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eddie1261
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eddie1261
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In no particular order.
1. When those providers came online, XM in 2001 and Sirius in 2002 I believe, were they not they were completely commercial free? I used XM way back before the merger. In fact I still have the XM receiver. The catch is that back then they were completely ad free. Now they are as bad as regular car radio.
2. With Spotify, Pandora, iHeart, Amazon Music, WHY does anybody actually pay these people anymore?
3. Does anybody here use this thing? Is there some allure that I don't know about? Because at the bottom line, I STILL can only listen to what they send me.
4. What are your opinions about the "all" stations? All Springsteen, all Dylan, all Petty, all Beatles... I mean there are 5 stations dedicated to TOM MORELLO!! Really?
They keep sending me these 90 day trial offers and I don't even bother reading them. The most annoying thing is that because my car radio is satellite ready, every time I start the car it reverts to Sirius/XM and I have to change it. That kind of intrusive behavior makes me take the attitude of "You will NOT take over my car so I will NEVER subscribe to you." Then again I can be an arrogant PITA so take that with however many grains of salt you like. I don't even like Pandora anymore because of the "Because you listen to this, you might like this" nonsense. If I set up David Sanborn, play frickin' David Sanborn until I change the channel. Don't give me Grover Washington or Boney James. If I knew how to set up Sanborn, I am also capable of setting up Grover or Boney, am I not? I didn't know until yesterday that Pandora allowed me to say "Play ONLY this artist". I may have to sign up again.
I just like my thumb drive with the music I want so every song is one I picked.
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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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This isn't an issue if you just buy the albums and listen to those.
Just sayin'....
Byron Dickens BIAB. CbB. Mixbus 32C 8 HP Envy. Intel core i7. 16GB RAM W10. Focusrite Scarlett 18i 20. Various instruments played with varying degrees of proficiency. https://soundcloud.com/athanorsoundlabs
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eddie1261
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For me to do that I then have to rip them into MP3s. I don't have a CD player in my car. I set up Pandora and will give it a month. I now see how to set up "artist only" so I don't get sent to some band that Pandora thinks I would like.
I liken this to driving up to Burger King drive through and them telling me they are an ice cream store.
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1) I would say not quite as bad as regular radio. Mostly DJs just talking since they don't do ads. 2) Good question. I certainly don't. We just get free satellite radio time (weeks/months) from our Chevy dealers whenever we need any substantial work done on the cars. My assumption is car dealers buy up time to give away to customers as they need. 3) No and No. They always offer deals for $5/month for X months but then want to go full price when the term is over. Of course they say you can quit. I've just never wanted to buy into it as I'm sure you would get harassed with spam about re-joining. 4) I actually don't listen to the "all" stations when I have free service. They aren't actually "all" that artist. They give you the "you might like" artists in the mix. I have about a half dozen rock stations I do like but most of them have Morello on during the afternoon drive which renders the station useless to me. If I want to listen to exactly what I want, I load my phone with MP3s and play those in the car. Next to that, Pandora is my main tool. I actually customized a few Pandora playlists to mimic the stations I like on Sirius XM and that suits me for most listening. P.S. - This is an old man rant post. Just go back to your corner and take a nap. 
 Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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eddie1261
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eddie1261
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Just stay off my lawn, dude!
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Well, I listen to Pandora and on occasion I hear myself. But I mainly have a Sirius XM subscription on my phone, because it gets one of their auxiliary channels that I like. My car Sirius radio cannot get those extra channels, so I connect my phone to the car stereo. The channel I like is Luna (Latin jazz). Luna used to be one of their regular channels, but they relegated it to the extra channels you can only get from the app.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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I tried it a few times.
They don't have a good classical station - light classics (I don't want to go to sleep) and opera. I want heavy classics and symphonies.
On the classic rock stations, there was too much chatter between the songs. I don't want to hear the corny jokes and DJ babbling.
The jazz stations mixed too much from different types of jazz. One cool school cut followed by a funk doesn't do it for me. I like both genres, but not at the same time.
