Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

Sirius in Negotiations With Apple

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thu May 26, 2005 05:50 PM
from the howard-stern's-new-haunt dept.
Media Media (Apple) Businesses Music Apple
An anonymous reader writes "Sirius Satellite Radio Chief Executive Mel Karmazin announced that his company is in talks with Apple about bringing satellite radio to the iPod. Karmazin met with Steve Jobs Monday and he says the technology is the easy part. The hard part is negotiating just how they will split the profit from equipment and monthly subscriptions." We've covered this before, but now it seems they are getting "more Sirius," or something.
+ -
story
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Sirius in Negotiations With Apple 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • maybe he should keep quiet (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cowscows (103644) on Thursday May 26 2005, @05:54PM (#12649787) Journal
    I know he's just trying to make sirius look more viable since they seem to be losing out to XM, but shouldn't he consider Apple's general attitude towards not announcing stuff ahead of time and keep his mouth shut.
    • Sirius isn't "losing" anything.

      Both companies are seeing their subscription numbers soar. XM's lead seems to have little more to do with anything except a head start. Both are seeing growth at similar rapid paces.

    • I doubt Sirius is going to be losing out to XM after Stern starts broadcasting there.

      ~S

    • Sirius losing to XM? I think not (Score:5, Insightful)

      by BitterAndDrunk (799378) on Thursday May 26 2005, @06:08PM (#12649916) Homepage Journal
      Sirius signed a contract with Stern, who will be producing quite a few shows. The big question is will his listenership follow? If a large enough percentage of them do, Sirius stands poised to take the lead in the satellite market share race. Maybe a monster one.
      Hooking up iPods with Sirius would be quite interesting . . . maybe an XM killer.
        • Even though I like Howard, I personally am going to be getting XM. Why? Because I think the company is better - I do not want to invest in a company that I think is going to tank.

          What, huh ? This move will increase their subscriber base, going with Apple is plus-plus-good. And having Howard Stern will only make it that much more attractive..

          Do you work for XM ?
            • I think people will spend $12.95 a month for Stern, plus all the other channels I know I am going to. Not to mention that Clear Channel owns a percentage of XM so even if Howard wasn't on Sirius I wouldn't buy XM because of that connection.

              ~S
        • SIRIUS doesn't just have Stern. Can you say "sports"? Exclusive NFL, exclusive NASCAR soon (ditching XM in favor of SIRIUS, no less), exclusive March Madness... versus XM's exclusive baseball.

          SIRIUS has been winning a lot of battles on fronts other than Howard Stern.

          • Content is not King (Score:4, Informative)

            by hirschma (187820) on Thursday May 26 2005, @07:59PM (#12650647)
            And while they have all of this content, they only got it by dramatically overpaying for it. XM has, to their credit, refused to play that game. Meanwhile, Sirius has been ignoring certain less sexy aspects that drives growth in this medium.

            Sirius is losing the car partnership race. Folks that buy new cars have something like a 30-50% conversion rate for whatever ships in the cars. That is becoming, increasingly, XM. Their new deal with Hyundai is going to probably bring in more subscribers than Stern ever would, but it didn't cost half a billion.

            Sirius is also seen as losing the hardware race. They don't have the resources to make desirable hardware. XM isn't doing the best here, either, but they're doing better than Sirius.

            Lastly, Sirius cannot afford to launch another sat, and they need to. They're going to burn a lot of money keeping a repeater network going. XM has the resources to continue lofting birds, and saving money from having less of a ground presence - and eventually, having the sat bandwidth to offer new services.

            The fact is that Sirius is acting a lot like a dot.com company. They're betting that they get a lot more subscribers before they burn through the cash - and I think that's a bet that they're going to lose.

            Sirius will be calling for a secondary stock offering soon. I'm sure that Stern is going to be just thrilled when his huge deal suddenly is worth a whole lot less. That will be the beginning-of-the-end event for Sirius.

            jh

            • Re:Content is not King (Score:5, Informative)

              by dieman (4814) * on Thursday May 26 2005, @08:35PM (#12650856) Homepage
              You, my friend, are crazy.

              While XM's sattelites are generally way, way, way out there on the horizon near 30 degrees, Sirius has a sattelite (three in opposing orbits) over 60-90 degrees overhead. This is why XM has to worry about a repeater network and that Sirus doesn't have to deploy nearly as many repeaters. (ie: cities with tall buildings, not just places with semi-tall buildings) Its not an indication that 'Oh sirius has less repeaters so its not as good.' Its: "Oh, they picked a far better technology for mobile radio reception from sattelites."

