Slacker (music service)

Infobox Website
name = Slacker
favicon = http://www.slacker.com/favicon.ico



caption =
url = http://www.slacker.com/
commercial = Yes
type = Internet radio
registration = Optional (Limited Plays), Free
owner = Slacker, Inc.
language = English Only
launch date = March 15, 2007

Slacker is a US only interactive Internet radio service. It allows users to create their own customized music stations starting with either Slacker's presets or a list of one or more artists. Slacker offers many 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 evolve any of these stations by rating favorite songs and banning artists or songs. Stations can also be fine tuned to play older or newer music, more hits or more eclectic music. In January 2008, Slacker reported that the service had over 2 million songs, organized into over 100 professionally programmed stations, 10,000 artist stations, and an unlimited number of personally created stations [ [http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/gadgets/?p=290/ CES 08: Slacker Portable arrives this month] ] .

Users can also create their own customizable radio stations and share them with anyone. The Slacker radio service is available to all Flash-enabled web browsers, and is also available in a downloadable application for computers running Windows XP SP2 or higher [ [http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142676/article.html/ Slacker Portable Internet Radio Player Review] ] .

Slacker is the only Internet radio provider to offer the experience "to go" with a portable device, the Slacker Portable Player [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118213164387538671.html Internet Radio Races To Break Free of the PC] ] The Player refreshes users' customized Slacker channels over available Wi-Fi connections (WEP and WPA wireless security supported) and stores those stations in the device library so that users do not need to be connected to WiFi to listen to Slacker [ [http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/slacker-portable-player-4gb/4505-6490_7-32745469.html/ Slacker Portable Player] ] .

History

Slacker was founded in 2004.

March 15, 2007 - Slacker, Inc. is launched. [ [http://www.austinventures.com/news/fullarticle.asp?id=151643/ Slacker Introduces Personalized Radio Everywhere-Free Beta Service Unveiled Today] ] The company is headed by Dennis Mudd, CEO. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2007-04-08-exec-suite-mudd_N.htm/ Slacker's CEO isn't one] ] Mr. Mudd is the former CEO of MusicMatch, which was purchased by Yahoo Music and is now known as LAUNCHcast. Other notable executives include the president Jim Cady, former CEO of Rio, and vice president of marketing Jonathan Sasse, former president of iriver America.

September 20, 2007 - Slacker finalizes its deals with 4 Major labels; SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, EMI, Universal, and Warner. Slacker also announced deals with thousands of Indie labels including Beggars Group, Matador Records, IRIS, Ubiquity and Sanctuary Group as well as indie aggregators IODA, IRIS, and The Orchard, which gives listeners access to millions of songs. [ [http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/09/slacker-music-s.html/ Slacker Music Service Signs Deals with All Major Labels, Thousands of Indies] ]

November 15, 2007 - Slacker begins taking pre-orders for their portable music players, to be shipped January 31, 2008 [ [http://www.slacker.com/products/portables/ Slacker Personal Radio - Portable Devices, Music Players] ] . The first generation players are available in 3 capacities: 15 stations (2GB), 25 stations (4GB), and 40 stations (8GB). The portable players can be updated from a computer via USB or WiFi. [ [http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=203101112 Slacker Music Service Launches Portable Player] ]

January 9, 2008 - Slacker receives Laptop Magazine's Best of CES Portable Audio/Video Player Award for the not yet released Slacker Portable Player. [ [http://ces.laptopmag.com/best-of-ces-portable-audiovideo-slacker-portable Best of CES 2008] ] .

January 31, 2008 - The Slacker Portable Radio Player begins shipping. [ [http://blog.laptopmag.com/slacker-portable-ships-tomorrow-whats-next/ Slacker Portable Ships Tomorrow. What's Next?] ]

April 2, 2008 - Slacker announces its partnership with Devicescape, allowing Slacker to integrate Devicescape Connect into its Portable Players. [ [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-02-2008/0004784956&EDATE= Slacker and Devicescape Partner to Simplify and Expand Wi-Fi Access for the Slacker Portable Radio Player] ]

April 8, 2008 - Slacker announces agreements with top music publishers, including EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner/Chappell Music. The agreements, signed before the Slacker Portable Player launched, allow Portable Player users to listen to cached Internet radio stations and allow premium radio users to save songs for later playback. [ [http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/slacker-announc.html Slacker Announces Major Publishing Agreements] ]

Web Player Features

The free Slacker Basic Radio user account allows registered users to have free access to all of the features below.

Stations

Users who log onto Slacker can begin listening to music from more than 100 professionally programmed and 10,000 artist-specific stations. [ [http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/gadgets/?p=290/ CES 08: Slacker Portable arrives this month] ] 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. [ [http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142676/article.html/ Slacker Portable Internet Radio Player Review] ] Users can also create their own stations by inputting artists they want and letting Slacker and Slacker's professional DJs fill out the rest of the station with similar songs and artists. If a user adds 15 or more artists into a selected personal station, Slacker will not add additional artists and only songs from the specifically chosen bands will play on that station. All of the genre, artist and user created station are completely customizable.