So after my 90-day trial I told them, "Thanks, but no thanks."
I have a digital walkman that has over 10,000 songs in it, culled from my CD/LP/Legal Download collection. I use it in the car, on random mode, and it does me just fine.
At home, I listen to CDs, LPs, or the tracks I bought online burned to CD. That way I have control, and no talking between songs. Plus I get to listen to albums in the order they were put on the disks. Sometimes, as in a theme album, that's important to me.
Insights and incites by Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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I step into either vehicle or the living room and tell Siri to play exactly what I want to hear - song, album, artist or genre. Done. Or I let "her" play some stations curated for just us that often expose us to unfamiliar songs that we frequently like. Ten bucks a month for access to anything I want to hear ... hmmmm 30 pennies a day for us serious music lovers? Yeah, I'll take it and have for years. I listened to XM 20+ years ago and I will credit it for having an early on Americana station that exposed us some artists we still listen to. Bud aka "oldest forum streamer" Apparently
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! A few of our videos are here on our website: https://www.janiceandbud.com/our-music.html
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Apprentice
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Apprentice
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Posts: 271 |
I've had a Sirius/XM subscription for over 10 years. I have it in my truck and I have a radio in my workshop. I spend a lot of time in the shop during the winter so it's pretty much on all the time. I listen to a lot of different Stations depending on what kind of mood I may be in on any given day: NHL Network MLB Network 60's on 6 70's on 7 80's on 8 Willie's Roadhouse Bluegrass Junction The Bridge for some easy listening when the mood strikes me. One of the comedy stations when the mood strikes me. There's a bunch of others as well. I really don't mind the DJ's on the music stations. At least I'm not listening to the same old irritating commercials over and over again As for the talk radio stations, yes, they do have commercials but you may get 2 in a row at the most. Sometimes my radio's volume knob is my friend when I'm listening to the talk stations. I don't pay for it monthly. I pay the yearly cost in one payment. What I love about them is that I can dicker with them every year when it comes time to renew my subscription. I've never paid more than $200 a year for both radios. This year I got it for $140. That's not per radio... that's for both of them. I also have full access to their app. I'm kinda too "mature" (Never say "old") to start messing around with all the new fangle dangle stuff that is out there today. I'm having a hard enough time learning how to use BIAB. It took me quite a while to figure out how to turn the radio on.
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Journeyman
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I had a google play music subscription (family plan so wife and I can both listen to what we want) it is now YouTube Music, rebranding and all. Still have the family plan, unlimited streaming and pretty much have never not found what I was looking for. I create a bunch of playlists of bands/people I want to listen to. I currently have Christmas list with about 600 songs on it on shuffle. It works great in the car as well as I have Android phone and android auto plays YouTube music natively, so I can just select my playlists for actually just tell the car to play my xxxyyy playlist and it starts right up.
You can also upload your own owned music to play wherever you want as well.
I also get Sirus/XM for free after getting my car serviced. So I do listen occasionally to that.
Last edited by etcjoe; 12/09/22 09:32 AM. Reason: added statement about uploads
My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
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I like Sirius/XM in the car. When we travel (usually to go camping, and we go to places where there often isn't much in the way of decent radio stations and where there isn't even cell phone reception, so streaming services are out. On the interstate it's nice, because local stations fade away and you have to find something new and when cell phone reception isn't good (such as in the mountains), so it's nice to have the music from Sirius/XM.
I do have my entire music collection on my phone (I recorded, cleaned, and ripped all my albums (1500) and cassettes (850), as well as my CD's (2000)), but I have to futz with the phone while driving to play that, which isn't good.
For me, because of when I grew up, it's:
60s on 6
70s on 7
The Bridge
Classic Vinyl
Classic Rewind
and sometimes Deep Tracks
We generally sing along to all of those while driving down the road.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 485
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 485 |
When XM and Sirius merged, they cancelled the one channel I loved (Beyond Jazz) and turned it into a one-hour show on the "regular" jazz channel, which played a LOT of songs that I didn't consider to be real jazz. I was one of the first million XM subscribers, and also one of the first to cancel my account after the merger.
