iEntry 10th Anniversary
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My Version of iTunes + XM
It has been rumored a few times in the past Apple was talking with XM or Sirius about satellite radio in the iPod. Who knows if that will ever happen. Personally, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. I have owned about ten iPods, but I always end up getting rid of them because I never use them. The majority of my time is spent near a computer or in my truck so music is always available if I want it. But, I will tell you what I’d like to see happen.
Wouldn’t it be great if XM gave each subscriber a channel of their own? They should be able to link your channel to your radio id number. Then, with your own channel, you could stream your itunes collection to their servers and they can send the signal to your receiver. I’d love to have a channel of all James Taylor, all the time. I wouldn’t expect to control the music, just to know that any time I turn to the station it would be my favorites.
The nice thing about this is that XM probably wouldn’t even have to make a deal with Apple. They could probably do this on their own. Just enable a server to accept streaming and then people can stream from iTunes using something like Dot-Tunes, or they could stream from any other type of media player. Personally, I would love this.
January 3rd, 2006 at 3:26 pm
You can become a broadcaster fairly inexpensively (and legally) at Live365.com. I have two stations there now, and what you’re describing is pretty close to how Live365 works.
January 3rd, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Michael, Thanks for leaving a note. I’ve used sites like live365.com, but I’m talking specifically about the ability to use your station on XM or Sirius. That way, you could get your radio station in your car. (Where there is no connection to the internet.)
January 4th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Umm, there are three, count ‘em 3, ways to get music from iTunes into your car (which way is best depends on your car’s sound system):
1. A cassette adapter
2. A transmitter (such as the Griffin iTrip)
3. Direct cable for cars that have AUX inputs (or docks like BMWs)
Why should XM or Sirius spend millions in R&D and infrastructure to solve a problem that you can rectify for under $50?
I drove from Virginia to Denver this past summer. And again to Atlanta in the fall. I listened to my iPod the whole way.
January 11th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
John, those are all ways of inexpensively getting personalized music in to your car, however, the purpose of this idea was to get it through an XM radio. It seemed to me that Brian was not asking for any suggestion or help to get his music in to his car. He was only proposing an idea which i thought was very clever and would be an excellent idea. By the way, save your sarcasm for your online blog.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
XM Can’t give every user there own station… the reason they cut channels to provide holiday music is that they have limited bandwidth on the satellites… it is one thing to have the same n Number of broadcasts going to all x number of users it is quite another to have to carry n + x channel at the same time. If there were 200 stations and 1 million users as the system is now they only need the capacity to broadcast 200 stations simultaneously. To do the same thing and give each user there own station they would need much more bandwidth (they would have to send all stations to all receivers since there is no way to direct communication to one specific device. as a side note i do think it would be cool… just not feasible since they already can’t make any money…
April 19th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Live365 sux.. Use Webradioworld.com they provide royalities in over 35 countries. Not just the USA.
Also why would someone want to listen to music being sent to their xm radio when they can just listen to it off the ipod .
I can listen to any internet radio station in my car with my samsung eternity phone using moodio.fm
including my own.