Breaking: Slacker finalizes deals with Major Music Labels
Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 10:02 AM
Tags: Internet Radio, Partnerships, RIAA, Satellite Radio, Slacker
Slacker, the Internet Radio/Satellite Radio hybrid service, has finalized agreements with the major labels EMI Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group - making the labels' content available to listeners on the Slacker Personal Radio service.
Sony BMG Music had already previously reached a similar agreement with Slacker. The addition of EMI, UMG, and Warner gives Slacker agreements with all four major record labels.
With all four music labels under its belt, Slacker listeners will now have access to a much deeper playlist to access on their personalized radio stations. And as part of the agreement, Slacker listeners can transfer their personalized stations to Slacker Portable Players with a single click and automatically refresh them via Wi-Fi or over USB.
The Slacker Portable Player is still "coming soon," but I assume they wanted to reach this agreement first before launching their retail offering. Slacker Personal Radio is available for free (for both online use and on the Slacker Portables) using an ad-supported model (the premium service will be unveiled soon).
Also "coming soon" is the Slacker Satellite Car Kit, which delivers fresh content to your Slacker Portable Player directly to your car via satellite. Complete with a car dock and antenna, the Satellite Car Kit allows you to receive new music for your stations while you drive. The Slacker Portable Player will store content in its cache, so your music never stops playing even when you lose signal.
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Comments
Who said the Sirius/XM merger would not have competition?
Posted by: realwx | September 20, 2007 11:12 AM
So Slacker is Internet Radio meets Satellite Radio meets sorta-iTunes-playlists meets sometimes-paid subscriptions meets free-subcriptions-with-advertising. The player doesn't exist yet, the car docks certainly don't, and nobody has a clue what it is. THEY NEED TO SIMPLIFY THIS!
IPods are massively popular because they are simple as hell to use. Hell, slip a music CD into a Mac and iTunes will automatically rip all the songs and dump them on your iPod. (see for Mac owners, it's like automatic piracy) Sat Rad I find isn't simple enough yet. The plug n' plays aren't bad, but the Stiletto needs to really simplify how it deals with recorded content and WiFi.
Sidebar for Stilletto woes:
1) Don't make me go to the main menu to hear something! If I'm on a station, let me selected recorded content and hear what was taped off of it in the past. The Stilletto 2's "virtual channels" may have fixed this.
2) Don't make me go to the main menu to turn WiFi on. If Sat Rad isn't available, jump to WiFi automatically, or at least me it a single click away if battery life is an issue.
But these are minor woes, the Slacker system looks dismally confused. At least Sirius and XM can claim competition when pitching the merger.
Posted by: Martin | September 20, 2007 11:43 AM
Have you ever used Slacker? It's painfully EASY to use.
I think explaining to the satellite radio "elite" that a deal has been made with record companies is where you're getting confused... anything with record companies is confusing!!
Now I'm a dual sub, but I mostly listen to music. My biggest complaint with Slacker is that the playlist is just too shallow..... now we know why! They were only playing Sony's catalog.... now with all 4 on board? Forget it, I'm buying the Portable AS SOON AS IT"S OUT.
Posted by: banff21 | September 20, 2007 12:56 PM
If they are paying less than XM and Sirius than something is definitely wrong.
The one thing that I really like about their player is a buffer. That is a no brainer.
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