Slacker (music service)
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| URL | http://www.slacker.com/ |
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| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Internet radio |
| Registration | Optional (Limited Plays), Free |
| Available language(s) | English Only |
| Owner | Slacker, Inc. |
| Launched | March 15, 2007 |
Slacker Radio is an interactive Internet radio service available in the US and Canada. Listeners can access the service on the web, through mobile apps on multiple smartphones as well as on Slacker Personal Radio Players and other devices. It allows users to create and share customized music stations. Slacker allows users to customize one of their programmed stations (for instance, Top hits) or start with music similar to an artist or song, and then customize that. In April 2009, the service had over 2.4 million songs, organized into over 100 programmed stations and 10,000 artist stations.[1]
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[edit] History
The company was founded in 2004 by Celite Milbrandt[2] and Dennis Mudd who launched the company in March 2007.[3][4][5] Dennis was the former CEO of MusicMatch, which was purchased by Yahoo Music and is now known as Yahoo! Music Radio. The current CEO is Jim Cady, former CEO of Rio.
In September 2007, the service [6] finalized its deals with four major labels: Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI, Universal, and Warner; it also announced deals with thousands of Indie labels.[7]
In April 2008, the company announced agreements with top music publishers, including EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner/Chappell Music. These agreements, signed before the Slacker Portable Player launched, allowed Portable Player users to listen to cached Internet radio stations and premium radio users to save songs for later playback.[8]
In November 2008, Slacker became available on Sony's BIVL service. [9] In May 2009, a built-in Slacker Radio app was launched on Sony's Walkman X1000 series. In principle, it worked similar to the Portable Player, refreshing music when connected to a WiFi network.[10]
[edit] Basic functions
Slacker offers traditional genre, specialty, and artist stations pre-programmed by professional DJs while also letting users build entire stations of specific artists. Slacker users can continue to develop any of these stations by rating favorite songs and banning artists or songs. Stations can also be adjusted to play older or newer music, more hits or more eclectic music. Users who log onto Slacker can begin listening to music from more than 100 professionally programmed and 10,000 artist-specific stations.[1] When a user inputs the name of a specific band or artist Slacker will instantly create a station based on that musician along with similar artists. This feature allows users to discover new artists similar to the ones they already like. Users can also create their own stations by inputting artists they like. The rest of the station is automatically populated with similar songs and artists. If a paid subscription user adds 15 or more artists into a selected personal station, Slacker does not add additional artists and only songs from the specifically chosen bands will play on that station.[citation needed] Pre-programmed themed stations (holidays, music festivals, and artists) are also available.
In July 2010, Slacker added the ABC News station, with an option to include headline news for top-of-the-hour updates on any Slacker Radio station.[11] In late summer 2011, ESPN channels were also added.
[edit] Account types
The free Slacker Basic Radio user account is an advertisement-supported service. It allows registered users to have free access to basic features, and works on all Flash-enabled web browsers.
In addition to its free, ad-supported service, Slacker offers additional levels of subscription service:
- Slacker Radio Plus adds station caching to mobile phones, unlimited skips and song requests, no audio or banner advertisements, full lyrics, and the ability to turn off DJs on stations.
- Slacker Radio Premium has all the features of the Plus tier, adding the ability to create playlists and play selected songs on demand, similar to a traditional mp3 player. This tier was added in May 2011.
[edit] Slacker mobile applications
Slacker mobile apps work with the free Slacker Basic Radio service and Slacker Radio subscription services on iPhone, iPod touch, WebOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 smartphone platforms. The applications provide high-quality stereo playback from 3G or WiFi connections. Features such as station creation, recently played stations, fine-tune options, artist biographies, photos, album art, reviews, station caching and lyrics (for Slacker Radio Plus or Premium subscribers) are available on the mobile applications as well.
[edit] Slacker community
Slacker has provided its listeners and all music fans with the opportunity to connect via Twitter, MySpace and Facebook to further promote music discovery.
[edit] Twitter
Twitter users can login to Slacker[12] and select the option to automatically or manually alert their friends and followers about the following:
- Station changes/plays
- Favorite song
- Banned song
- Banned artist
[edit] Facebook
Facebook users can find Slacker Radio on Facebook and become a fan to get music news and learn about new features, promotions, and contests.
[edit] MySpace
Listeners can add their Slacker Radio station to MySpace with the free Slacker widget.
[edit] Slacker Portable Radio Player
The first generation players were available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB capacities.[13] On January 9, 2008 the not yet released Slacker Portable Player received Laptop Magazine's Best of CES Portable Audio/Video Player Award.[14]
[edit] Slacker G2 Personal Radio Player
On September 16, 2008 Slacker released a new portable player called Slacker G2.[15] When located in a WiFi hot spot or connected to a PC, its radio delivery network can download and refresh selected songs on the device and turn them into personalized radio stations. The players do not have to be connected to WiFi for playback.[16] The player ties in with a Slacker account, and features available depend on whether the user has the free, Plus, or Premium service. It has a 2.4” color screen (Resolution: 320×240 TFT) and comes in capacities of 4GB and 8GB. It is compatible with various digital music formats (MP3, WMA and ACC), and claims up to 15 hours of battery life.
[edit] Devicescape Connect
Devicescape Connect is a feature that was added to the Slacker Portable Players to allow users to access WiFi-hotspots that would normally require a web-based login, something that the Slacker Portable could not previously access because of its lack of a web-based browser.[17]
[edit] Similar Services
[edit] References
- ^ a b CES 08: Slacker Portable arrives this month
- ^ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118213164387538671.html
- ^ 'Slacker' Music Service Combines Player, Recommendations
- ^ Slacker Introduces Personalized Radio Everywhere-Free Beta Service Unveiled Today
- ^ Slacker's CEO isn't one
- ^ Slacker (beta)
- ^ Slacker Music Service Signs Deals with All Major Labels, Thousands of Indies
- ^ Slacker Announces Major Publishing Agreements
- ^ Sony adds Slacker to BRAVIA Internet Video Link
- ^ Sony X-series Walkman up for pre-order, features Slacker Radio
- ^ ABC News' Press Room announces: Slacker Radio Links With ABC News
- ^ Slacker Radio Adds Twitter Functionality To Give Music Fans A New Method To Share Lady Gaga Songs
- ^ Slacker Music Service Launches Portable Player
- ^ Best of CES 2008
- ^ An alternative to the iPod, plus free music
- ^ Review: Slacker G2 Media Player a Bit of an Overachiever
- ^ Slacker Portable gets Devicescape WiFi manager
