Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me About This Before??

During one of my previous posts directed at XM Radio (and my current lack of satisfaction with the constantly increasing rates handed down to loyal customers), Gracie left me a comment encouraging me to check out Pandora.

I'm. In. Love.

Why didn't any of y'all ever tell me about this before?????

It is the definition of amazing.
(Click to enlarge.)All I did was create a nice little account, start with my first "station" by typing in the country band "Lady Antebellum", and it keeps building songs from there. The navigation and tips it gives you along the way are SO polite with a little snarky worked in - just the way I like it.

So far, I've only "X"ed one song (Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream" - I don't do songs about soldiers who don't make it home) and it promised it'd "never play it again". I've even discovered some great country songs I've never heard before - songs that haven't been released as singles!

I can't wait to create a station based on the following two artists: Jason Michael Carroll and Flo-Rida. I think it'll be very interesting to see where that one leads.

For those of you who are in my Gmail contacts, who I didn't think would mind the invite, you got an invite from me yesterday. (Sorry - I forgot to include the personal message.) Another sweet feature is that it shows your friends who are members and you can share you favorites, etc.

Long story short: Goodbye XM!

The only thing I need to figure out now is how exactly to hook it up so that I can do Pandora in the car and on the boat :-)

Feel free to add me if you're on Pandora - I'm ncsulilwolf by way of ncsulilwolf@gmail.com.

Dear XM Radio

Every morning that I'm planning on being in the office for a bit, I launch Firefox and XMRadio.com so I can listen to The Highway (formerly Highway 16) and whatever else fits my fancy that day.

Today, this is what I was greeted with:

"Screw that." - was my first response. "I beg you pardon?" - was my second.

Let me preface this by saying that every single vehicle in my family has either XM or Sirius radio. Thanks to the merger, XM/Sirius has a good deal of business with us. Each vehicle has a removable satellite radio unit so we can use them in the house, on the boat, wherever. Technically, I could do the same in my office, but the reception isn't great since this is a commercial building constructed of primarily metal. I am however, not above engineering up a solution to avoid being charged for something I've always been provided as an included service.

Plus, the online radio service isn't THAT good anyway. The "what's playing now" feature (so you can see what's on other stations before you change the channel) never auto-updates anymore.

Finally, I'm not the world's best copywriter, but I'm pretty sure I could've damn well figured out a better, more eloquent way to say "renew your contract now if you still want this free service of be prepared to ante up more money". Don't play games with me XM, I will win.

PS - XM Radio... I HOPE you find this blog post and feel a little embarrassed. I would too if I were you.

[End Rant]