I've had an Amazon Prime account since they started that service and comp'd me the first year. Amazon Music is included in the Prime membership. I have built up a bunch of playlists with the content I want to listen to. No ads. Many albums available in Ultra HD. I have the Amazon Music app installed on my laptop, my Android phone and my Android/Google Smart TV. Playlists can be downloaded, so you can have music available on your phone when there's no or limited cell service.
I had a Pandora account way back, but became unhappy with the service for reasons I can't even remember anymore.
I purchased a THX Onyx USB headphone amp a couple of years ago for my phone that no longer had a dedicated headphone jack. It has an MQA decoder built-in, so I have looked at getting a Tidal account several times. But at $20/month for MQA-encoded music is too expensive, when a huge amount of the music on Amazon Music is available in HD or Ultra HD. And my old ears probably couldn't tell the difference anyway.
Last edited by TheMaartian; 12/16/22 08:13 PM.
ThinkPad i9 32GB RAM 7TB SSD; Win11 Pro; RME Fireface UCX II; BiaB 2026 Ultra
Studio Pro 8; Tonalic Studio 1; Reaper v7; Bitwig Studio 6; Melodyne Studio 5
Gig Performer 5; NI S61 MK3; Focal Shape 65; Beyerdynamic DT 880 & 770
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<...snip...>
I do have my entire music collection on my phone (I recorded, cleaned, and ripped all my albums (1500) and cassettes (850), as well as my CD's (2000)), but I have to futz with the phone while driving to play that, which isn't good.<...>
I agree. Which is why I bought a digital Walkman. 8 gigs of storage, drag-and-drop song entry via Windows File Explorer, and less than $75. I have over 10,000 songs on it, ripped from my CDs and LPs or from purchased downloads. I chose the tunes for riding in the car, so there are few Classical pieces on it, as they tend to be long and need some compression to overcome road noise in the soft passages. I have a lot of pop/rock, blues, jazz, "real" R&B, soca, reggae, Latin American, and 'world music' on it. I have it set for random play, so I just plug it into the aux mini phone plug, and let it play. It does over 50 hours on a charge, so even on a long car trip, it isn't going to quit playing. I'm not into subscription services, if there is an alternative. As a gigging musician, I can't depend on a steady paycheck. I've always done OK (not rich, but not poor either) but if anything showed me the advantage of not having subscriptions, it was COVID. For about two years, nobody wanted to hire a band, as they were cautious about congregating in crowds. Thanks to now recurring bills, I made it through without having to dip into my savings. Since last January, we are gigging like crazy. It seems people are trying to make up for lost time. It feels good to be doing what I love again. Insights and incites by Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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Introducing XPro Styles PAK 11 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2026 and Higher!
XPro Styles PAK 11 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box® version 2026 (and higher) is here with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 31 RealTracks/RealDrums!
Guess who’s back again? That’s right! It’s our XPro Styles PAK’s triumphant return with the 11th edition in this series! 100 new styles are coming your way spread across the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres. And this edition's wildcard genre explores the immense and far-reaching catalogue of electronic music! The included 31 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Special offers available until August 31st, 2026!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1-11 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.
Video: XPro Styles PAK 11 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2026 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
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Xtra Styles PAK 22 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2026 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
It’s time to celebrate! Xtra Styles PAK 22 for Band-in-a-Box® is here, and we've got 200 brand-new styles coming your way!
No Xtra Styles PAK is complete without the classic rock & pop, jazz, and country volumes you know and love, and we’ve got plenty to share, with 150 styles spread across too many genres to list! Of course, it also wouldn’t be complete with our special wildcard volume to add a little spice and pizzazz to the mix. This year, because we loved it so much the first time, we’ve decided to make the second iteration of our SynthMaster volume, full of new sounds, interesting genres, and 50 engaging styles, all making use of the diverse SynthMaster plugin! Here you can find genres such as airy yacht rock, sultry electrotango, and even some synth soca funk. Don’t wait, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 22 today!
