Slacker Radio Giveaway Contest

[steveymacjr]

I've been paying for radio for quite a while now...
Since Pandora was not available for the WM phone i had, I chose to try Live365.com and loved it... they had hundreds of stations, and using it with Kinoma Play it was an excellent experience...the only downside was no lyrics, kind of expensive($23/quarter).. no way to download the songs...
I have found a new way for me to enjoy music and that is Slacker...
Since trying free trial on the HD2, I am in love with it...
The quality of the sound is awesome.. I equate it to listening to a CD!
Oh and I love have the lyrics, because sometimes I cannot understand what they are saying..haha...
love this product!
thanks
Stephen

 

[kraski]

Pandora does this as well. Slacker has to pay for every song that is played, so if they think they're playing to an empty room it wants to make sure someone is actually using the stream instead of it playing to no one. I don't think this is something that goes away with the upgrade, but I could be wrong.

Thanks. As it turns out, they handle that in a really user friendly way. Instead of logging you out or a separate message box that needs to be dealt with before restarting the stream, it lets you just restart. And, if I'm too busy to restart immediately, I'm either too busy to immediately notice there's no music or snoozing. Either way, it's very easy to deal with.

 

[kraski]

Pandora does this as well. Slacker has to pay for every song that is played, so if they think they're playing to an empty room it wants to make sure someone is actually using the stream instead of it playing to no one. I don't think this is something that goes away with the upgrade, but I could be wrong.

You're probably right. The message on the screen says the paid version streams 8 hours non-stop. So, even paid subscriptions have a limit. But most of us are unlikely to hit that limit very often.

 

[kraski]

Since Pandora was not available for the WM phone i had, I chose to try Live365.com and loved it... they had hundreds of stations, and using it with Kinoma Play it was an excellent experience...the only downside was no lyrics, kind of expensive($23/quarter)

That price is only if you pay each quarter, the shortest increment they have. If you pay twice a year, you can pay $41.70 & save $3 a quarter. Or paying $71.40 annually saves you $6 per quarter. If they still do their periodic membership drive, there can be even more savings for paying for two years. Compare that to XM online, which is $2.99 a month if included with a radio subscription, but $12.99 if you get the plan by itself.

To my way of thinking, Slacker & Live 365 are about even. Slacker has more of the popular tunes in the genres I listen to, has lyrics, but less variety of choices within a genre. Live365 has many more stations & a wider variety, but lots of less known stuff (which can be a plus, if you like to explore).

If you're mostly into music, Slacker has the more popular tunes at a better standalone price than XM online.

 

[waldo15]

Man, what a surprise this app is! I downloaded it for my Touch Pro 2 and definitely liked it. A lot.

The interface is very clean and finger friendly. It definitely shows how they designed it for devices with big screens and without physical Keyboards. I did find that looking for a radio station was much more easy than comparable apps (I used Kinoma in the past). One thing I did not like (but understand why they did it that way) is that in the mobile app all radio station have a fixed image icon to identify them, while in the PC app the radio station icon changes with the tune that is currently playing/last played. Another quibble is that once you select a genre (say Alternative) and then a station within that genre, if you want to change your mind (from say, Alternative metal to Alternative hits) you have to go all the way back to the main Audio Station Tree. Not a deal breaker but still...

Also another advantage of the mobile app is that you can see the next song, but in the PC app you can only do that once you upgrade your service to premium. This is a bummer for me as I don't have good coverage in my cube (I'm a cubicle commando!) so I have to rely on the PC version more often than not.

Also another thing I quite need to get used to is the different breakdown of genres. Some times it is hard to categorize the music I like and that's why I let a radio DJ do that for me. I wish there was a way for me to hand-select a few genres and then Slacker generate a personalized radio station that plays those genres only. As I saw in the PC app you can only generate custom stations looking for a particular artist or song title but not combination of genres.

