This weeks retort:
To the idiots @ Sirius and XM.
What is the most expensive marketing cost that every company incurs? New customer acquisition. I recently read an article about programmers writing software for windows media 9 and windows mobile that allows listeners to get access to XM radio on their pda and smart phones. XM and Sirius are siccing their lawyers on these open source programmers. Wait, let me get this straight. Programmers are creating a new niche market for you with hundreds of thousands of potential customers, a market you have debated entering since its inception, a market that is growing daily with the likes of Vcast, EDGE and other cell-phone based music networks, AND YOU DON'T WANT TO BE A PART OF IT? Open source developers are creating your apps for FREE, removing all stops for a new customer to sign up and try your service, and you're pissed? We all know you make your money selling subscriptions. As more cars come equipped with satellite radio, as live internet radio feeds grow, and as consumers continue to clammer for a "do-it-all" iPhone-Camera-Organizer-Email-device, the market for your $99 personal satellite receiver is disappearing. If you have a chance to leverage the work of others and gain NEW subscribers for FREE, what is the problem. You should be partnering with these developers, not suing them. Why not give them an incentive and put some marketing dollars behind it. Each developer gets a flat fee or residual for each new subscriber they sign up. The money is not in the software or the device. The long term market for online music is with subscriptions. Contracts will become the word of the day. The bell is tolling; time will tell whether cell phone carriers or 3rd party providers become the streaming music source of choice. Sirius and XM, for your own sake, I hope you're listening.
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