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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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#127 ·
harsh said:
Pandora isn't a whole lot better about the "sanctity" of their channels.
I gave up on Pandora the first Christmas I had the app. I chose my genre based on artists I liked and the mix was good until Christmas came and nearly all the songs were Christmas songs - by artists and in styles different than the artists that I based my genre on. If I wanted 24/7 generic Christmas I would have chosen that genre.

It is annoying when a channel that one depends on for a particular style of music is corrupted.

Who are the business customers of Sonic Tap? The real customers paying for the channels, not home listeners getting free listening bundled in with their TV channels? They are the ones with a chance to get the channel changed back to "piano means piano".
 
#128 ·
I must admit, we (unfortunately) have SonicTap via Directv, and it's deplorable. Regardless of the music channel you select, they loop the same 50 or so songs repeatedly, over and over again. I was incapacitated from an injury a while back, and while convalescing I selected the Flashback/New Wave station. Within a few hours I'd heard every song at least three times. Nothing personal here, but after hearing Morrissey 'attempting' to sing, The Cars "Hello Again" and The Culture Club "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" every few hours I was about to go insane! When we first subscribed to Directv in the early 90s they had Sirius which was excellent! For what Directv charges for service, they should consider doing the decent thing for their subscribers and not renew their contract with SonicTap.
 
#130 ·
Perhaps Some D* customers Don't have internet good enough without caps to stream any App's and the music comes down from space and doesn't count against anything. So I'm sure if it was removed the hollering would hard and fast. LOL
 
#131 · (Edited)
And at least with VOD the quality is consistent at either 1080p, 1080i, 720p or 480p, compared to streaming services that use dynamic bitrates where the quality can dip below SD on slower connections. Especially if Windows 10 decides to do their insane monthly 1GB+ update download or someone else on the wifi decides to open a data heavy app like Snapchat while you're trying to stream something. (Also 1080p VOD is no longer limited to DirecTV Cinema, and the majority of channels now have HD on demand except for a small few like Up and older content involving shows that were never produced in HD)

You may have 100 Mbps+ internet where you live, but a nice swath of the country is stuck with 3 Mbps or less with no plans at all for any upgrades. i.e. Verizon where they halted any expansion of their FiOS network in areas that didn't already have an agreement, like most of Northeastern PA, Northwestern NJ and the Lehigh Valley, or much of Fairpoint's territory in upstate NY. (And because of the lack of competition, the areas lucky enough to have cable as an option likely have overpriced options with extremely low caps that make streaming a non-starter unless they want to pay for the $75+ tier, and if they want 4K streaming, forget it unless you can afford the caps at the $100+ tier, even though the $50 tier has speeds fast enough for 4K streaming)

Plus not everyone has the extra money (or TVs with spare HDMI ports) to get additional streaming devices and subscribe to 3rd party services like Amazon prime, Hulu, or Netflix on all of their TVs. (As well as the need to replace those devices every few years once they become obsolete and stop getting updates, like my LG Bluray player from 2012 that lost everything except Netflix and Hulu in the past 2 years)
 
#132 ·
I used the apps because they were there. One remote, one easy way of choosing what to watch (or listen to) regardless of source. Many devices are trying to be the "one stop" for content ... SmartTVs with built in viewing apps and DVD/Blue-Ray players that also offer internet content. Not to mention the plethora of devices that only stream content. ONE remote is convenient, and while I could hobble together multiple sources having as much as possible on the satellite receiver makes it easier.
 
#138 ·
Probably the Sonic Tap contract is expiring and they're talking to the various alternatives to try to get the best pricing. They might end up sticking with them if they get a good deal.

With iTunes and streaming and so forth these days there aren't a lot of customers for music from cable/satellite any more. Maybe some commercial customers, but that's about it.
 
#139 ·
Most cable cos use music choice

Bring back XM . I know E* has them but now that D* is the #1 tv provider again let's have the top music provider too

Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk
 
#140 ·
I haven’t heard xm sound decent in forever. And I think they are hurting right now more than we realize financially. The deals they are sending me to come back (haven’t had them since my free trial ended 8 years ago almost in my car) are a bit over the top price wise. Frankly I’d rather DIRECTV dump all music channels or make them a separate fee cause it’s adding to my bill and I never listen to those channels. Never.
 
#141 ·
You wouldn't even save a dollar if they dropped them. The audio channels are cheap for residential subscribers and getting rid of them wouldn't even free up space for one SD channel. (It's the commercial customers that pay significantly more for them because of public performance/licensing fees)

Also, Music Choice improved a lot since DirecTV last had them. The expanded their standard lineup to 50 channels, and now come with an app that lets you stream 25 additional audio channels (along with 25 music video channels), and it has no interruptions. So if you pair your phone to your car via bluetooth or audio cable you'll have 75 uninterrupted music channels at an audio quality better than SirusXM satellite.
 
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