XM-Sirius Merger

The uneven ground upon which the XM-Sirius Satellite radio merger stands was clarified in a news article on the Washington Post. I was first exposed to XM radio stations when I stumbled upon it while using AIM. I never really gave it much attention until I realized how good the music selection was in their channels. So naturally, it interested me when I found out that XM's merging with Sirius, its direct competitor in the satellite radio business. Anti-trust and monopolistic concerns aside, I think the merger can make a difference in their collective bottomlines. Competition between the two has gotten so worse that they're losing a lot of money and satellite radio isn't taking off that fast. Investor confidence wasn't taking off as well, that is until they announced they'd merge. If they get past all the regulations and do merge, I hope their next step would be to go international. Maybe accept subscriptions from some country near the Pacific with long historical and cultural ties with America? ;-)

Anyway, I was just thinking. If everybody had such a wide selection of music playing on good high quality radio, wouldn't that discourage file-trading? Wouldn't it be easier to just change the channel instead of downloading music online from strangers who's computers might be loaded with viruses and malware? Convenience would be another advantage. I play music from my phone's MP3 player. I have the CDs tucked away somewhere. It's a hassle to juggle the files around when your mood suddenly changes and you want to listen to something different. If only satellite or hi-def radio were available here. I'd buy something like this to keep on myself or something like this in the car. If only...