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Do you love the radio but hate all the commercials? Satellite radio may be the right option for you. If you're willing to pay the monthly fee for it, satellite radio provides an endless amount of music. But both XM and Sirius satellite radio services have become enormous. So which do you choose?

I have had both XM and Sirius satellite radio. I personally liked XM better, because there were more channels I liked on it. But it seemed to have fewer channels to choose from than Sirius. The problem I found wit Sirius (also the reason why I decided not to keep it) was that there were TOO MANY channels. I found myself flipping through channel after channel, rarely finding a song I even knew. In the car, by the time I found a song I liked, I was already at my destination. Or, when one song ended, the hunt began for another song. On XM, I could leave a channel on and hear a bunch of songs I'd actually heard of before, sprinkled in with some unusual stuff. But on Sirius I felt lost.

There is not much difference in the price of the satellite radio services, so that should not be much of a deciding factor for you. What you should base your decision on is your taste. What do you like to listen to? They both have a wide variety of music channels (any genre that you can think of), sports radio, and talk shows. Sirius has some bigger names attached to it: Howard Stern has his own channel on Sirius satellite radio. But if you don't like listening to people talk on and on about nothing, then this is probably irrelevant.

It is undeniable that XM has some commercials tossed in. But any media, whether it be a newspaper, magazine, television, or radio, utilizes advertisers to make their money and support their business. XM is not bogged down with tons of commercials or anything, so don't worry. Sirius has less commercials for advertisers, but they have a ton of commercials for Sirius satellite radio and the channels that you might already be listening to if you're hearing the commercials. I personally think this kind of defeats the purpose, because if someone already has bought your product, why keep pumping the idea of buying it into their head? Wouldn't this make a person less likely to continue usuing your service?

What I like about satellite radio overall is that you can see the name of the artist and the name of the song at all times. Actually, not at all times with Sirius. I don't know if there was some kind of setting to change it but this disappointed me. XM I never had to ask "Who sings this?"

Anyway, I personally like XM radio better, but it's ultimately your call. They are both good services if you like radio enough to pay for it.

Learn more about this author, Megan Deroche.
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