Sirius XM Subcribers Get Ready For A Rate Hike

The other day I posted about how Sirius XM lost my business on buying a new radio. Well, as I was clicking around their website, I found the following little piece of information that I’m sure many mainstream subscribers don’t know about:

Effective July 29, 2009, a U.S. Music Royalty Fee has been added to subscriber invoices.

Whoa! Another rate increase? That’s the second rate increase since Sirius and XM merged and promised that they wouldn’t raise rates for a while. So I kept on reading and picked up the following piece of information:

How much is the U.S. Music Royalty Fee?

The fee is $1.98 a month on our base $12.95 subscriptions and $.97 for base plans that are eligible for a second radio discount. Your actual fee may vary depending upon the Package and Plan term you choose.

Another $2 per month. Wow. Now, since I believe in access to all information for my readers, you can click here to read the entire disclosure from Sirius XM. Frankly, it sounds like they are being held a bit over a barrel and that they aren’t going to benefit too much from this rate increase.

However, since it’s the theme of the week to make public a bunch of corporate mistakes that I’ve been encountering, I wanted to share this with you for your information. I’m still a fan of Sirius XM‘s content and I’m still on track to renew my subscription when it expires in a few years, but if the rates keep getting fees and other costs added on to them, then I’m sure many subscribers are going to get annoyed and think about a different service.