April 26, 2006
This "Long Tail" is Too Short
I have blogged many nice things about XM radio. I have it in my car, and the unit in my second car I set it up in my home office after the car was totaled.
Alas, they are taking the best station off the air. "Luna," which played Latin jazz has lost its radio slot at channel 95. It will still be available on-line or on DirecTV, but 95 now plays latin pop with a promise of more latin jazz on "Real Jazz" channel 70.
I'm keeping the radio in the car but have cancelled the second account. I suggest that this is a real flaw in the satellite radio business plan. To succeed, I expect they will need to get the long-tail subscribers. If there is not sufficient bandwidth, they will have to juggle and lose subscribers.
With 170 stations, they do have room for 24 x 7 traffic reports for several cities, and pro golf. My wife asks "can you imagine anything more boring that golf on the radio?" Umm, no., I'm not that creative.
Maybe they can shuffle or wait for new hardware, but what I thought was a future wave may just become a novelty.