I'm a Slacker

It's been out for a few months now, but momentum is rising quickly for the new Slacker portable music/radio player and the accompanying Slacker.com website. I'm right on board with that flood of interest--I think this is going to be the next big thing in the media player business.

Let's start with the basics: The idea behind the service is that instead of selling us mp3 downloads, Slacker.com offers professionally pre-programmed radio stations offering dozens of musical genres that can be listened to either on your home computer or downloaded to your Slacker portable player via any available wi-fi hotspot or through your own home network.

You never really own the music, so there are no DRM issues There are no download hassles as new music that Slacker thinks you might like is constantly being downloaded in the background, normally via wi-fi, though a USB connection is also available. The basic service is free and it's a great way to discover new artists or listen in greater depth to artists that you already like.

Slacker also let's you create your own personal radio stations. Just select artists that you want featured on "your" station and Slacker will build a radio playlist around them. Slacker then fills in the gaps by adding content it perceives as complimentary. For example, I created a station featuring the Rolling Stones. Slacker added content like the Beatles, Cream, the Kinks, the Who, etc, all of whom are artists I like. It also added some more obscure artists representing the same genre/era, many of which I enjoyed hearing for the first time.

The portable player, which is an important part of the Slacker business model, has been getting generally positive reviews, and is available in 3 models, ranging from $200-$300. The more expensive units allow you to listen to up to 40 different stations and gives you more memory for your own music. The player has a huge screen for viewing album art, biographies and the standard issue dynamically driven graphics. I'm not a huge fan of the player's design, and I understand it is rather cheaply made and that the earbuds are a disgrace. Still, most reviewers say the player is entirely functional and is a good mirror of the website. I'm thinking the second generation player will be a big improvement, but there's no word when that might be available.

While the basic service is free, there is a premium service available for $10/month. The subscription entirely eliminates little 10-second Slacker ads that occasionally pop up and also gives you the option of skipping as much music as you like. With the basic service, you are only allowed to skip 6 songs per hour. The premium service also allows you to seamlessly mix in your own music collection with Slacker's radio collection.

Downsides: Slacker is not for you if you like to have total control over your playlists. Even though the Slacker portable player allocates .5gb to 2gb of memory for your own mp3s, the main premise behind the service is that Slacker chooses the music it thinks you want to hear. There will be clunkers (which you can skip) and you can "teach" Slacker what songs/artists you like/dislike by clicking on the "heart" or "ban" buttons, but in the end it really is more like that favorite radio station you listened to as a kid, minus the DJ rap, commercials and the heavy rotation of that weeks' top 40. To me, that's a good thing.

Another thing I really like about Slacker is the artist bios. They are well-written, informative, interesting and can be viewed either on the portable player or the website.


All in all, I love the Slacker concept. At home, I have my laptop hooked up to my stereo and the music plays all day from Slacker.com. If I'm in the mood for something different, I just change stations. But it's the dedicated player that completes the service and sets it apart from other personalized media. By using wi-fi, which has become virtually ubiquitous in the home, workplace and any number of other public locations, loading fresh content is seamless and virtually hassle-free. Being able to add your own music to the player makes this, and not the latest iPod, the perfect music player.