Customizing Stations

Users can customize both Slacker's preprogrammed artist and genre stations and their own with Slacker's "Fine Tuning" options. [ [http://www.slacker.com/products/portables/ Slacker Personal Radio - Portable Devices, Music Players] ] There are four Fine Tune options that let users influence Slacker to play more songs that they'd like to hear, these options include:
* Artist Discovery: If a user wants to explore music beyond the artists they've chosen, they can use this option to expand the variety of artists played on their station
* Popularity: A user can influence their radio station to play more hits or more fringe songs by adjusting the Popularity option
* Favorites: This option lets users decide how often they want their favorite songs to play
* Year: Users can use the Year option to choose between hearing more newer songs or more classic tracks

Ban and Favorite

When a user is listening to a station and a song appears that they don't like, they can press the 'ban' button on the Web Player. If a user bans a song it will never be played for them again on that particular station. Users also have the option of banning an artist from a single station. If a user hears a song that they love and want to hear more often, they can press the 'heart' button and it will be marked by Slacker as a favorite. The station will play that song more often. The more a user utilizes the heart and ban options, the more Slacker can define that individual's musical tastes to their stations. [ [http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/slacker-portable-player-4gb/4505-6490_7-32745469.html/ Slacker Portable Player] ]

Subscription Users

In addition to its free, ad-supported service, Slacker offers a premium radio subscription that users can pay for on a monthly, 3 month or yearly basis. The Slacker Premium Radio service combines all of the features of its free service with added features and flexibility. Premium Radio is not ad-supported, users do not encounter the same audio and visual ads as basic users. Users can skip an unlimited number of songs.

Subscription holders can also save favorite radio songs to play whenever they want in their music library online and on the Slacker Portable Player. Songs stored in the library can be played an unlimited number of times at will. [ [http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/14/slacker-gets-official-on-portable-player-premium-radio-service/ Slacker gets official on Portable Player, Premium Radio Service] ]

oftware Player

Slacker offers a downloadable version of its web-based player to its Windows XP + SP2 and Vista users. The Slacker Software Player supports AAC Pro v2 music compression technology for slower broadband connections, allowing users with a slow broadband connection to listen to CD quality streaming without buffering delays.

The Slacker Software Player can be expanded to fill a user's entire PC screen or minimized to "mini-mode". The Software Player can display hi-res album art as large as a monitor, Artists biographies and album reviews can also be maximized for easier viewing. [ [http://slackeractive.com/slacker-software-player-demonstration.php Slacker Software Player Demonstration] ]

Users can also use the Software Player can to manage and listen to their own personal MP3s in the player's library. Premium Radio subscribers' favorite Slacker songs are also stored in the library and can be mixed with a user's personal songs. All of the songs and playlists created with the Software Player can be sent to the Slacker Portable Player over WiFi or USB. [ [http://www.cnet.com.au/downloads/0,239030384,10663830s,00.htm Slacker Software Player] ]

Slacker Portable Radio Player

Slacker has recently released a new portable player called "Slacker G2" a more streamlined device than the earlier version shown.

On March 15, 2007 Slacker announced the development of the Slacker Portable Player, allowing U.S. consumers to listen to Slacker Radio stations on a digital audio device. On January 31, 2008 the Slacker Portable Player began shipping. The Slacker Portable automatically connects to Slacker's music library over WiFi when in wireless range, or over USB when attached to an Internet connected PC. Instead of live streaming of songs, the Slacker Portable fills itself up with a user's personalized music choices each time the Player is refreshed [ [http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142676/article.html/ Slacker Portable Internet Radio Player Review] ] . Entire new stations can be added to Slacker Portable from any PC or Mac with an Internet connection. Because the Player caches its songs users can listen to their stations whether or not they are within WiFi-range.

Features

* Artist Information: The Slacker Portable features the same album art, artist biographies and reviews that are available online displayed on the player's 4-inch color screen.
* Customization: Users can use the "heart" and "ban" buttons on the Portable Player to customize their music preferences on-the-go just as with the web-based service.
* Capacities: The player comes in 3 capacities - 2GB, 4GB and 8GB. These respectively store 15, 25 and 40 stations.
* MP3 Player: Users can load from 500MB up to 4GB of personal MP3s on the player and listen to them whenever they want

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. Increased WiFi access allows Slacker users to refresh their stations at more locations. [ [http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/02/slacker-portable-gets-devicescape-wifi-manager/ Slacker Portable gets Devicescape WiFi manager] ]

MySpace Widget

On August 29, 2007 Slacker released its first social networking MySpace "widget". The MySpace player is a single station Flash player which looks very similar to their full blown web player. The widget has volume, play, pause, skip and album art. Being a flash object this player can be embedded just about anywhere and not just on MySpace. [ [http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/slacker-launches-myspace-widget.html Slacker launches MySpace Widget] ]

Last.fm Audioscrobbler Hack

The Slacker application has an unofficial hack available from [http://lastslacker.com/lastslacker LastSlacker] that tracks the songs played on the Slacker player and reports them to Last.fm. Essentially this enables the Last.fm Audioscrobbler in Slacker. Users with both a Slacker and a Last.fm account can build a library of cataloged songs in Last.fm profile that reflect both services.

Similar services

* Pandora
* Last.fm
* iLike
* imeem
* MOG
* Deezer
* MeeMix

References

Recent Articles

* [http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2103576,00.asp 'Slacker' Music Service Combines Player, Recommendations] , PC Magazine, March 12, 2007
* [http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/03/slacker_steals_.html Slacker Steals the Show at SXSW] , Wired, March 14, 2007
* [http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2162930,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530 Slacker (beta)] , PC Magazine, July 26, 2007
* [http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2171399,00.asp Our Favorite Music Service, Part 2] , PC Magazine, August 8, 2007
* [http://www.lifestylermag.com/social/slacker-portable-g2-unimited-free-music Slacker Portable G2: Never Spend A Dime On Music Again] LifeStyler, September 16, 2008

External links

* [http://www.slacker.com/ Slacker.com main page]
* [http://www.slackerforum.com/ Slacker Forum (news and discussion site)]