Slacker brings internet radio into your car
It's like Pandora for your car! Slacker, a new web-based radio website has just launched this week. The channel selection is very similar to what's available on XM or Sirius, and we liken it to Pandora because the number of songs you can skip is limited, but the selection is large and the experience is flexible and customizeable. The website alone is a nice little diversion anywhere you've got a browser and bandwidth, but the exciting news is that there will soon be an iPod-like device so you can take your Slacker with you. That means never having to listen to the angry guy talk channel while stuck in a traffic jam again. It's also better than the four-song playlists each FM genre now spins, too. The portable device will store songs, and later this year Slacker will be unveiling a car dock that will be able to receive music from satellite signals. Pulling down music from the birds is the same trick that Sirius and XM manage, but they cost money. Slacker is free once you purchase the hardware. How is that possible? Why, the very same way broadcast television and radio are free: advertising. If you're willing to sit through some ads, you get free music. In fact, the music is merely there to keep you interested enough that you'll continue to listen through the spots – of course, many of us are obsessive channel flippers (or worse yet, NPR junkies). You can have your Slacking and no commercials, too. For about half the price of Sirius, your $7.50 per month will keep the music rolling in and offer you unlimited skips and no ads. The price is so much lower because Slacker doesn't have big loans for satellites to pay off. The quality is in the MP3 realm, and sounds decent, which is encouraging. Some of us with finely tuned ears have a hard time listening to SatRad because of the digital compression artifacts. We'll see what happens if Slacker is able to popularize it's offerings, and deliver on the promise they're dangling tantalizingly in front of our noses.
[Source: Kicking Tires]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bill P. 11:50PM (3/16/2007)
I kind of like the "angry guy" talk channel.
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Ahmed 11:42AM (3/16/2007)
Thank God!!! Sirius is terrible. I've had it for two years and force myself to listen as I'm in a contract. The selection is boring and outdated to say the least. I listen to shoutcast when I have a connection.
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EquinsuOcha 12:21PM (3/16/2007)
Oh hells yeah. Even though I have Sirius, I'm a compulsive song skipper and if this is everything it's supposed to be, I'm all in favor.
Now, if they can get in with an OEM car manufacturer like Sirius, we might have another serious player in the market.
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RC 12:25PM (3/16/2007)
the band displayed in that graphic is very good. Their name is "Tv on the radio" and that is the cover of the record "return to cookie mountain". I suggest people check them out.
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Nick 12:28PM (3/16/2007)
I was about to buy an Ipod Nano or Sandisk Rhapsody player, but news of this has me holding off.
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Dave T. 1:03PM (3/16/2007)
Hey,
Thanks for the link. I've been listening to the Slacker site on and off for two or three days now and am really impressed with the music selection and customization. The fact you can ban a song is awesome.
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Khanh 10:42PM (3/16/2007)
i be listening to and internet radio stream from the site: DI.fm and for a year or so now, the music selection from the streams i listen to is always really good. it has a lot of genre selections, so i recommend that if you guys like those sites listed on the article, this site is good too. oh, and the radio streams dont have much ads at all, so it is that much sweeter.
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Greg 10:05PM (3/17/2007)
Thanks for the tip on Slacker Auto Blog!!!!
OMG - this is too cool, Saturday night, the first song I pick up on Slacker.com is 'Black Dog' by Led Zeppellin... immediate streaming.... wow!
XM / Sirius have something to worry about.
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Greg 11:02PM (3/17/2007)
An Hour Later... 11 PM Saturday Night... still listening to 'Slacker.com'... unbelievable.
I am having a major flashback, 'Hand of Doom' by 'Black Sabbath' now playing on 'Black Sabbath' radio station!
Absolutely too cool... and too good to be true.. I hope it lasts!
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Rick Lyon 10:52AM (3/19/2007)
Better price than sat, and better sound? Killer blow would have the price at $5 a month, get more customer base to really shake things up. I'm going to go check it out.
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