Many technologies come and go. What does the future have in store for satellite radio?

First, let’s address the costs. It takes hundreds of millions of dollar to launch a satellite, let alone run a radio service. The key will be increasing their revenue generation. The key is of course gaining new subscribers. The merger certainly will allow them to merge their marketing groups, but they should take this opportunity to use the extra resources to begin a campaign to inform and encourage their satellite radio services to the average Joe.

The key, may lie in a product such as the Sirius S50, which allows users to record individual songs for free, manually, one by one. While not as convenient as just scheduling to download thousands of songs in advance as one could do with iTunes, it is completely free, rather than costing thousands of dollars. While it may earn them enemies with the RIAA, this marketing point could help redeem the value of paying a monthly fee for radio in the eyes of millions of potential customers.

In such economic hard times as the one the United States faces now, millions of teenagers may find themselves unable to spend thousands of dollars on MP3s. Rather than cutting their budget on food, housing, or clothing, a prime candidate to be cut out of their expenses would be MP3s and other luxuries.

Satellite radio could be well positioned to advertise that the MP3s can be recorded and with a high quality on their S50 device. Sirius XM not only should, but must do this in order to survive. Otherwise, many customers who are spending money on both downloading MP3s and satellite radio, may cut the latter rather than the former.

Sirius XM must be willing to advertise this ability to record high quality MP3s from their radio services, even if RIAA doesn’t like it. If prepared to fight this legally, Sirius XM most certainly could win, and if they stand up as a protector of consumer rights, may actually earn a lot of positive publicity on the web and by word of mouth, even if the media and their bought and paid for executives disagree.

This is not just a legal question, it’s a question of survival for the satellite radio industry. The right to record radio, even satellite radio, must be defended by Sirius XM and exploited as their strongest attribute in economic hard times, rather than ignored and neglected. If this doesn’t occur, only hard times may be ahead for the satellite radio industry.