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I love Directv, but the Sonic Tap really sucks.

30K views 141 replies 62 participants last post by  ericknolls 
#1 ·
Been listening to Sonic Tap "8-Tracks" for about two weeks now. Whoever is in charge of programming obviously wasn't even alive during the late 60s and early 70s because they only play a fraction all the great songs that were coming out almost daily at the time. They fill in the rest of the time with absolutely horrible 'filler' songs. Filler songs are all the garbage songs that come with the album you had to buy just to get the one or two hit songs that you wanted.

The record company's dirty little secret was that if a group had several really good songs, the companies would spread them out across multiple albums to make more money. Used to piss me off that I had to buy a whole album just to get the one song I liked. Sure, there were some exceptions with super groups where almost all the songs were great, but they were few and far between. At least now with itunes you can buy just the songs you want most of the time, although I found a few that were only available with the album.

But anyway, the 8-Tracks channel plays all the crap songs that the radio stations of the time would never ever play because they would go bankrupt from lack of listeners. It's probably programmed by some minimum wage kid who was told to just fill up the time with whatever was on an album from back then.
 
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#27 ·
I dislike SonicTap music channels for one reason...edited versions of songs. Which makes them unlistenable in my opinion.

Because of this, Slacker Radio (Xbox app) and Pandora (Blu-ray, DVR apps) is what we use in our household.
 
#30 ·
It's annoying how they sprinkle channels over the various packages.

I find that out of any Sonic Tap channels, by far the one I use most is Piano, which is only available in Premier. Premier only adds about four or five channels vs. Ultimate, too.
 
#31 ·
TMan said:
It's annoying how they sprinkle channels over the various packages.

I find that out of any Sonic Tap channels, by far the one I use most is Piano, which is only available in Premier. Premier only adds about four or five channels vs. Ultimate, too.
Sometimes that's all it takes to motivate a customer to switch to a higher tier in order to get a channel they want.
 
#33 ·
I like Sirrus/XM better than D* Sonic. DISH has Sirrus/XM which is why D* doesn't. I listen to D* Pandora where I can select what I want to hear. Try it, you may like it.
 
#35 ·
Ever since D* added Pandora, I listen to that a lot more than Sonic Tap. Both due to the ability to +/- a song and because I often have both tuners recording something to watch later.
 
#37 ·
I'd love to see a Vevo app like they have on Roku and Xbox. VEVO launched their new 24/7 HD IPTV channel that is now available through the app. I was watching it through Xbox and the quality is great. Plus they have a huge library of music videos.

These days with MTV, VH1, CMT, etc no longer showing music videos... It would be a great addition to DirecTV to add the VEVO app.
 
#40 ·
I worked at DirecTV when they had SiriusXM and changed over to SonicTap. The vast majority of customers do not listen to satellite radio on their receivers so it did not make sense for DirecTV to renew the expensive SiriusXM contract so they went to the cheaper SonicTap of which they owe and is only available on DirecTV.
 
#41 ·
I do not think Sonic Tap even comes close to SiriusXM....it is fantastic to hear the same station at home, in the car and in the office....Sonictap is for retail stores that want background music. I get excited every time someone updates the "xm coming back to dtv" forum but to no avail
 
#42 ·
Well, 8-tracks COULD be a good channel if they would just stop including all the cr*ppy filler songs. Some of them are so annoyingly bad that I had to stop what I was doing and find my remote to mute it, and I was on a 15 foot ladder installing a ceiling fan on my vaulted ceiling at the time.

I grew up on the songs of the 60s and 70s and you could tune to any rock station and never hear any of the filler trash. Every rock station we listened to while driving on vacation anywhere in the country played nothing but good music. So why is it so hard for this channel to leave out the cr*p and just play the good songs? Whoever is in charge of programming obviously never listens to it. There's probably some computer program that is set to 'random' and plays any song from any album. After selling the whole Sonic Tap package to Directv there's no need for them to actually provide a good playlist as there is no competition.
 
#43 ·
cypherx said:
I'd love to see a Vevo app like they have on Roku and Xbox. VEVO launched their new 24/7 HD IPTV channel that is now available through the app. I was watching it through Xbox and the quality is great. Plus they have a huge library of music videos.

