DirecTV dropping XM, switching to SonicTap on Feb 9th

[phil]

An insert with my DirecTV bill announces they will be switching to SonicTap on Feb 9th. Anyone have any experience with SonicTap? What changes can we expect? The insert claims more than 75 Commercial-free channels.

 

[Bill_W]

The news has been on DirecTv's website for awhile. Unhappy with this. Since DirecTv's parent company is a minority owner of Sirius, why drop Sirius/XM from DirecTv while it stays on Dish network?

 

[smashedcd]

Old news found out in November. Sourses say its like Music zchoice. Much repetition.

 

[landtuna]

Hmmmmmm. I seem to remember a few years ago when I first got DirecTV they had Music Choice. Then they went to XM (which I didn't like nearly as much) and now they're headed back to a similar programmer?

As the world turns.......

 

[NT3]

Damn. I like having some XM stations in the house. Always sounds a million times better on DirecTV then streaming on the internet.

 

[tomservo]

Liberty owns DirecTV, right? Aren't they the ones who bailed out Sirius XM recently? Seems like synergy would keep them on DirecTV.

Sonic Tap is a service of DMX. I listened to the switchover at 5am yesterday. There's some technical problems but hopefully those will get worked out.

Fans of the few unique channels left on XM will be disappointed at their replacements. I've heard a lot of grumbling about Deep Tracks, The Loft, The Spectrum and Outlaw Country's replacements being subpar. But a lot of the other channels ought to be improvements over the constant DJ chatter and cross-promotion that was foisted upon XM after the big takeover.

 

[salemjedi54]

I think SonicTap is bad. The music is very repetative and there is no imaging.

 

[CTListener]

I think SonicTap is bad. The music is very repetative and there is no imaging.

It's not like the audio channels are driving huge numbers of people to get satellite or cable TV. Nobody's paying for DirecTV, Dish or cable for the music. So why should they care about the playlist depth on those channels, or anything else about those channels except that they play music as seamlessly, dependably and inoffensively as possible? Oh, and add "cheaply" to that list.

I'm guessing that DirecTV got enough complaints about the gab on the Sirius XM channels that the decision was made to switch, and SonicTap was the service willing to do the job on the cheap.

 

[salemjedi54]

I think SonicTap is bad. The music is very repetative and there is no imaging.

It's not like the audio channels are driving huge numbers of people to get satellite or cable TV. Nobody's paying for DirecTV, Dish or cable for the music. So why should they care about the playlist depth on those channels, or anything else about those channels except that they play music as seamlessly, dependably and inoffensively as possible? Oh, and add "cheaply" to that list.

I'm guessing that DirecTV got enough complaints about the gab on the Sirius XM channels that the decision was made to switch, and SonicTap was the service willing to do the job on the cheap.

Then why have the music channels if they are going to be subpar.....Other than smooth jazz, chill, neo-soul and classic hip hop I can listen to over the air radio for music to clean my house to.

 

[CTListener]

I think SonicTap is bad. The music is very repetative and there is no imaging.

It's not like the audio channels are driving huge numbers of people to get satellite or cable TV. Nobody's paying for DirecTV, Dish or cable for the music. So why should they care about the playlist depth on those channels, or anything else about those channels except that they play music as seamlessly, dependably and inoffensively as possible? Oh, and add "cheaply" to that list.

I'm guessing that DirecTV got enough complaints about the gab on the Sirius XM channels that the decision was made to switch, and SonicTap was the service willing to do the job on the cheap.

Then why have the music channels if they are going to be subpar.....Other than smooth jazz, chill, neo-soul and classic hip hop I can listen to over the air radio for music to clean my house to.

Because they're seamless sources of background music rather than commercial FM stations with disc jockeys and commercial breaks every 20 minutes or so. The average person with one of these channels on while he or she is cleaning the house isn't going to care, or even notice, that some of the songs being played today were played earlier in the week.

 

[tomservo]

Perhaps the biggest appeal to the music channels isn't residential, but commercial applications. Think background music in bars and shops and restaurants.

A restaurant can get cable or DirecTV installed to play Big Sports Game on the TVs in the bar and also pipe music into the dining areas. It's very versatile in that regard.

Back in the day, I used to hear XM in a lot of small businesses, and some large chains as well. After the hostile takeover by Sirius, the chatter went up and the number of those installations went down, especially when Sirius discontinued the dedicated "XM for Business" channels available through DirecTV. Those were monaural feeds of genre-specific formats like Sunny, Italian and Top Tracks but without the chatter.

Because of the background nature of these applications, I think DirecTV and/or DMX (SonicTap) aren't taking much care with the sound quality, and DMX isn't going gung ho with in-depth playlists.