XM Satellite Radio last week quietly released a free channel audio preview feature on their website.
The feature (or dare I say, a "widget"), included on various channel pages, allows visitors to experience the style of music many of XM's channels play. It's not available on all channels (the Clear Channel channels, explicit language channels, and several others are excluded), but it's a huge step in the right direction.
The next step, of course, is to create an embeddable widget (similar to Slacker's) that fans can place on their MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, or whatever-pages. The more customizable they can make it, the more it will be used (and spread).
People who would embed these widgets aren't just fans: they're evangelists and influentials. And the more widgets that are embedded, means more of their friends are experiencing a taste of the service. And as we all know, a taste is all you need to get hooked on satellite radio.
Check out a full XM channel listing that include the "audio preview" feature, after the jump...
Thanks XM81FAN!
(yes, I built this list by hand...)
The 40s (ch 4)
The 60s (ch 6)
The 70s (ch 7)
The 80s (ch 8)
The 90s (ch 9)
America (ch 10)
X-Country (ch 12)
Willie's Place (ch 13)
Highway 16 (ch 16)
U.S. Country (ch 17)
20 on 20 (ch 20)
The Heart (ch 23)
The Blend (ch 25)
Flight 26 (ch 26)
XM Hitlist (ch 30)
Deep Tracks (ch 40)
XMU (ch 43)
Fred (ch 44)
Starbuck XM Café (ch 45)
Top Tracks (ch 46)
Ethel (ch 47)
Big Tracks (ch 49)
The Loft (ch 50)
Lucy (ch 54)
Soul Street (ch 60)
The City (ch 67)
The Heat (ch 68)
Real Jazz (ch 70)
High Standards (ch 73)
Bluesville (ch 74)
Fine Tuning (ch 76)
BPM (ch 81)
XM Chill (ch 84)
XM Public Radio (ch 133)
XM Comedy (ch 150)
Laugh USA (ch 151)
Oprah & Friends (ch 156)
MLB Home Plate (ch 175)
Thanks Ryan! Great job on the Channel list.
I remember there being a preview like this when I first started using XM in 2004. Had it gone away in the meantime? Or is this just a new way of presenting it?
As far as I can remember, the only preview available was the 3-day trial period. With this one, there's no registration required so users can quickly get a sense of what the channel sounds like instantaneously.
I think it's a great idea..
It would be nice if they change 'em up from time to time... not like every week or every month... but maybe every 3 months, rotate to another sample set. They sound good and I think they're a great quick way to get a feel for a channel. Now they just need an easy way to let us embed 'em in our own pages... aside from having to go through THEIR pages to get the code to put in MY pages... of course, that's how lotsa web pages are built, right? Looking at the code on other pages!
why no bluegrass junction?
Nice to see XM doing this....I like the idea of having others being allowed to put this info. on there MySpace (etc.) so others can get a taste of XM.
I've had XM since they started, and since then i've bought every pnp and portable they've made. I remember a few years ago for a whil when you hooked up a new radio, and befor it was activated about 5 random channels would work. on the preview channel it said something like 'you can sample some of our channels right now' .
Ryan:
Back in '04, XM didn't offer a 3-day online trial (only Sirius did)... XM instead offered a sample that was a few songs from the playlist. At some point, XM decided to add a 3-day live trial of the service.
Hi.
It's test. This site was probably down...
About 2 months ago i bought a XM radio just to mess around. It was never activated. For some reason i am getting 16 channels for free through this reciver without a subscription. These channels are: 1, 2, 8, 17, 20, 25, 46, 47, 71, 115, 121, 130, 143, 175, and 247. I know you can get only 4 channels with out a subscription. I am curious on how this is happing. If anyone knows please let me know. I am planning to put a youtube video up later this week.