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Both are great and offer commercial free music. Can't go wrong with either. Here are the nuances:
For XM:
-Much larger music inventory, over double the size of Sirius' based on official music licensing documents in their financial statements. Meaning XM's channels don't feature repeat songs nearly as often.
-Satellites are in orbit to be more condusive for portable reception, something Sirius techs are struggling with. XM also has 1,100 ground-based radio repeaters, which all units pick up, for when the satellites drop signal. Sirius does not, and recently applied with the FCC to triple their existing repeater count to solve many signal issues.
-Major League Baseball coverage, every game, all home town broadcasters.
-PGA Tour broadcasts
-NASCAR broadcasts
-Far superior hardware, a full generation ahead of Sirius', with walkmen, recordables (like a VCR), etc. Sirius not expected to catch up in tech for another 18 months.
-5M subscribers currently, expected to break-even in Q2/2006, guaranting stability from that point on.
For Sirius:
-Howard Stern coming 1/1/2006
-Martha Stewart channel coming Q1/2006
-Richard Simmons channel (for the GFY twink population, he's a MUST)
-Jimmy Buffett channel
-NFL Football, all games, with local broadcasters
-Majority of College football games, including the popular SEC
-2M subscribers currently, break-even point not expected until 2008 at current growth rate.
For me it came down to playlists and hardware, I have to have a walkman, and Sirius' lack of repeaters, combined with no Walkman for another year doomed them for me. But I've listened to both of them and in my opinion they're roughly equal, despite Sirius' smaller music library. Good luck.
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