I have been pleasantly surprised by Slacker Radio in my Tesla. The available content and ease of use is impressive. Four years of free/included Slacker is quite generous. XM is also a quality option; it's just different.
Like what the other post indicated, you can create your own Slacker stations and basically mimic the stations that you would find on Sirius.
The Tesla interface for Slacker works better than the mobile app IMO. I can search for a specific song and have it play in my Tesla whereas I cannot do the same on the app without a pop-up telling me that I need to upgrade the service to enjoy that benefit. And yes, I am signed into the app with my Tesla credentials. In addition, the voice recognition is excellent at finding the songs that you are speaking.
You can opt to hear updates from ABC news or ESPN radio or both from time to time - or just turn that feature off and never be interrupted. Although there are very rare intros from DJs who provide some little-known facts about the artist or the song - I probably hear this once every 100 songs or so, maybe even less frequent than that.
The one thing that Slacker could do better is the song arrangements of their Favorites Station. Unlike Pandora's Thumbprint Radio Station that stays in the same general genre for a while as it plays songs you previously thumbed-up, Slacker likes to jump from a bass-laden Metallica song to a fall-asleep Enya tune and then to a Willie Nelson classic. It seems completely random. Pandora is more refined and does a much better job in this regard. So, when at home, I opt for our paid Pandora subscription.
I would highly suggest diving into Slacker and then after a few months make a decision on whether or not an additional satellite subscription would be worth it.
