James Delahunty
2 Oct 2009 2:18
Sirius XM is passing on $2 fees to its customers in order to raise money to pay performance royalty fees intended for singers, musicians and of course, record companies. In the Sirius / XM deal, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) barred Sirius XM from raising prices on customers for three years. However, the FCC did permit the collection of fees through a separate surcharge after a year.
The company began charging customers the additional fee in August, and claims to have notified all customers by e-mail and postal mail of the new charges. Lauren Weinstein, a tech blogger and commentator, noticed the $2 fee added to his bill but claims he did not get any notification beforehand of the new fee.
"Money is money to the customer at the other end ... A couple of bucks here, a couple of bucks there, it all adds up to something real," Weinstein said. Sirius customers with a lifetime subscription won't have to pay the fee, nor will any who subscribe to news, sports and talk radio packages which feature little music content.,
Those on annual or monthly year contracts will pay the fee upon subscription renewal.