Anyhow, so far I love this Slacker Radio thing. I may even buy me a year worth of service if I don't happen to win this thing...

 

[mthompson99556]

Overall I love the app but sometimes it pauses randomly. I would love to have the ability to add my own stations. I would be happy to win a license & enjoy the cool streaming music.

 

[l24paws]

ever since i first used Slacker it's been the one for me. i love how easy it is to use and has so many choices of music with hours of enjoyment. keep up the good work

 

[anon(4886171)]

I have been using it for a bit now. I like the interface and it is overall a pretty nice app. I would love to be able to create my own stations. Also it does randomly pause, but not to often. I would absolutely enjoy a free membership to really test drive it. Thanks for the chance!

 

[NPR_Aficionado]

I LOVE the Slacker app. The variety is way better than Pandora. The audio quality is great as well as the features in the app (seeing skips left, lyrics, etc). I do think some others have left good ideas for improvement, but I am loving the free (ad supported) version right now.

Great job Slacker!

 

[starblade876]

I'm using Verizon's HTC Touch Pro2 for reference. I was looking for a good (and free ) internet radio app not too long before the leak appeared and was bummed when I didn't get to it then, but I was glad when the official release came out. I've never tried Slacker before, but had heard the name before, so I knew it was at least somewhat reputable. Plus, I consider myself a slacker, so the name works out.

One of the most important things of course is the station choices and I am very pleased. As a mushy schmuck, my favorite station type is: Love Songs! So, I'm glad they have one such station. It might not be pleasant for those around me when I sing along, it's highly embarrassing for me, and I know it's awful of me, but I don't care.

That last bit provides a little segue to one of the really neat features in the paid version: lyrics. Yes, sometimes I pretend to sing along to songs even when I don't know the full/correct lyrics (I'm really that horrible sometimes). I also have to echo that the coverart looks great on my screen, better than the ones for the albums I have stored on my phone.

Another very important thing to me is the ability to multitask (!!!) and Slacker doesn't seem to slack here at all. It doesn't eat up so much resources that I can't do anything else on my phone. I can surf the web without noticing any real problems, too. The audio quality sounds fine to me, but I was never an audiophile or whatever. The player has stopped a few times on songs and the only way to continue playing songs seems to be to skip to the next song. It's happened when the app was in the background, but one of those times was when I wasn't even doing anything else, so maybe there's a glitch somewhere there.

Someone else mentioned it, too, but it does stop playing (pause?) the music when you try to turn off the backlight. I really hope they fix that because, sometimes, I do like just listening to music, but I don't want to waste battery by powering the screen when I don't need to.

Also, it really is super-minor, but it'd still be nice if there were a landscape mode.

Anyway, I'm really loving it so far. It does need a little bit of polishing, but it's still great and I'd definitely recommend it to others.

 

[BanditX2]

Slacker on TP2

This is my first post to WMExperts and the Slacker radio app is one that got me to speak up. I love Slacker radio for all the reasons folks have posted prior. Multitasking, cover-art, lyrics, next song played...It is nearly perfect and very finger friendly. Only issue I can see us that when you slide the keyboard and flip your screen to landscape the interface becomes unusable. Need to go back to portrait mode for things to work again but I am pretty sure this has to do with variation from model to model.

I've been using a hacked-on version of Pandora for the last 6 months but I am finding them hard to compare.
Slacker - great variety of tunes per channel, you never know what's going to play next. Good choice of various genres to tryout too.
Pandora - seems to play the same music loop after awhile based on 'harmonic melodies, heavy bass beat and uplifting vocals..." jk. Thinks a bit too much for me.

Slacker - SUPERIOR sounds quality. I now have my TP2 tied into my car stereo and the tunes are awesome. This has become my #1 music app.
Pandora - sound quality was very poor (maybe 32kbps quality) to the point that I rarely used it.

Anyway - GREAT WORK and two thumbs-up to Slacker radio for bringing this to WinMO!!

