Sat Radio New Threat To Music Industry?

A very good story which we missed last week: on how satellite radio companies are building in more features into their portable listening devices, and how that is raising the hackles of the music industry.

The new receivers from XM and Sirius can record far more music from satellite-radio broadcasts and manage songs as if consumers had bought them individually, for instance by setting up playlists and deleting songs they don’t like. The music industry argues that the new devices are essentially recorders that allow consumers to keep songs permanently without paying the appropriate fees — though users must keep subscribing to the satellite services to be able to access their recorded songs.

Should be fun to watch…

Staci adds: Between the launch of the sleek Sirius S50, which can store up to 50 hours, and the upcoming move of Howard Stern, another take“>the chatter about sat radio is bound to be incessant. As we’ve mentioned before here, the RIAA-sat radio licensing agreement is coming up for renewal and probably will go to arbitration. It will be interesting to see if the fee for stored songs winds up higher than the streaming fee.

Related: Satellite Radio Without The Radio

New Sirius Device Kicks Portable Satellite Radio Up A Notch

Reuters TCS: XM Eyeing Wireless Satellite Radio Services

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