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This is coming from a person who has a SiriusXM membership and who actually likes it, but is the human curation really that much better? I frequent SiriusXMU to listen to more obscure stuff, but I feel like I get pretty fairly comparable performance with YouTube Music's "Start Radio" on an Imogen Heap or Secret Machines album or something.

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Yah, the merger between Sirius and XM was a dramatic difference in programming content. XM had spent most of their time getting quality PM and on air talent, Sirius was basically a glorified Winamp playlist. As the channels merged, you found yourself going from a base of 5000 songs a channel to a few hundred. The folks who used to have XMPCR's (computer connected receivers) published a comparison of songs at one point but my google fu can't find it right now.

I agree some of the stations are somewhat repetitive, especially those stuck intentionally in an older genre like Lithium or one of the decades channels. I think the mix tends to still be less than surface level in those. They also have DJ-hosted segments; I think Tom Morello has a lot more flexibility in what he's playing, for example. It's still their superpower compared to the algorithmic track selections.

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