Review: iPhone Radio Apps - Sirius XM vs. Last.fm

Last week I decided to download the free 7-day trial of Sirius XM Radio on my iPhone. Since I'm already a subscriber (with a radio in my car), I am eligible for a $3/month upgrade to the iPhone app. $36 a year for my favorite channels like Deep Tracks, The Spectrum, and The Loft seemed like a good deal.

The trial period now ended, I've decided there's no reason at all to upgrade. Not when the Last.fm app is so well-executed and so, well, free! Riding the train out of Manhattan yesterday - my trial period over - I actually felt relieved that I could fire up Last.fm again without feeling like I was wasting precious time. Listening to the custom artist station "Sun Kil Moon Radio," the only thing I missed about Sirius XM was the DJ's voice and the vague sense that I was participating in some experience with other people. That's not worth $3 a month to me.

Here's where the Last.fm app trumps the Sirius XM app:

• Better station selection - in fact, infinite station selection. You can create a station with a playlist of artists similar to any act you select (i.e. "Sun Kil Moon Radio")
• Better artist info - when a song by some obscure indie band comes on, you can actually read their Wikipedia-style bio and get a sense of their career
• Price, obviously

So, if you can bear to leave Bob Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" XM show behind, I highly recommend the Last.fm app.