and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Can I take just a moment here, folks, to call bullshit on XM Radio?

Bullshit on XM Radio.

There, I did it. XM Radio is the next bill in a long line of unnecessary and useless bills being perpetrated on the American citizen. Yes, I said perpetrated - like we don't have a choice. And that's because we don't have a choice, folks. Marketing is a force, much like volcanos, tornados, and tsunamis. Marketing is a force that acts upon all human beings, great and small, as uncontrollable as the tides and bowel movements. It's a fact of life. And if marketing is a fact of life than the eventual adoption of XM radio is a fact of life. Maybe not XM radio specifically. Maybe not in it's current incarnation. But someday. We'll pay.

We'll be paying for it because our neighbours will be paying for it and our uncle will be paying for it and our boss will be paying for it and the jones' across the street are already paying for it. We'll sigh and cave in and sign up and get another bill for another service that is already funded by advertising. We'll effectively pay people to deliver advertising to us.

Television, historically, was free. Somehow, bit by bit, they have managed to turn it into a subscription service. They've added commercials, sponsorships, and then they charge you for it. It was slow enough that no one noticed but people are catching on now. Bills are getting really high. People are starting to notice.

I figure the subliminal price point for the american public, on an individual basis, is about $19.99. (The subliminal price point for the american collective, apparently, is about $87 Billion). Anything below that and the average american can spend it without making a conscience note of it. It's like play money. No jackson, no problem. Cable tv, at first a luxury item, has now become a commodity. They sell it to the advertisers, and then they turn around and resell it to us. And we're taking it right up the you-know-what.

Why?

Marketing. The economic forces of marketing.

But now there is direct tv. There are DVDs and Tivo. Things that, as technology advances, compete against eachother for timespace and mindspace. If there is but one product - one cable service - there can only be so much money crammed onto that single bill before the average american consumer says "whoooah! hold it! My ASS hurts, whose been sticking what up where?". Answer? Diversify. Sell two products, effectively the same thing, but with two bills. DVDs, Cinema, Cable. Easier to swallow in smaller bites, even if the meal is bigger in the end. That's why it's always good to have two opposing products. The Beatles would have done well for themselves if they put out a number one country album. You see?

And thus it was so, XM radio.

Bend over America