How do you primarily consume media when on a long drive? (2025 Edition)

[SectorZ]

Weird for me buying a new car yesterday that didn't have SiriusXM in it, where my last two did.

My wife still has it in her car, so I just cancelled mine, downloaded the app, and will use my wife's account streaming thru Carplay in my new car.

Some companies like Honda aren't even installing satellite radio anymore. What I bought they do it was just an option on the more expensive variants that I was not interested in.

[ZLoth]

Weird for me buying a new car yesterday that didn't have SiriusXM in it, where my last two did.

Let me guess... CD wasn't even offered as an option on any variant.

[SectorZ]

Weird for me buying a new car yesterday that didn't have SiriusXM in it, where my last two did.

Let me guess... CD wasn't even offered as an option on any variant.

I imagine CD players are fully extinct in any car, but yes was a not a feature in any of the seven trim lines of the car I bought.

[ZLoth]

Weird for me buying a new car yesterday that didn't have SiriusXM in it, where my last two did.

Let me guess... CD wasn't even offered as an option on any variant.

I imagine CD players are fully extinct in any car, but yes was a not a feature in any of the seven trim lines of the car I bought.

Not surprised. It's much easier (and less weight) to include Bluetooth functionality than a CD player, plus there is more that can go wrong in a car CD player.

[Thing 342]

I typically listen to my Spotify library on shuffle, I have it automatically downloaded to my device storage so usually I don't worry much about spotty cell coverage.

When I get bored I tune around for local FM stations - WNRN recently added an affiliate in Hampton so I've been listening to them a bunch around town. WNOR and WHRV have fairly high-quality audio feeds so I listen to them a bit as well.

Weird for me buying a new car yesterday that didn't have SiriusXM in it, where my last two did.

My wife still has it in her car, so I just cancelled mine, downloaded the app, and will use my wife's account streaming thru Carplay in my new car.

Some companies like Honda aren't even installing satellite radio anymore. What I bought they do it was just an option on the more expensive variants that I was not interested in.

That's surprising, I was under the assumption that Sirius was paying automakers to put satellite radio receivers in vehicles so they could have easy access to customers.

[dlsterner]

My 2015-era car is in the brief time overlap where it still came with a physical CD player, but also included "modern" things like Apple CarPlay, SiriusXM, Bluetooth streaming.

For commuting, pretty much exclusively SiriusXM.  Mostly "70s on 7", but there are about a dozen other stations in my presets in case a particularly wretched song comes on.

For road trips, either SiriusXM or playing music from my phone though CarPlay.  The majority of music on my phone was copied from physical CDs that I have purchased (yes I still obtain music through physical media).

In previous cars it was mostly FM radio, although on road trips finding new stations (when the one I was listening to got out of range) got old after a while.  Road trips also included physical CDs, but it was clumsy changing them when I was driving solo.

[Sctvhound]

Living in the Charleston, SC metro area this is a very interesting question as it definitely depends on how and where I drive. On a short routine drive I usually listen to a set of podcasts I listen to frequently, different subjects (Catholic, college football, college basketball, other stuff).

With Android Auto and Kia Connect in my car I have GPS where ever I go. But Android Auto I can check traffic information much quicker than on the radio.

The local radio stations basically only cover I-26, I-526 and US 17 because those are the only places that have cameras and they can see what's going on. Outside that they basically just use SC511.

I do listen to local radio; we have a good local Christian station on 91.5, sometimes I listen to His Radio which is more contemporary Christian, and we have a 80s/90s/70s/60s soul station on 102.1.

But most of the other local stations are homogenized with the same couple hundred songs and often non-local personalities.

Satellite radio hasn't gotten much better especially on the major channels. The 60s and 70s stations seem to only play a few hundred songs in their rotation, basically sticking to the most popular hits. When I started listening to satellite around 2005, they had a much wider playlist. They'd go through everything on their playlist A-Z yearly around the holidays for a long time.

[1995hoo]

...

That's surprising, I was under the assumption that Sirius was paying automakers to put satellite radio receivers in vehicles so they could have easy access to customers.

I saw somewhere that it just became available last year for the first time in Teslas.

[ZLoth]

I used to have the SiriusXM service for several years, although I always threatened cancellation at renewal time in order to get the best deal. It was finally cancelled about three years ago when I upgraded the phones and, to get the best deal, I had to upgrade to the more expensive unlimited data plan. Since I wasn't driving much anymore, I cancelled SiriusXM to somewhat offset the increased mobile cost, and stream music/audiobooks/radio stations through my mobile phone to my vehicle's Bluetooth.

As for the presets on my radio, I have it set as follows:

• Preset 1 - WBAP 820 AM (EAS LP-1)
• Preset 2 - KSCS 96.3 FM (EAS LP-2)
• Preset 3 - WRR 101.1 FM

That's it.

