free and/or music streaming

If you get the right model of old XM receivers you can get a lifetime subscription. I have one in my car it has a lifetime subscription. They offered a lifetime subscription in like 2009 since they were going under and needed cash. Its not a total guarantee but mine has been running for like 5 years.

Most XM subscriptions allow one streaming feed into a home based device. As an example I use an old iPad connected to XM and connect to my in home stereo with a simple cable. I can also make the connection using bluetooth with one of my other devices.

Every time my subscription comes up for renewal I call to cancel and they offer me better and better deals until I take one. The last time I settled for $5.99/month. They kept sending my wife offers and she just kept shredding them but the last one a couple of months ago was too good to turn down. She signed on for $2.99/month for 3 years. We sometimes take multi-week road trips and it's great to have a steady music source other than what's on our phones.

For that price its hard to go wrong. Its less than any of the music streaming services.

Have this offer as I type, on a car we no longer own. But it cannot be transferred to any other vehicle, unfortunately.

XM made me realize kids are listening to a lot more than we think. My son, now 12, hears 3 notes of a Grateful Dead jam and knows what tune it is, to include what tune they are going to go into (if the hint is there). And the hilarious thing is he knows all the voices from 1965 to 2025, yet, has no idea whatsoever what any of the band members look like. How? From listening along with his dad. The first time he bluffed when he didn't know, he said the tune was Weather Report Suite. That blew my mind. I bet 75% of Deadheads don't even know that tune.

Interestingly the totally free (don't have our full name, address, nor any payment) Spotify, popped up that evening, saying that they hope I am enjoying the premium features for 14 days. That's why it's so good. I really wanted to see what the ads etc would feel like. There's nothing imho from stopping a person from creating a new account. My main thing was how nicely XM is integrated with the "tablet" of the 2025 vehicle. Spotify is just as good and amazing it uses the free cellular (free for 8 years) that the vehicle has. If $2 for 3 mos comes back I would take it ($2.12), and I'd even do $99/3 years or $127 out the door. But upon renewal I think a lot of folks will be getting a $2.xx increase. Much like the way cell providers did.

So far Spotify is very good. But again, waiting to see what the true "free" is like with ads, etc.

Albuquerque has radio stations with transmitter locations my cars have had trouble getting well. So I used to put six of my CDs in the changer in my 2002 Audi and listen until I'd played them through, then change.

No CD player situation for my Tesla, so I ripped my CD collection and put the mp3 files on a USB stick.

Finally I realized that I have the use of TuneIn, and that there are good Classical stations in several cities available there. I have perhaps a dozen in my "library" and when the one I'm listening to does not suit, I just move to the next.

Not really free, as I have a Premium Connectivity subscription--but I already paid that to get detailed overhead imagery and better traffic.

TuneIn won't work when I'm far enough "out there" that the car lacks a cell phone connection, but I've only made that kind of trip once in the last ten years.

Lets not forget about shoutcast, https://directory.shoutcast.com/. Thousands of free radio stations. Use vlc, poweramp, or equivalent to stream.

i will have to try it.

$2.99/month is a good deal for 3 years.

Spotify, it is in fact awesome. Remarkable how vast it is.

BUT--we are totally free. They don't know our last name, our address, nor is there any payment linked.

Got a pop-up late day 1: We hope you are enjoying premium features, free for 14 days lol

There was a free for 60 day offer, shortened to 30 days as I type. So why it's so awesome is it is in fact the premium version.

What's to stop anyone from a new acct every 14 days, dunno, people returned good batteries to Costco, didn't they?

It's remarkable how well it integrates to the vehicle. Vehicle has cellular for 8 years free (On Star Basic or something). So the Spotify uses it, no CarPlay or Android Auto is needed, no smartphone.

I once attended a presentation in 2005 and asked, "For what reason would a vehicle need to be connected?" The only example the carrier could come up with, was say you needed to find parking, you could look it up. It was all pie in the sky back then, heck, no real smartphone yet at that time...

I haven't listened to broadcast, or streaming, music in a very long time. Had a free couple years of so called commercial free streaming music when I bought my Jeep in 2013 but it wasn't really commercial free and out of all the channels I only found one I enjoyed, Bluesville, but they were on a top 40 type loop.

I have a few huge (GBs) USB sticks filled with music I enjoy and listen to them in random order. I have enough I could drive to California from Pennsylvania and back pretty much maybe repeat a few tunes twice.

I got a lot of my music back in the Napster days, plus I converted my CD's to mp3s, even today there are places to get free music. I hate listening to commercials.

the week goes by, I realize Spotify and XM are apples to oranges.

In a strange way, one needs not to collect things if they have Spotify. Those CDs I got for $28 that sell for $180 on eBay, probably all of them are on Spotify. Enjoying it but again it is in fact Premium features right now.

pass the week 1 mark, offers came in....

Spotify, click the button for 3 mos $0. But, of course, I know they collect payment and personal info here. It's great actually virtually anything one wants to hear it's available instantly. Are we forever into instant gratification....

XM, offer of $5/mo for a year. That's $0.99/mo less than what the chat bot offered. Will it continue to drop? I'm in for $2.99/mo.

What I can't figure out is how we unclutter our lives and live simply. There's some balance, just don't know what that is. We don't simply want to pay on a subscription for everything. I know Costco got us in 2009 and amazon maybe 2017 and now I got blink last year. These add up to almost $500/yr. For what? lol

Imagine if I were to get AAA Plus. We do have 2 twenty year old vehicles...

Possibly you save more by sticking with those old vehicles than any excess you're spending on subscriptions.

You are accurately assessing the scenario. I did think to myself, say the offer is $5, and I wanted $2.99 or $3. $3 x 12 = $36 maybe even $46 or $50 with tax and fees.

That isn't even one lunch out with wife and son today, so is parting with $50, to have 365 days of enjoyment, terrible...not really.

update on Spotify, it has gone to ads on the smartphone, and now the ads won't load in the wife's truck. So it doesn't work. When I google, other people other makes had the same issue (for example the first thread I found was on a Volvo, hers is a Chevy). I have this feeling Spotify is going to get us, but at what price? Probably $12.99/mo, kinda steep though. It's only money lol

Yeah, you gotta say no a couple times to get the price down then BAM -Deal!