 

[TechNow]

Slacker Radio

I have been using Slacker Radio since I received my HD2 on T-mobile's launch. I have to admit that it has a outstanding selection of music. Also, the user interface is very intuitive and easy to use with great album art views. My only pet peeve is the limited Bachata selections within the Latin station. However, it is the best i have found yet regarding that genre... Overall i would rate it a 9 out of 10. I have had some problems with the music being choppy but I am pretty sure it is due to the 3G coverage in my area and not Slacker Radio's functionality.

Keep up the god work.

 

[carlos2008]

for contest

Slacker Radio was one of the few apps I missed when I went from BlackBerry to WM. So I was thrilled when the app was released. It really is a great music service.

One thing that I noticed missing (or maybe I'm just not seeing it?) that the BlackBerry version had was the ability to cache stations. On my old EDGE Curve it was necessary just to listen to station much of the time. Now I'm on 3G it would be nice to have for times when I don't have a signal (like on an airplane).
captobie is

 

[steveymacjr]

That price is only if you pay each quarter, the shortest increment they have. If you pay twice a year, you can pay $41.70 & save $3 a quarter. Or paying $71.40 annually saves you $6 per quarter. If they still do their periodic membership drive, there can be even more savings for paying for two years. Compare that to XM online, which is $2.99 a month if included with a radio subscription, but $12.99 if you get the plan by itself.

To my way of thinking, Slacker & Live 365 are about even. Slacker has more of the popular tunes in the genres I listen to, has lyrics, but less variety of choices within a genre. Live365 has many more stations & a wider variety, but lots of less known stuff (which can be a plus, if you like to explore).

If you're mostly into music, Slacker has the more popular tunes at a better standalone price than XM online.

True on all accounts, but one thing i love about the Slacker App, is the ability to skip past a song(up to six)...I also canceled Live365 because I have Kinoma Play which includes all the shoutcast radio stations for FREE! I've also decided to go with the free version of Slacker, because I have a ZuneHD and the ZunePass...lol yea i carry two devices, but the experience on the ZuneHD is better than the experience of just listening to music on my phone & the battery life is longer...add to that the upcoming on Device SmartDJ update, and I have a musical experience that is second to none. I do love choices though..When Windows Phone 7 comes out I'll have an even better experience!

 

[kraski]

True on all accounts, but one thing i love about the Slacker App, is the ability to skip past a song(up to six)...I also canceled Live365 because I have Kinoma Play which includes all the shoutcast radio stations for FREE! I've also decided to go with the free version of Slacker, because I have a ZuneHD and the ZunePass...lol yea i carry two devices, but the experience on the ZuneHD is better than the experience of just listening to music on my phone & the battery life is longer...add to that the upcoming on Device SmartDJ update, and I have a musical experience that is second to none. I do love choices though..When Windows Phone 7 comes out I'll have an even better experience!

At least for the types of music I like, Live365 has much more variety than Shoutcast. And, often, better music. In any case, I think I know at least two music junkies on this forum.

 

[CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE]

I won three subscriptions and replied back e-mail but how I find out if I received the subscriptions? Thank you so much!!

 

[George Ponder]

I'd like to thank everyone for participating in this discussion and invited other to add their thoughts on Slacker Radio even though the giveaway is over.

If you have won one of the prizes, I have forwarded your Slacker information on to our contact and your account should be updated this week to reflect the subscription.

 

[CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE]

Do you know when I will receive the subscription? It still shows up as basic radio. Thanks!

 

[kraski]

Do you know when I will receive the subscription? It still shows up as basic radio. Thanks!

The email I got, said this week, so I guess we've got the rest of today. But, just for perspective, mine's still showing as basic subscription, too

 

[kraski]

Do you know when I will receive the subscription? It still shows up as basic radio. Thanks!

Mine switched, this evening. Good through 7/9/10. Got the player cranking on my PC, right now.