These days with MTV, VH1, CMT, etc no longer showing music videos... It would be a great addition to DirecTV to add the VEVO app.
I record Palladia HD(formerly Music HD) ch. 567 M-D 5ishAM to 8AM "Epic Awesome Videos"
 
#44 ·
There are a few Sonic Tap channels I like such as Metro Blend but overall, my preference is SiriusXM. When Directv dropped SXM, I opted to get a subscription. Now, with the new My SXM opened up to subscribers for beta testing, I think that is a game changer. It works on the internet feeds. You can customize select SXM channels based on your preferences and so far the stations I have played around with, the results are excellent. For those that dislike the DJ/talk and the channel bumpers, My SXM eliminates those and it's just music. If you like the DJ's, you can listen to the live channel. Very nice.
 
#45 ·
scott0702 said:
When Directv dropped SXM, I opted to get a subscription.
And that would be the litmus test as to if one really missed XM. Personally, I didn't miss it that much, I just knew I preferred it to Sonic Tap.
 
#46 ·
postalguy1 said:
Well, 8-tracks COULD be a good channel if they would just stop including all the cr*ppy filler songs. Some of them are so annoyingly bad that I had to stop what I was doing and find my remote to mute it, and I was on a 15 foot ladder installing a ceiling fan on my vaulted ceiling at the time.
This was addressed a page ago, the channel is playing exactly what it's description says it plays:
Beerstalker said:
CCarncross said:
When I listen to any of the music channels, 8-tracks is one of my favorites. The equivalent station from XM days was something like Deep Tracks. It was intended from my understanding to be lesser heard tracks off albums from many of the biggest bands back in the day. Sounds like its doing exactly as its supposed to. Sorry you don't care for it, maybe one of the other classic rock stations would suit your tastes better.
Exactly, he is complaining about the station doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Here is Sonic Tap's description of the channel:

Deeper cuts from Classic Rock along with some of your favorites. A mix of Classic Rock from the 60's and 70's and unexpected treasures from some of the seminal albums of that time.

The "filler" tracks as the OP calls them is exactly what this channel is all about. If he doesn't want to hear them he should be listening to one of the many other stations that play the "hits" from the 60's and 70's.
The channel is called 8-Tracks, not 45's. Unless the 8-Track was a best of compilation, in most cases it included filler tracks. If you want just the hit singles from the era when 8-Tracks were popular try 60's Revolution, 70's Hits, Classic Rock or Retro Disco.
 
#49 ·
Dude111 said:
I think just due to the fact that they have NO TALKING makes it better!!! (You wanna pay to hear commercials and talking??)
Talking, i.e.- giving a rundown of the last five tracks played (artist/song title), impending releases, and tour info, is a different thing from commercials. Uninterrupted music is a soulless beast as far as I'm concerned. I have to keep the TV turned on to know what song is being played. If I really wanted uninterrupted music, I can fire up my own Media Player and tell it Shuffle All.
 
#50 ·
I would like to see the Music channels fade away, and Just make Pandora the option. But I know the Non HR customers would be upset
 
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#51 ·
damondlt said:
I would like to see the Music channels fade away, and Just make Pandora the option. But I know the Non HR customers would be upset
I would say bring Pandora to the regular HD set tops as well. But then again the people without high speed internet connected to their DirecTV system would be SOL.

The bandwidth it takes for all of the audio channels is pretty slim that savings from removing it would negate the revenue lost from commercial muisc packages or people going to other sat services for a round package that includes music.

With the MTV's of today's generation no longer playing music videos (Except for a small block on Palladia in the wee hours of the morning), having music available is a welcome addition to the lineup.

Sometimes its just easy to quick put a sonic tap station when doing things around the house.

We do sometimes search YouTube for music videos, but DirecTV (or YouTube not sure who) filters a lot of the sponsored music videos from VEVO. Many search results in live performances or covers. Thus, I'd love a VEVO app right on DirecTV so I don't have to go down in the Family room and watch it through xbox. Plus searching on YouTube is a pain. If only we could use a QWERTY keyboard through our phone or ipad to type in DirecTV's search screens. I haven't texted on a number pad since the days of the Nokia 6190 in late 90's early 2000's. It's like riding a bike, I can do it... but surely QWERTY would be more efficient.
 
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