Bet you saw this coming
Radio has come a long way.
Many industries have been hit hard by the ubiquitous and free qualities the Internet offers. Radio stations are no exception. Just as newspapers began to fail when people turned to the web for free information, radio stations are struggling as more free stations pop up online.
Industries thwarted
Last month, Sirius XM satellite radio had to take out some big time installment loans from Liberty Media in order to stay afloat. Any audio streaming services that charge for subscriptions no doubt have a short shelf life.
Free online stations like Slacker and Pandora that bring and even higher level of customer satisfaction than XM radio, which charged about $13 per month, will no doubt be “the only way to fly” pretty soon.
Slacker radio the newest craze
Pandora Radio and other similar products that offer personalized radio stations with few or no commercials have become all the rage in the past couple of years. Add to that list Slacker Radio, which got a bump in popularity now that iPhone, iPod touch and BlackBerry users can use their services without WiFi access.
Say what?
Yes, customers are going crazy for Slacker Portable, which lets you download your stations and listen to your radio catalog wherever you go. All you need is batteries.
The relatively new online radio service is still expanding, and it just might be available on whatever audio device you already own sometime soon.
Product comparison
In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I am a longtime Pandora Radio fan. But I decided to give Slacker a try today. The process begins the same way; you enter a song or artist name. One big difference is that on Slacker, if you name one artist it will come back to you with several similar artist names all at once. You can then pick a different artist to hear their music.
To find out more about Slacker Radio, check it out: http://www.slacker.com/
I listen to Slacker Radio a lot. I actually don’t know a lot about the company besides the fact that they play the kind of music I like. Pandora is also another great internet radio service. The Music Genome Project has definitely widened out into different areas in order to expand revenue – they have over 400 different musical attributes. Their site is completely user friendly and fun to listen to as well.
Oh, man. I was g to check out Slacker Radio, but I lost my motivation. And yeah, Pandora is really good. I think there’s even Pandora and Slacker plug ins you can download onto your phone if you have a smart phone.