Sirius XM iPhone app offers free 7-day trial

June 18, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments | |

siriusxm4-200x300Satellite radio seems to be something people either fall in love with, or can’t understand why anyone would. I’ve been a loyal XM listener for years. To my surprise, XM’s merger with Sirius didn’t wipe out my favorite channels.

Now, I’ve got the music device I wished for in 2004: An iPod that tunes into XM.

siriusxm1-150x150
148apps editor Jeff Scott has been jonesing for this app for a while, to the point of hounding the company’s PR department. His reaction to the app, which showed up unannounced in the App Store today, is pleasant surprise that it isn’t restricted to Wi-Fi only:

Interestingly, the Sirius XM app works over 3G. We’ve seen multiple instances of AT&T or Apple blocking apps the stream audio or video from doing so over the 3G network and restricting them to using Wifi only. This app was approved, perhaps because it’s a subscription model and is expected to have fewer users than other streaming apps. You can never tell what’s in the minds of the people that approve or reject apps.


The company is offering a free 7-day trial. Pricing works like this: If you are not currently a subscriber, you can become a Premium Online subscriber for $12.95 a month and play all channels on your iPhone. If you have an existing non-Premium account, you can gain iPhone access by updating to Premium for another $2.99 per month.

Next Story: Lucid Imagination scares up funds for open-source search software
Previous Story: Has the chip market turned the corner to recovery?

Bookmark and Share

Tags: ,

Photo of Paul Boutin

About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • David
    The app works great but why aren't the Howard Stern channels available. Huge mistake in my opinion.
  • The iPhone App should have everything that you can also stream across the Internet. And hopefully there will be an "in app" payment method or you'll have to call around to 3 different continents to convince Sirius to stop billing you. Their customer service is in my opinion amongst the worst in the business.
  • A Sirius #iPhone App without Stern? It's like releasing a spreadsheet that only supported numbers 1-3. Useless.