Slacker launches Premium Radio, streaming on demand
updated 03:00 am EDT, Tue May 17, 2011
Caching allows for off-line mobile device playback
Slacker Radio, the popular internet service with over 25 million listeners, has now launched a third tier of service available to its hundreds of thousands of subscribers: Slacker Premium Radio, which adds individual on-demand play, off-line mobile device listening and custom playlist creation along with all the benefits of their normal Plus subscription package. Premium listeners can choose to listen to one of 150-plus expert-programmed genre stations, or choose individual songs from Slacker's eight-million-song catalog on-demand, and cache stations, artists, albums or songs for later offline listening on their mobile devices.
The company also offers a basic, free, ad-supported streaming service that features the same hand-assembled music over a number of different genres, which offers listeners a chance to vote up or down songs that are eventually promoted or deleted from the playlist based on listener votes. The company also offers the Slacker Plus option, currently priced at $4 per month, that drops the ads and adds song lyrics and unlimited song skips.
The curated stations, combined with the options of on-demand music and custom playlists, make for a straightforward way to enjoy current favorites and discover new music. Premium users gain all the benefits of the Plus subscribers, and can access the entire music library, charts, station playlists, single-artist stations and more, for $10 per month.
The Premium service works across all iterations of Slacker, from the web-based listener to custom apps for iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry smartphones (all four apps have been revamped to accommodate the new service option). Premium users can cache stations, playlists, songs and entire albums for off-line playback on their mobile devices.
The Premium service also allows users to browse the top charts of all Slacker genre stations, as well as skip forward or backward on songs and stations. Mobile users on Android or Blackberry have the option to add their Slacker Premium Radio billing added directly to their Verizon, T-Mobile USA or AT&T account from within the app (the Slacker radio service is only available in the U.S. and Canada).
For a limited time, the company will be offering free short-term subscriptions to Slacker Premium Radio through their Facebook page.