            • Content really is king though. Why would anyone pay for satellite radio if it doesn't have content they want to hear? If all they want is something to listen to, free radio handles that need perfectly right now. The only reason someone would pay to listen is if it is something they cannot listen to elsewhere.

              IMHO, Sirius and XM will end up merging at some point anyway. Either one will lose and the other will gobble up it's customer base and assets or they will do some sort of mutual beneficial merge.
            • The fact is that Sirius is acting a lot like a dot.com company. They're betting that they get a lot more subscribers before they burn through the cash...

              A dotcom like amazon.com, you mean?
            • Sirius is losing the car partnership race. Folks that buy new cars have something like a 30-50% conversion rate for whatever ships in the cars. That is becoming, increasingly, XM. Their new deal with Hyundai is going to probably bring in more subscribers than Stern ever would, but it didn't cost half a billion.

              from the Sirius website:

              Aston Martin
              BMW
              Chrysler
              DaimlerChrysler
              Dodge
              Fl e etwood Enterprises
              Ford
              Hertz
              Infiniti
              Jaguar
              Jeep
              Land Rover
              Lincoln
              MINI
              Mazda
              Mercedes-Benz
              Mercur y
              Monaco Coach Corporation
              Nissan
              V

  • Battery Usage? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wonder if this would suck up more battery... That seems to be one of the factors many people look at when buying these mp3 players.

  • Sirius and Apple together - could be good... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by raydobbs (99133) on Thursday May 26 2005, @05:56PM (#12649801) Homepage Journal
    As a subscriber to Sirius sat. radio AND an owner of Apple machines, I like the idea of being able to hear my favorite sat. radio stations on my iPod. Hopefully, the route they take will finally make that an affordable reality.

  • Let's Get Sirius Here... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MisterLawyer (770687) <michaellawyer@@@hotmail...com> on Thursday May 26 2005, @05:56PM (#12649802)
    Gee, I don't think I've ever seen that incredibly hilarious pun anywhere [elvisnews.com] else... [autoblog.com]

  • iPod format (Score:3, Interesting)

    by adamplas (808919) on Thursday May 26 2005, @05:57PM (#12649805)
    How much would this change the format of the iPod? As far as I remember (which isn't much I must admit) satellite radios must require some sort of antenna to pick up the signal. Would a relatively bulky add-in be required to pick up the signal?
    • What form do satellite radio antennae take? If it fits into a wire like an FM antenna, could it be wired into the headphones?

    • Re:iPod format (Score:3, Informative)

      by BladeRider (24966)
      The xm radio MyFi/XM2Go portable sat system has a small antenna. Slightly larger than a Chapstick tube. I'm sure the sirius system would require something similar. And, like the home/auto version, it requires a clear shot to the southern sky or your reception suffers.

      Jeff

  • Podcasting link here? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dark Paladin (116525) * <jhummel.johnhummel@net> on Thursday May 26 2005, @05:57PM (#12649812) Homepage
    Evidently Sirius will be teaming up with Mr. Adam Curry who helped to make podcasting famous (and could arguably be the "inventor" of podcasting).

    This kind of a system may benefit both Sirius and Apple. Rather than trying to make some sort of Apple/Sirius bastard child, perform an Audible like system: subscribers to Sirius could get satellite shows and download them as podcasts as well automatically through iTunes, or do a "Sirius Lite" with delayed Podcast versions of shows available for a monthly fee (again, like Audible).

    Apple sells more iPods (especially if they do it as an exclusive), Sirius would get more subscribers (heck, I've no interest in a satellite radio system, but I'd pay a small monthly service fee for good radio/music shows I could auto-sync to my iPod - key word "good"), and consumers - eh, I'll let individuals decide if its good for them or not.
  • Seriously. I'm a Canadian and I've only "heard" about it on slashdot and other sites.

    What is so great about it and is it available in Canada or outside of North America for that matter?

    I would not want to pay extra for a feature on an iPod if it is useless when I travel to europe.

    • Re:What is Sirus? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Humorously_Inept (777630) on Thursday May 26 2005, @06:08PM (#12649913) Homepage
      The CRTC has not approved services like Sirius and XM in Canada yet, but expect to have either or both here soon. It's basically high quality digital, (largely) commercial-free, subscription-based radio programming.

