SiriusXM

Sirius and XM were satellite radio's twin faces in the early 2000s, a time when the medium was still a novel and unproven concept. In 2008, the services merged into SiriusXM Internet Radio, which has evolved into a top streaming service that lets you listen to music, talk shows, and sports on your computer, phone, tablet, or in a wide range of motor vehicles. Today, SiriusXM heavily focuses on live audio content delivered to apps and vehicle kits that let you access the service's many excellent shows and channels from nearly anywhere, making it an Editors' Choice winner among streaming music services.

SiriusXM Plans

SiriusXM has a comically expansive list of subscription plans, more so than any other music streaming service we’ve tested. Its core plan, the mobile app-exclusive All Access ($9.99 per month), offers more than 425 streaming channels, including original talk shows, sports, Howard Stern’s channels, Artist stations, and SiriusXM’s in-studio shows and performances.

Platinum, a tier that you can use with your smartphone, tablet, internet radio device, or PC, costs $29.12 per month. The Platinum plan is similar to All Access, except that it extends 165 channels to SiriusXM's vehicle hardware, such as the $69.99 Onyx EZR.

(Credit: SiriusXM/PCMag )

A cheaper alternative, the Music and Entertainment package, is a $23.05-per-month bundle that offers roughly 400 channels, with 155 of them accessible by vehicle. Most notably, Music and Entertainment lacks Howard Stern's channels, and live sports channels. The cheapest plan, the $16.98-per-month Music Showcase, streams 100 channels (80 of which are available in vehicles). However, it lacks SiriusXM's Podcasts, Comedy, and Sports Talk channels.

Beyond the three core bundles, SiriusXM has additional business bundles and specialty packages, such as À La Carte, À La Carte Gold, All-In-One, Family All-In-One, and News, Sports & Talk. There's also Marine for fishing and weather info, Aviation for coast-to-coast satellite weather and flight, and Business for numerous business-friendly listening plans. The pricing and feature list for these plans are far too numerous to list here, so take a look at SiriusXM’s pricing page for more details.

SiriusXM lacks a free subscription tier for mobile apps or PC, though the company owns Pandora, which has free offerings. Fortunately, SiriusXM has a lengthy, full-featured three-month trial for many of its packages. Keep in mind that you need a credit card to subscribe to a trial, and once it’s over, you're automatically enrolled in the subscription and billed accordingly (unless you opt out before the trial ends).

That said, SiriusXM does offer a free plan for vehicles. Called Free Access, this gives you dozens of ad-supported channels for free with no credit card requirement, so long as you listen from an eligible vehicle. A Free Access plan subscription screen will show on your SiriusXM experience in your vehicle, letting you know you're eligible. The caveat is that, in order to maintain service, you must use it at least once every 60 days. Take a look at SiriusXM's Free Access page for channel details.

Also, keep in mind that SiriusXM lacks a true family plan. The company offers a family discount for additional enrollments, but each account is standalone and cannot be shared across multiple members in the same way that many streaming services, such as Apple Music or Deezer, do.

A Deep Content Well

SiriusXM’s interface features a sleek, panel-driven interface with easily navigated swiping and sliding controls for your many listening options. The home page is populated by recommendations based on your listening preferences and onboarding choices. You can add channels to your library to save for later listening, too. Some even offer a download option to let you listen offline.

The top-tier Platinum features all of SiriusXM’s offerings, including video performances, sports (ESPN Radio, NBA Radio), news (CNN, Fox), personalized Pandora music listening, comedy (Comedy Central Radio, Netflix Is A Joke Radio), and your Artist Stations. Artist Stations are playlists featuring particular artists or genres, which you can customize to a degree by liking or disliking the music. It is fairly limited compared with the custom playlists you can create with most on-demand streaming music services, but it is a step up from SiriusXM's more rigid, channel-focused offerings last year.

Howard Stern is a big name on SiriusXM, but the platform is also home to many other notable personalities. Kevin Hart yuks it up with Laugh Out Loud Radio, a collection of Hart’s specials, shows, and dialogues. LL Cool J delivers an eclectic range of hip-hop on Rock The Bells Radio, and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo hosts Mad Dog Sports Radio, to name a few. The service even offers video content for many of its shows, particularly its SiriusXM originals. Naturally, this isn't quite as robust as YouTube Music's encyclopedic video catalog, but it's nice to have.

SiriusXM has been steadily expanding its podcast catalog, too. This includes content from podcast company Stitcher, as well as Conan O'Brien Radio. Now, SiriusXM listeners can enjoy content from these platforms, which have been bundled into the Platinum subscription. Some of the excellent shows now available include Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Freakonomics Radio, LeVar Burton Reads, and The Sporkful.

Simply put, SiriusXM's many channels offer a lot of entertainment, the likes of which few other audio streaming services can match. LiveXOne—with its informative DJ drops, news updates, historical retrospectives, and video content—does something similar but on a smaller scale.

(Credit: SiriusXM/PCMag)

Unique Features

If SiriusXM’s live radio hook isn’t already enough to grab you, it has a few more interesting elements that enhance the overall experience. TuneStart is an invaluable feature that lets you surf channels as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. As you hop between broadcasts, the TuneStart feature automatically plays songs from the beginning as you slide into the channel. As a result, you rarely jump into the middle of a song unless you tune in at the very end of a track or during a DJ chat. You can turn this function on and off, but the feature is far too convenient to pass up and makes listening subtly but profoundly more satisfying. 

On a similar note, you can pause and rewind live radio thanks to a robust one-hour buffer and can skip up to six times between buffered songs, which is a nice touch, and many talk channels offer unlimited skips. SiriusXM also supplies a daily live radio guide so you can view upcoming broadcasts. Finally, favorite channels get a dedicated section that displays what’s currently playing, so you can decide whether you want to swap over and listen. These features combined make SiriusXM a convenient and highly accessible music streaming service.

Stream Quality

In terms of sound quality, SiriusXM delivered clear audio in our tests. When we fired up the Studio 54 channel, which plays some of the 1970s best dance tunes, we enjoyed satisfactory bass and other low-end sounds that didn't overwhelm other parts of the track. SiriusXM doesn't display or release the bit rate of its streams, but the app uses variable bit rates to deliver the best audio it can, given your network conditions. You can switch between the Normal, High, and Maximum audio quality settings in the web and mobile apps.

Although SiriusXM's audio quality is perfectly serviceable, it lacks hi-res audio, a format offered by Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal, and a few other services.

(Credit: SiriusXM/PCMag)

Verdict: A Seriously Good Streaming Service

If you’re hungry for quality broadcasts but can’t stomach the state of traditional radio, check out SiriusXM. It brings decades of music to your fingertips, as well as excellent shows, sports, lifestyle, political talk, and news coverage. If you prefer hi-res audio streams, give Amazon Music Unlimited or Tidal a look. Otherwise, SiriusXM has all the live radio-streaming content you could want and is well worthy of our Editors' Choice award.