In this PAK you can find: dulcet folk ballads, funky gospel country, Brazilian jazz fusion, upbeat 1980s pop, classic Americana, a plethora of breezy bossa novas, indie singer-songwriter, scintillating synthwave, exuberant electronica, and many, many more!
Special offers available until August 31st, 2026!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1-22 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 22 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 22.
Video: Xtra Styles PAK 22 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 22 requires the 2026 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
Introducing XPro Styles PAK 11 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2026 and Higher!
XPro Styles PAK 11 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box® version 2026 (and higher) is here with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 31 RealTracks/RealDrums!
Guess who’s back again? That’s right! It’s our XPro Styles PAK’s triumphant return with the 11th edition in this series! 100 new styles are coming your way spread across the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres. And this edition's wildcard genre explores the immense and far-reaching catalogue of electronic music! The included 31 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Special offers available until August 31st, 2026!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1-11 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.
Video: XPro Styles PAK 11 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2026 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 22 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2026 and Higher!
Xtra Styles PAK 22 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2026 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
It’s time to celebrate! Xtra Styles PAK 22 for Band-in-a-Box® is here, and we've got 200 brand-new styles coming your way!
No Xtra Styles PAK is complete without the classic rock & pop, jazz, and country volumes you know and love, and we’ve got plenty to share, with 150 styles spread across too many genres to list! Of course, it also wouldn’t be complete with our special wildcard volume to add a little spice and pizzazz to the mix. This year, because we loved it so much the first time, we’ve decided to make the second iteration of our SynthMaster volume, full of new sounds, interesting genres, and 50 engaging styles, all making use of the diverse SynthMaster plugin! Here you can find genres such as airy yacht rock, sultry electrotango, and even some synth soca funk. Don’t wait, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 22 today!
In this PAK you can find: dulcet folk ballads, funky gospel country, Brazilian jazz fusion, upbeat 1980s pop, classic Americana, a plethora of breezy bossa novas, indie singer-songwriter, scintillating synthwave, exuberant electronica, and many, many more!
Special offers available until August 31st, 2026!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1-22 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 22 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 22.
Video: Xtra Styles PAK 22 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 22 requires the 2026 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
Peter Gannon Talks Band-in-a-Box with zplane
zplane recently interviewed Peter Gannon, the founder and creator of Band-in-a-Box, about the software's early days, what sets it apart from AI, how zplane's audio algorithms are used in Band-in-a-Box, and more!
Special thanks to the team at zplane for their continued support.
Check out the full interview here: https://products.zplane.de/blog/peter-gannon-interview-pg-music
Last Chance! The Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac® Special Ends Today (May 31, 2026) at 11:59pm PDT!
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Another exciting new addition is the amazing new AI-Notes feature, which can transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI. View the results in notation or play them back as MIDI, and choose whether to transcribe an entire track or transcribe specific parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac®.
There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, and much more!
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Band-in-a-Box® 2026 Mac Special Offers Extended Until May 31st!
Good news- we've extended our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac® special offers until May 31, 2026!
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 is packed with major new features, enhancements, and an incredible lineup of new content! The program now sports a sleek, modern GUI redesign across the entire interface, including updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, a new dark mode option, and more. The brand-new side toolbar provides quicker access to key windows, while the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, creating a flexible, clutter-free workspace. We have an amazing new “AI-Notes” feature. This transcribes polyphonic audio into MIDI so you can view it in notation or play it back as MIDI. You can transcribe an entire track (all pitched instruments and drums) or focus on individual parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, and much more!
There are over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac®.
When you order purchase Band-in-a-Box® 2026 before 11:59 PM PDT on May 31st, you'll also receive a Free Bonus PAK packed with exciting new add-ons.
Check out the Band-in-a-Box® for Mac packages page to find the best package for you.
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