      I don't know that there's any technical reason why you couldn't receive satellite radio in Canada, but neither company will sell it to you. Likewise, if you're an American passing through Canada there's no reason why your satellite radio wouldn't work. I guess that reception in Europe and elsewhere would depend on how they have their satellites positioned and what kind of orbits they are in.
  • "Generally, our current focus is on home entertainment," Whitworth told TMO.

    This is a good idea. Get the technology to a robust place, and then worry about making it portable; of course, it's already in cars, but cars a lot bigger than iPods.

    Overall, the idea is great. I'd love to have satellite radio in my iPod, I'm just not keen on paying for it. Also, will it drain more battery power than playing a song off the HD, or less?

    If it's seemlessly built into the iPod, and the interface can be accessed fr

  • Screw that (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Reality Master 101 (179095) <RealityMaster101NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday May 26 2005, @05:59PM (#12649839) Homepage Journal
    When is the iPod going to get a frickin' FM reciever?? One of the things that I hate about Steve Jobs is that if he doesn't like something, then NO ONE should be allowed to have it. He doesn't like FM, therefore no one should listen to FM.

    Would it really be that hard to add a radio? And I don't want satellite radio. Sorry, Steve.

    Ah well. If an iPod had radio, I might tempted to get one, and I've sworn a holy oath never to give Apple any of my money because of their business practices. :D

    • You are three other people do not a target demographic make.

      It's not about adding features. If it were all about feature count, Netscape would be the best browser ever.

      The iPod serves a simple purpose. It does it well, it is not ugly while doing it, and it is easy to use. Please do not suggest that FM radio would not further complicate the device, because it certainly would.

      Besides, why would you want to listen to the utter crap which is today's ClearChannel dominated FM radio landscape? Do you not

        • Satellite stations are discrete, named, require no tuning (the channel is there or it isn't), do not change based on locale.

          FM radio stations not, not, not any of these things. You could represent Sat. stations as playlists trivially, and they would conform to the user's expectations. You cannot do the same with FM if you travel more than a few miles in any given direction.

          FM radio is an inherently crufty user experience. XM is not. Think about it.

    • Re:Screw that (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 93 Escort Wagon (326346)
      I've thought about buying the Tunestir [ipodlounge.com] , because I like to listen to NPR on the train in the AM. But thanks to RadioRecorder [versiontracker.com] and iPodder [versiontracker.com], I get to do that now anyway - so I don't think I'm missing that FM receiver so much anymore.

  • He spoke to EVERYONE, not just Apple (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 26 2005, @06:00PM (#12649850)
    From TFA:

    said the company has "had discussions with everyone," including makers of cell phones, digital music players and other devices.

    It wasn't just Apple, its just a generalized thing

  • Let Me Summarize the "Negotiations" (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cr0w T. Trollbot (848674) on Thursday May 26 2005, @06:01PM (#12649856)
    Sirrus: Please, please put us in the iPod!

    Steve Jobs: Nope.

    Sirrus: I'll be your friend!

    Steve Jobs: Nope.

    Sirrus: If you don't put us in the iPod, I'll sign an exclusive deal with RealPlayer!

    (pause)

    Sirrus & Steve Jobs: AHAHAHAHH!

    Sirrus: That's a good one. But seriously, how about putting us in the iPod?

    Steve Jobs: Nope.

    -Crow T. Trollbot

  • Equals battery time of about three minutes. Now we know that Apple would not sell such a device, so that must mean that they have developed a nuke-battery pack that can last a couple of hours.

    This advancement in batteries is the breakthrough the planet earth has been waiting for. I hope Steve gets a Nobel for it.

    What's also amazing is how Apple has been able to keep it under wraps and out of the blogs for so long.
  • The first idea that comes to mind is the ability to have Sirius capabilities in your car using an iPod to tape adapter, Sirius at work, gym, home, fishing, everywhere. Then when radio starts sucking, switch over to MP3s in the same device. Very cool if the subscription price is the same.
  • Perhaps pressure from mobile phone manufacturers prompted Jobs to take Sirius a little more siriusly. iPod's cool but let's face it, it's main selling point is cachet. Apple needs to look into expanding iPod's repertoire now that serious competition is just around the corner in an integrated device like the Nokia N91, which offers multiformat music playback with on the fly purchasing and download, web browsing, telephony, messaging, PDA functionality, gaming, etc.

  • Podcasting. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by demonic-halo (652519) on Thursday May 26 2005, @06:08PM (#12649912)
    Since Sirrus has lots of Satallite Radio channels. Maybe Apple can sell Podcasts of Sirrus radio channels to iTunes 4.9 users.

