attrapereves
New member
I'm thinking of dropping my Sirius XM as I only listen to one or two channels. Is bluetooth or using a USB flash drive the best method for playing music?
Any other tips?
Any other tips?
Alternative to XM
- Thread starter attrapereves
- Start date
rdss
Junior Member
I use Spotify through Bluetooth or the aux port. Xm wanted the same amount for just online access that it cost for my truck and online access, Octane wasn't worth 15 bucks a month when I could do Spotify streaming for 9.99 and build up a physical library on my phone and iPad as well.
Maddog2020
Active member
I use both. I bluetooth the free version of Pandora (or audio books), if I'm not getting a good enough signal for Pandora I play from a USB drive with tons of music. Why limit yourself to one or the other?
SouthFLSonic
Active member
I keep a 160gb iPod Classic in the upper dash hooked up via the USB port and use my iPhone 5 to stream Pandora or any other media I want to hear over Bluetooth.
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attrapereves
New member
I was paying $85/year. Not too bad. I ended up cancelling it as I don't really drive as much as I used to.
I've been using a USB flash drive. Does anyone know the order in which it plays songs? From what I can tell, it plays them based on file name, not artist or anything.
It also seems a little buggy. If I pause a song and leave the car, when I return, it will start playing a song that I listened to about 5-10 songs ago. Weird...
I've been using a USB flash drive. Does anyone know the order in which it plays songs? From what I can tell, it plays them based on file name, not artist or anything.
It also seems a little buggy. If I pause a song and leave the car, when I return, it will start playing a song that I listened to about 5-10 songs ago. Weird...
ahtoxa
New member
Yeah, when it's time to renew my XM, I just tell them no until they give in. If they call my bluff, I won't matter as having XM isn't a big deal, but they've never called it, and they always go down to $30 for 6 months. I don't have an issue paying $5 a month for the service, even if I do only listen to a few channels. What I like about it, is that I don't have to mess around with starting an app on the phone, etc. Just get in, start and go.
Swordsmith
242hp/252 ft-lbs BNR EFI
I don't care that I only listen to a couple channels, because I certainly listen to those particular channels a lot. What difference does it make whether I listen to the others, I wouldn't like XM any more if I listened to 20 channels at 5 minutes each rather than 2 channels at 50 minutes each.
My GF uses bluetooth Audible, and that's pretty cool with the Sonic, she can be walking around with it playing on her phone, get in the car and keep listening and it seamlessly swaps over to playing on the speakers.
My GF uses bluetooth Audible, and that's pretty cool with the Sonic, she can be walking around with it playing on her phone, get in the car and keep listening and it seamlessly swaps over to playing on the speakers.
Trevinator
New member
I never much cared for xm. I use Pandora one for $5 a month, absolutely no ads or annoying talk shows.
I used to use the bluetooth a lot until my phone broke. Would still use my ipod but its only 8Gb so it can't hold all of my music. Been using a 16Gb flash drive which has been okay. The only thing that bothers me about using a usb flash drive is it takes quite a bit for the music to load everytime you turn the car on. Kinda a bummer but it's better than nothing
chrisinnova
New member
Chiming in late but you should try the iHeartRadio app since it has stations that are the most similar to XM. I just stream it over Bluetooth and its free. I do like the options that XM gives me in my Sonic but I can't justify spending the money when I can stream everything I could possibly want.
mowcowbell
New member
And each time you start the car, the tunes on the USB flash drive will always revert to playing all songs by artist. There isn't an option to have the music play alphabetically by track.
Pandora is great. I also keep a flash drive with music plugged in at all times, in case.
Mostly I stream music from my iPhone, either through iTunes or Amazon.
Also, you can listen to Youtube on Mylink, again through bluetooth. Same thing for Hulu and other online shows. Haven't tried Netflix, but I bet it works too.
Youtube has a lot of music for free, people putting together playlists etc. Also a lot of podcasts out there that you can stream easily. I usually listen to my favorite online news show while I'm driving home.
Mostly I stream music from my iPhone, either through iTunes or Amazon.
Also, you can listen to Youtube on Mylink, again through bluetooth. Same thing for Hulu and other online shows. Haven't tried Netflix, but I bet it works too.
Youtube has a lot of music for free, people putting together playlists etc. Also a lot of podcasts out there that you can stream easily. I usually listen to my favorite online news show while I'm driving home.
One important thing: if you're using navigation (I use google maps) while also playing music from your phone. If you want to play Pandora, DON"T plug in the phone and use the Pandora app on MyLink. Just stream via bluetooth. In that instance, the voice of google maps will sound over the music, while turning the music volume down, which works great. But if you plug in the phone, Pandora will work great on its own, but the voice of the navigation system will only come from the phone itself and not the car speakers.