Satellite Radio, 2112 Style

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Last night, Canadian regulators granted XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR) and Sirius (Nasdaq: SIRI) a license to market their subscriber services in the Great White North through their Canadian partners. Will this development send the companies' stocks northward as well?

There are strings attached. A certain number of the dedicated stations must be produced in Canada and must feature the nation's artists. Celine Dion? Geddy Lee? Check your messages! The All Avril Lavigne Station? You never know.

The partners will also need to invest 5% of their sales in Canada on initiatives to develop artists in the country. It's a shame that XM and Sirius couldn't talk the regulators into taking 5% of the bottom line instead of skimming that off the top. The way XM and Sirius have been losing money, the Canadian government would have to be cutting them a check instead!

Still, you have to like the news if you're a fan of satellite radio. Canada's population isn't as dense as that of its American neighbor, but that's actually a selling point, too. Pull out of the urban pockets in Canada ,and it's slim pickings on the terrestrial-radio front.

While companies like Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL), Napster (Nasdaq: NAPS), and RealNetworks (Nasdaq: RNWK) are cashing in on the audiophiles fed up with what conventional radio is playing these days, XM and Sirius are opening up the possibilities by providing a wide range of programming to satisfy most musical tastes.

It's a great time to be a music fan. It's also not too shabby of a time to be a Canadian.

Tune into some of these other related stories:

• David Gardner recently interviewed XM CEO Hugh Panero.
• Maybe traditional radio won't die without a fight.
• Talk shop with sharp Fools in the XM discussion board who know the sector well.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz thinks it's cool that Sirius broadcasts The Motley Fool Radio Show four times over the weekend. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. He is a satellite radio subscriber.The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.