    Not quite satallite radio, but a neat way of delievering quality content to iPods.

    This way people could copy yesterday's episode of Howard Stern to their iPod, and listen to it inside an underground bunker with no outside communication.

  • Sound quality? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SamMichaels (213605) on Thursday May 26 2005, @06:08PM (#12649917)
    Aside from having to strap an antenna on your head to use this (you'll know what I mean if you've ever used any portable satellite radio), the awful and somewhat embarrassing sound quality will be VERY noticeable when it's played right beside actual CD quality audio. It's gotten so bad with both Sirius and XM that normal non-nerds are complaining about it.

    Most of the time you ignore it...but going from a track ripped in Apple lossless format to satellite radio will be like jumping back 10 years in technology.

      • Re:Sound quality? (Score:3, Informative)

        by Mr2001 (90979)
        Agreed. My mom has XM in her new Accord, and she noticed that Sirius in my Corolla sounded better. Sirius's artist and song title fields are at least 3 times longer than XM's, IIRC.

        And for political talk fans, Sirius carries a full Air America feed (as well as their own TalkLeft stream, and two corresponding conservative streams) instead of the mangled Clear Channel version that XM has, which replaces some of Air America's shows with others like Ed Schultz and (*gag*) Alan Colmes.
  • I own an Archos Gmini 200 [archos.com] and love it. The 20GB model was cheaper and physically smaller than the 20GB model iPod, and it works nearly as well. The only reasons I'd ever really want an iPod is 1) if I suddenly developed a fear of being considered un-trendy and 2) for that touch wheel! The Gmini has a nice music library and everything, but it is sometimes a pain to scroll through it (you have to hold the little nub down and wait for it to accelerate).

    Lacking the easy scrolling is not a tragedy, but not ha

    • Re:iPod vs all comers (Score:3, Interesting)

      by eobanb (823187)
      You do know that iTunes can batch-convert WMAs into MP3 or AAC, right? And that AAC, a *standard* audio format, sounds a lot better than WMA? As for the size difference of the Gmini veresus the iPod, smaller player almost always means smaller display, or smaller controls, or smaller battery, or all of these things. Really now, consider an iPod. The seamless music management and better interface alone make it worth it.
      • You do realize that if you convert a lossy format (WMA) into another lossy format (AAC), it's going to sound worse regardless of whether the one is better than the other, right?

  • First rule about talking with Steve Jobs (Score:3, Funny)

    by cosmicrob (577842) on Thursday May 26 2005, @06:35PM (#12650112)
    ..is that you *don't talk about talking with Steve Jobs* seriously.. it pisses him off.
    • Satellite antennas in my pocket scare me. I don't care how safe "they" say they are, I'd just rather not take my chances. And besides, I prefer XM to Sirius.
      • Satellite antennas in my pocket scare me. I don't care how safe "they" say they are, I'd just rather not take my chances.


        I was going to post an insightful reply dispelling your unfounded fears.
        I was going to post a funny reply making fun of your unfounded fears.

        But, honestly, I'm so taken aback I don't even know where to begin.

        • I guess we could begin by pointing out that there are two kinds of "satellite antennas" -- those that receive signals from satellites, and those that transmit signals to them -- and asking him to guess which would most likely be found in this device, and then to speculate as to how much radiation each kind emits.
    • but I'd much rather see FM radio first.

      You would? Have you listened to FM radio lately? Morning radio on FM is a cesspool of rancid ass-shit, later in the afternoon it's commercial after commercial with an occasional song thrown in to tease the listener.. when evening comes, it's the same crap britney speers/back street boys songs played over and over.

      With the possible exception of NPR.

      • Sirius is a flash in the pan (Score:4, Interesting)

        by hirschma (187820) on Thursday May 26 2005, @08:07PM (#12650697)
        XM will get as many as 1 million subcribers every year from their deal with Hyundai - which didn't cost half a billion dollars.

        XM currently has 2 million more subs than Sirius. There is simply no way that Sirius is going to catch up, Stern or not.

        Sirius paid a lot of money for potential Stern subcribers - at least a couple of hundred bucks each. It is extremely unlikely that Sirius will actually make money on this deal any time soon.

        Sirius is betting the farm on some risky deals, while XM has had strong and steady growth - and will absolutely turn a profit years before Sirius does.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2010 Geeknet, Inc.