The Smiley Smile Message Board

I decided to give Sirius XM radio a try (kicking myself for not trying it sooner when The Beach Boys had their own station ugh) and I am absolutely loving it! Already on the '60s on 6' I have heard so many great songs I had never heard before, and the DJ commentary is something I've missed a lot since I stopped listening to radio years ago. I love the old commercial jingles, I even just heard the SNL Brian Wilson Surf skit play before Surfin USA.

So my first question, are there any other XM Radio subscribers here? And what stations/shows do you recommend?

I have tried streaming: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music. While I love the ease of finding anything I can listen to, each service absolutely misses the radio experience that XM gives you, and each service has it's own problems (though Spotify was probably my favorite). I used to buy all my albums and songs (on CD or digitally), but I haven't done that in a long time. My collection of bootleg music has gone untouched for a long time due to not having any easy way of playing it (I will listen every once and a while, but not at the frequency I was listening to them when iTunes was my daily driver for music). I do buy and listen to vinyl, but I don't listen this way all the time.

Basically I haven't found an ideal way to listen to music. So my main question is: What is your preferred method of listening to music, or do you have a combination of methods that works well for you?

SiriusXM all the way. I listen to 1st Wave, XMU, and Chill mostly, along with the 80s 90s and 200s stations.

Do you find yourself missing out on "saving" songs for later? If you hear a song you love on XM, do you just write the song name down and buy it later?

Ideally, it would be great if Spotify bought SiriusXM - so when you listened to the radio, if you hear a song you love you could add it to your Spotify library. This would never happen, but it would be great if it did.

I'm still a CD guy. Most likely always will be. Hell, I'd still listen to cassettes if I had a player. And I'm still looking for a working 8 track player to test my collection of 8 tracks with(over 130 last time I counted).

I write the names down immediately. That’s how I discover artists  😎

I got XM back in 2005 after a Hurricane Katrina resulted in a 2 year nomadic existence. It was a little radio with an antenna that was mounted to get a signal. Lots of music along with audio feeds of cable news channels.
Nowadays I have Sirius/XM in the car along with the app on my TV via Roku.
I mainly listen, music wise, to the 60s, 70s channels, classic vinyl, and sometimes the Beatles channel. When driving with passengers I can take care of their wishes with the Elvis channel, Spa or easy listening, soul, gospel..
Like some of their specials. For McCartney’s birthday there was a countdown of his top songs as voted on by listeners. Couldn’t hear it all but nice to hear at least three positive mentions of The Beach Boys.
And recently there was a countdown of the top American bands of the 60s. Sometimes several songs by each group was played. Our favorite group won out. Heard God Only Knows, Surfin USA, and Good Vibrations, and finished with Caroline, No.

I saw this as a show I could re-listen to, I was wondering how The Beach Boys faired in that! Glad to know they won!

I use a couple of combinations. In the car, I use SiriusXM, Spotify, and/or CD’s. At home, I use Spotify, videos on YouTube (rare performances or songs that aren’t on Spotify), CD’s, and records. I need to use my records and CD’s more as currently (at home) I typically use them to play through a full album occasionally. My vinyl setup is really nice, so I’m determined to shift a little more away from Spotify to it.

I'm a physical media guy, mostly LPs (at home) and CDs (in the car). There are a couple local radio stations I enjoy, and I have Amazon Music for streaming, but I only really use that for previewings albums I'm on the fence about buying physically.

I live with my brother, and we have a cd/cassette/tuner in the living room - our common area. We have agreed on about 3 stations we can both put up with - his taste in music is very "90's Seattle band" centric, while i am - of course - all about Beach Boys, 60's pop, old country music, old soul. He is constantly complaining about the repetition of songs on the classic rock stations - when i lived on my own, i lived on my vinyl, cassettes and cd's, but i don't want to annoy him with an endless succession of Glen Campbell, Monkees, Bread, Al Green, Four Tops, etc.
So, more and more, i retreat to my own room where i can play any damn thing i want!  :lol
No offense intended to the Nirvana, Pearl Jam fans here. I've just never had much of a taste for that style of music. If you love it, cool.