Lockergnome's recent article, XM Gets Lapped by Sirius, slams XM for their decision to raise rates for basic service. Pointing out big deals like losing NASCAR to Sirius, they seem convinced that XM's goose is cooked with the price hike.

I don't see this as a problem. Sure, the price increase is something like 30% of the original price, but it puts the price on-par with Sirius, so it's not an unreasonable price to pay.

All the price hike does is even out the playing field. I don't get the big deal. Anyone disagree?

The New York Times on Sunday had a very informative interview with Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio. In it, Mel clears a few things up that many of us were wondering. Apparently the wearable satellite radio units will be created in-house and Mel squashes the thought that Sirius will have advertising on music channels as many (including myself) had feared.

Mel also recognizes that the main competition is not XM Satellite Radio, but rather Terrestrial Radio. This is something I've been waiting to hear from both sides. It's not XM vs Sirius, but really Satellite vs Terrestrial, that we all should be worried about, and it's great to read that Mel sees that.

Go and read the NY Times interview yourself, it's really worth it.

About.com has an interesting article on what exactly defines the term "commercial free" in terms of radio. The debate is over XM's usage of promos (a promotional announcement for something the service is doing) as in fact being commercials even though they are internal.

Some agree, some don't - either way, it's a great discussion and worth the read.

This month's Wired Magazine features the cover story on Howard Stern and the Satellite Wars, written by the talented Ana Marie Cox of Wonkette. An awesome read and very well written.

Also in the issue is The Resurrection of Indie Radio and Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star, both decent articles themselves.

[Read]

The Washington Post published an article this morning (registration required) on file sharing. Most of the article covers the regular crap, BitTorrent, Grokster, blah blah blah. But sprinkled within is a few tidbits on Time Trax, the which we all know makes software and hardware that allows users to record XM content, and now Sirius content, to MP3 on your desktop or direct to your iPod.

In the article, Elliott Frutkin, CEO of Time Trax is quoted as saying, "If it's so risky for me to try out new things or put new things on the market, you are really going to devastate people's willingness to innovate."

Many people have criticized Time Trax for creating a device that has only one purpose, and that's to steal and distribute content. I won't get into this debate here (but you're more than welcome to in the comments) because it's a neverending argument from both sides of the camp. One side feels file sharing (of regular content, or satellite radio content) is a natural evolution of an aging copyright system, others feel that stealing is stealing no matter what the circumstances - others are in the middle. And while Time Trax may have some legitimate uses, even Mr Frutkin is quick to admit that it can be used for illegal purposes.

"The first people who were playing with the technology TimeTrax is based on weren't people that I would have over for dinner with the family," said Frutkin, who does not condone stealing. "But that's the way things happen."

Interesting stuff to start your day. :)

MSNBC has a pretty good article on the different styles of satellite radio receivers available. He gives a good review for all units although he quickly covers his butt by proclaiming, "no one company corners the market on cool new radios" right away, it's still a good read for those interested.

Gary Krakow covers the MyFi, the Polk XRt12, and the drool-inducing Tivoli Satellite with a nice overview of each unit. Interesting article.

AutoWeek published an article today about XM's Connect-and-Play technology being competition for Delphi, the leading supplier of both Sirius and XM satellite receivers for automakers. Currently, 'traditional' factory-installed satrad units cost about $325. Yet Connect-and-Play costs an estimated $50, and reduces the size of the receiver architecture and combines it into the antenna; so the competition to Delphi could indeed be fierce.

Connect-and-Play is undergoing vehicle testing at XM's research center in Florida. XM's biggest challenge is developing an antenna that can survive the extreme temperatures, harsh vibrations and styling demands required by automakers.

Moving the satellite radio's electronics from the receiver to the antenna is "a trend the entire industry is heading to," says Bob Schumacher, business line executive for integrated media systems for Delphi. Maybe Delphi will soon be releasing a response to Connect-and-Play?

Connect-and-Play will show up in home units next month in such brands as Pioneer, Harman Kardon and Boston Acoustics.

Hot on the tail on a report about satellite radio's big draw being about no commercials (based on a J.P. Morgan survey), J.P. Morgan come out with another story that satellite radio is peaking - concluded from the results of the same survey.

The reasoning? From the survey, 35 percent said they had interest in subscribing satellite radio in December, down from the 43 percent who expressed such an interest in a May poll.

"We believe [the latest poll data] shows that new content exclusives are not expanding the overall market (although they are shifting share to Sirius), that new subscribers are more price-sensitive than early adopters and that new alternative technologies, such as Apple's iPod, may be eroding consumer interest," wrote Analyst Barton Crockett in a note to clients.

7 percentage points? C'mon. What about subscriber numbers telling a more accurate story than a survey? It's all about sales numbers - not surveys.

Reuters reports that satellite radio's biggest attraction isn't original content like Howard Stern, but rather the absence of commercials, according to a survey released on Monday by J.P. Morgan.

Surprising? Not really. Terrestrial Radio has made commercials so long and so frequent that listening is unbearable now. The same was with Cable TV back-in-the-day when being commercial-free was a selling point. Hence my biggest fear that satellite radio will get sold out to advertisers due to the explosive spending and the eventual need to be in the black.

Anyway, the survey of 1,600 consumers, which included subscribers as well as non-subscribers, found almost two-thirds of subscribers' radio listening time is spent with satellite radio over traditional radio. Commercial-free programming is the biggest driver of demand.

But from the Reuters article even more interesting is the statement that, according to J.P. Morgan's forecasts Satellite Radio is expected to have nearly 35 million subscribers by 2010. J.P. Morgan estimates that satellite radio likely will eat into traditional radio listeners by 3.5 percent in 2010. That amount could grow if more satellite radio is available in other places beyond users' cars, J.P. Morgan said.

CNBC on MSN Money: With more than 1,200 radio stations in the United States reaching more than 100 million listeners a week, Clear Channel Communications is the industry's goliath.. With about one-tenth the audience, Sirius Satellite Radio is the David. And their battle is just beginning.

A rather dull read in my opinion. More interesting is the disclosure at the end of the article: (CNBC is carried on Sirius and its competitor XM Satellite Radio. It holds warrants to buy stock XM Satellite.)