Does Sirius XM sound far worse than listening to music on YouTube?

That’s a question that was asked on Quora and deleted before I posted my answer. So I’m posting the answer here.

This is like asking if a car radio sounds better than a TV. Because it’s a matter of where, how, and when, more than a matter of sound.

There is some overlap in the sense that both SiriusXM and YouTube are fully useful on mobile apps. But you don’t watch your radio in your car or listen to your radio on your TV, even though it’s possible to do both through apps that are native to both the road and the living room.

As for the sound itself, YouTiube has an edge in the sense that you can select audio quality bitrates up to 256kbps AAC & OPUS. SiriusXM’s default bitrate is also 256kpbs, but over the satellite link is typically lower—sometimes much lower. But, since SiriusXM does not (to my knowledge, so far) publish their bitrates in a place that’s easy to find, the bitrates are subject to debate. Here is one on Reddit.

But, again, it’s a matter of where and when more than of how. If you want to see and hear a piece of music, YouTube provides enormous optionality over what you can see and hear. If you want radio-like programming music, SiriusXM offers more.

Yet the Internet has more than both put together. That’s why the image above is of Radio Paradise, which is one of the oldest and best Internet music stations. It’s live on the Net and the Web, and it has Best Of collections on YouTube as well.