Comments on: Slacker Radio iPhone Application Review

By: Murkle

Murkle — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:38:42 +0000

I’ve tried both Slacker and Pandora for the I-phone. They both work off the concept of customizable “radio” stations, and allow 6 skips per station per hour for free. The only real differences between the two is Slacker has comedy, Pandora doesn’t. Also, you have a better chance at playing a specific song when searching Slacker. Pandora won’t do this, they’ll just play something similar or something by the same artist. Even Slacker is kind of a coin toss with this, but I’ve noticed the odds are much better. However, I have more problems with Slacker than Pandora. It frequently says there is a hold on my account, and it starts to count the 6 allowed skips as a total rather than per station. It’s very annoying, and a deal breaker for me. Their FAQ on this topic has not been much help.

By: Edmund Nussear, III

Edmund Nussear, III — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:33:01 +0000

at the reccommendation, rather than boot up my old Nokia/with radio player; T-Mobile suggests download Blackberry World…
down load Slacker Radio–it’s free.
Three times I have done this, and Three Times I have the sad
situation happen.
Blackberry World…Slacker Radio….”try slacker the good stuff”
before hearing how Slacker FREE sounds.
Learn that there are six skips per hour. First we tried Religious theme; it was like there was a scratch “on the disc”,
SKIP. out of the seven songs; I was only able to hear one
selection completely.

Tried again, and once more. Closed and ‘un-loaded’ “Slacker” . Closed and ‘unloaded’ Blacckberry World.
Next day went thru the entire singular duo download again.
Exactly the same thing happened that next day; TURNED IT
ALL OFF. Waited couple days; REPEAT/problems: Repeated.
T-Mobile suggested speaking (quote/unqote) directly to the
contractor directrly.
Here I am. What do you suggest. call..write….E_Mail;
I would really like to see what Slacker “jr”, does, before I consider
upgrading to Slacker ‘better’;

So far; Slacker “jr” isn’t better enough; to consider EVER considering
Slacker better.

Youre move……….what should I do.

Edmund. ????

By: Collin

Collin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:17:15 +0000

It will not let me on with my iPhone it says it has a hold on my account

By: me

me — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:09:16 +0000

to delete a favorite:in the now playing window, touch the top bar. your option will be -remove from favorites, instead of +add to favorites

By: iPhone/iPod Slacker App Update Now Available (Ver. 1.0.1) - Digital Radio Central

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:44:27 +0000

[...] is a nice review of the Slacker iPhone/iPod Touch Application. Slacker Radio iPhone Application Review ? The Gadgeteer __________________ My name is DAB and I’m a Slacker. Slacker G2 Premium (4gb-25 Stations), [...]

By: bobcanino

bobcanino — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:41:25 +0000

Have been testing Pandora with: 1. DJ Screw; 2. Sunn o))) and 3. oldchool fav: Julie London. Pandora offered a nice surprise, Dorothy Dandridge (unexpected surprise) in the Julie station. I’ll keep testing but am happy so far. Also very happy Pandora is developing for the Pre. I was walking between wifi points and Pandora mustve have been DLing when it found net.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:49:05 +0000

Thanks Rob!

By: Rob Tillotson

Rob Tillotson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:39:27 +0000

@Jason: The main difference between Pandora and Slacker is how they select content. Pandora is basically a showcase of the Music Genome Project, which aims to come up with a “genetic code” for music which identifies similarities and influences without relying on arbitrary genre tags. With Pandora you start with an artist or song, and your channel evolves from that using the music genome to find similar songs, adjusted by your preferences.

Slacker, on the other hand, is sort of a hybrid of the Pandora approach with traditional radio. Slacker’s approach to music similarity is based more on artists than on individual songs, and you create and customize your own stations primarily by selecting what artists play on them, and marking songs as favorite or banned.

Also, in addition to customizable stations, Slacker comes with a lineup of genre stations which are managed by professional programmers — while the actual playback is automatic and you can tweak it somewhat, the master list of tracks available is up to the Slacker programmers.

Both services have a large catalog of music; I think Pandora tends to have more trance/electronica, but I’m not 100% sure about that. Pandora is probably better for music discovery (since it can theoretically pick from its entire library based on the characteristics of what you’re listening to), while Slacker is more like “customizable satellite radio”. Of course Slacker also has the portable players that work offline, and premium services that allow unlimited skips and song saving.

Both of them are great services, and it’s hard to go wrong either way

By: Stevie W

Stevie W — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:29:22 +0000

The LastFM application is a very similar application for the phone/touch, although you can also log into LastFM and see the tracks you have “scrobbled” and keep a record of played tracks and histories along with other web2.0 goodies. Both slacker and LastFM are good tools to try new music tho.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:21:26 +0000

I haven’t tried Pandora… I’ll have to do that.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:09:34 +0000

I’ve been using the Pandora app on iPhone and really like that. Sounds like the two are very similar. I’ll have to give Slacker a spin. Has anybody out there taken the time to compared the two?