to pay 4 bucks extra a month, and you get LESS than 96kbps? Yeah, right.

 

[Sirius_Rich]

I'm getting 33 kb/s on the slow and 65 kb/s on high. SQ is ok but nothing to brag about. I listened to Opie and Anthony today to see what I had missed. The free trial is nice to check out the other channels too.

I don't think I will be subscribing to XM online at this time.