On my RadioGarden list, I have the following:

• AncientFM - Kingston, Canada
• WBAP 820 AM - Dallas, TX
• WRR 101.1 - Dallas, TX
• WOTR Old Time Radio USA
• WOTR Crime Time USA
• WOTR Suspense Radio USA
• KEC56 NOAA Weather Radio - Dallas, TX
• ABN Old-Time Radio AM 1610 - Antioch, IL
• British Home Front Radio - Dorechester, UK
• Smooth Jazz 24/7 - New York, NY
• Classic FM - London, UK

And, as stated multiple times, I have a Plex media server and a Audiobookshelf audiobook server.

[kphoger]

when regular radio is free.

Regular radio isn't "free". If you aren't paying for the product, then you are the product in terms of demographics, thus advertising surrounded by content.

Which doesn't cost you anything.  Especially considering you're just sitting there driving anyway, it doesn't even cost you any time.

[bandit957]

While I still rely on regular radio, I literally get sick to my stomach hearing how much it's declined.

Put radio in 2025 up against radio in 1983, and it's no comparison.

[Bobby5280]

I imagine CD players are fully extinct in any car, but yes was a not a feature in any of the seven trim lines of the car I bought.

I have a 2018 Chevy Silverado. It has a built-in CD player along with all the Bluetooth, Apple/Android stuff. Chevy got rid of the CD players starting with the 2019 Silverado models. It's likely CD players were phased out of many other makes/models of vehicles in the same period.

Not surprised. It's much easier (and less weight) to include Bluetooth functionality than a CD player, plus there is more that can go wrong in a car CD player.

The audio quality is still better in a Red Book CD. However, hauling around CDs in jewel cases is not convenient. It can be a pain swapping out discs while driving. The jewel cases can get scratched up by jostling around in a glove box or center console. The worst thing is those album books that would hold lots of naked discs in plastic sleeves. It wouldn't take long for the sleeves to scratch the discs and make them worthless.

For me, the must-have thing in a new or recent model vehicle is at least 2 or more USB ports. If the vehicle can play audio files from external media (flash-based memory sticks or portable solid state hard drives) then it solves the CD problem. Copy the CD audio to the removable storage media and play that. A solid state drive takes up little space in a glove box or center console.

Which doesn't cost you anything.  Especially considering you're just sitting there driving anyway, it doesn't even cost you any time.

Broadcast radio costs the listener in other ways. The frequent commercials on stations that play rock, pop or country tax my patience. In my middle age I've reached the point where I don't like putting up with commercials. So many of them are very annoying. If I'm watching a local TV station at home I often hit the mute button when a commercial break starts. Some broadcast radio DJs have a habit of talking over a good chunk of the beginning or end of a tune.

Music on broadcast radio is frequently edited. Obviously any profanity will be deleted. Suggestive/explicit lyrics also get edited. I'll immediately judge a radio station to be lame if it edits out a guitar solo or other parts of the song to shorten its length (to make room for more commercials). Some radio stations will even speed up the music tempo using various digital audio trickery. Services like Sirius|XM, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc tend to play music uncensored.

[kphoger]

Broadcast radio costs the listener in other ways. The frequent commercials on stations that play rock, pop or country tax my patience. In my middle age I've reached the point where I don't like putting up with commercials. So many of them are very annoying. If I'm watching a local TV station at home I often hit the mute button when a commercial break starts. Some broadcast radio DJs have a habit of talking over a good chunk of the beginning or end of a tune.

Music on broadcast radio is frequently edited. Obviously any profanity will be deleted. Suggestive/explicit lyrics also get edited. I'll immediately judge a radio station to be lame if it edits out a guitar solo or other parts of the song to shorten its length (to make room for more commercials). Some radio stations will even speed up the music tempo using various digital audio trickery. Services like Sirius|XM, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc tend to play music uncensored.

Still free.

I mean, if my corner grocery store were to offer free gallons of store-brand purified water during a long drought, limit one jug per customer per day—then I wouldn't claim it wasn't free just because I disliked walking into that particular grocery store, because I didn't like the music or store ads they played over the speakers inside, because I preferred distilled water over purified water, because the security guard at the exit had bad breath, or anything else like that.

You dislike ads.  OK.  Big whoop.  Other people don't care about them.  My middle son loves listening to them.  Ads don't make something 'not free'.

[ZLoth]

Not surprised. It's much easier (and less weight) to include Bluetooth functionality than a CD player, plus there is more that can go wrong in a car CD player.

The audio quality is still better in a Red Book CD. However, hauling around CDs in jewel cases is not convenient. It can be a pain swapping out discs while driving. The jewel cases can get scratched up by jostling around in a glove box or center console. The worst thing is those album books that would hold lots of naked discs in plastic sleeves. It wouldn't take long for the sleeves to scratch the discs and make them worthless.

Many of the CDs in my collection are either imports and/or out-of-print, so I used to duplicate the CD into a CD-R and used those. When my Honda was broken into in 2005, they grabbed my collection of CD-Rs. I hope the thieves liked Anime soundtracks and classical music.

I'm still a physical media lover, but I do rip my media into a very highbit MP3, so it is almost indistinguishable from a CD. (I think it's around 160k for the bitrate, with the compromise being a larger file size). Also, the later revisions of the Bluetooth standard has better transfer rates over the earlier standards.

[ZLoth]

While I still rely on regular radio, I literally get sick to my stomach hearing how much it's declined.

Put radio in 2025 up against radio in 1983, and it's no comparison.

Can you elaborate based upon your perspective?

[bandit957]

While I still rely on regular radio, I literally get sick to my stomach hearing how much it's declined.

Put radio in 2025 up against radio in 1983, and it's no comparison.

Can you elaborate based upon your perspective?

Programming is much more homogenized now, and less interesting. There's also more commercials now.

We had a really good AM music station here in the mid-'80s that had local DJ's and didn't rely on some huge monopoly to dictate its programming. This was a lot more exciting than today's stations that run off a hard drive or satellite.

[doorknob60]

My wife and I have a shared "road trip playlist" on Spotify we both add to, it's above 3,000 songs now. On road trips, we use that playlist on Shuffle. Keeps it simple and fair (eg. don't have to worry about switching between radio stations I prefer vs. stations my wife prefers). The whole playlist is downloaded to my phone so cell signal isn't a concern.

When driving around town, we usually listen to SiriusXM instead. Less hassle since it's ready to go as soon as I start the car. It's also a good way to hear new music, sometimes I'll get to my destination then add a new song I heard to the playlist on my phone. Of course we can use that on road trips too, but we prefer the bigger variety on our playlist, rather than sticking to one channel, or flipping between channels and cutting off songs. Also, there are some heavily wooded areas, or deep canyons/gorges (eg. I-84 Columbia Gorge) we sometime drive through where the SXM signal is not very reliable.

I haven't listened to FM in nearly a decade. 1. I hate the ads. 2. My car's OEM stereo sounded really bad/muffled on FM for some reason. Bluetooth and SXM was not affected so I stuck to those. I have since installed a new stereo, with Android Auto support, and the FM sounds normal now. But I still don't use it. Besides that, FM is not good for road trips, since a lot of the time out west, you're not in range of many stations. And even if you are, you need to constantly change to different stations in different cities.

[Bobby5280]

Programming is much more homogenized now, and less interesting. There's also more commercials now.

Our local broadcast radio stations are pretty much "local" in name only anymore. Back in the 1990's when the stations were locally owned they were much better. As the stations were sold again and again to bigger ownership groups their in-house music libraries were largely deleted or thrown in the garbage. Music playlists became dictated on high by corporate home offices. Local staff was cut to a minimal level. Most of the on-air talent listeners can hear do not live in Lawton. Most of the local disc jockeys got fired.

The only local radio station we have that does any real live broadcasts is the one at Cameron University. But they don't play popular rock, country or R&B music. It's mostly jazz, classical music and some NPR programs. Considering the current environment it wouldn't surprise me if the station got shut down.

Besides that, FM is not good for road trips, since a lot of the time out west, you're not in range of many stations. And even if you are, you need to constantly change to different stations in different cities.

When I drive to Colorado there is a big zone between Amarillo and Raton with little if any broadcast radio service. I can hit the seek button and the function will just loop across the dial repeatedly until I stop it. If you manually turn the dial digit by digit some stations will come in faintly.

[dlsterner]

...

That's surprising, I was under the assumption that Sirius was paying automakers to put satellite radio receivers in vehicles so they could have easy access to customers.

I saw somewhere that it just became available last year for the first time in Teslas.

Actually just recently in the mainstream Model 3 and Model Y, and it's by streaming.  The pricier Model X and Model S has had SiriusXM hardware for some time.  (Don't know about the Cybertruck).

There was a point a while back where Model Y owners were buying SiriusXM modules scrapped from the high end Teslas on eBay and mounting them in their Model Y.  Apparently the software would then recognize them just fine.

[ZLoth]

Programming is much more homogenized now, and less interesting. There's also more commercials now.

We had a really good AM music station here in the mid-'80s that had local DJ's and didn't rely on some huge monopoly to dictate its programming. This was a lot more exciting than today's stations that run off a hard drive or satellite.

Eyup, I agree, partially because of all the radio station acquisitions by the major media groups. Thank goodness for the alternatives available now.

[ET21]

For long road trips, a bunch of podcasts/downloaded music. For storm chasing, I tend to keep to local radio as I use my phone a lot for pictures/radar

[Brandon]

SiriusXM or mp3/mp4a music files on a flash drive played directly by the car's radio.  It's all music as I'm not too fond of listening to talk radio, podcasts, sports, etc. while I drive.  Music is often better for maintaining pace.

[ZLoth]

Poll closed, and "Streaming Media through mobile device" was slightly edged out by "Downloaded Media through mobile device"