That's the question we all may be asking each other one day. Slacker is the creation of Broadband Instruments, a start-up founded by former executives of iriver, Rio, and MusicMatch. Slacker is a multi-faceted service comprising of an Internet radio network, a media player, and satellite radio for your car. All these services will be interact with one another to create an ecosystem for your favorite music. Lately it's felt like this industry has been dying out but I personally think Slacker will breathe a little life into it. Here's why:

The Slacker Media Player looks impressive. It's a flash-based player with a large 4" screen and a slick looking interface. The "Now Playing" screen displays enlarged album art that's reminiscent of the Zune. The player has built-in WiFi allowing you to stream your Slacker stations to your player and play them wherever you are. The player is said to range in size from 2GB - 12GB at prices ranging from $150 to $400. The player arrives sometime this Summer.

Slacker's Internet Radio service is one of the easiest I've used. From the fast setup to the easy to understand interface. There are many stations preloaded but just type in your favorite artist in the search box and you can have your very own personalized stations featuring that artist and others that sound like them.

Click the link below to get a closer look at Slacker's radio service and media player.

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Getting Started



Slacker's radio service is currently in the beta stage and works in Firefox and Internet Explorer (among others). Once you sign up at Slacker.com, you'll have access to their list of radio stations. The list has multiple stations for just about every genre of music. There are approximately 70 stations right now but I'm sure more will be added in the future. You can also make custom radio stations with your favorite artists.

Finding Your Music



At the top right there is an Artist search bar. I've typed in a number of my favorite artists and they all were found easily. Once you've found the artist, press the play button and you'll then be listening to that artists' radio station. It will play songs from their collection as well as songs from similar artists. From my small tests the other artists were often hit or miss. Sometimes it'd provide music that were very similar to the highlighted artist, and other times I just had to scratch my head. Overall I was still pleased with the selections as it played artists that I'd never heard of before. This service is all about discovering new music to me.

Artist Info



Slacker also provides detailed artist info, as well as reviews. This information can also be accessed on the media player which is a nice addition in my opinion.

Fav./Ban Buttons



When you hear a song you really like you can press the Favorite button and that track will be played more often. Alternatively if you hear a song or artist you really don't care to listen to again just press the Ban button and voila it's gone. It's a simple rating system, but it works. In the future I'd definitely like to see a star rating system added.

Skip Limit



One of the few downsides I found was the skip limit. Because these are licensed tracks that are provided for free, there is a skip limit of 6 songs. Once you reach this limit in the station you're in you can't skip to another song for another hour. In the future there will be an optional pay service that will remove the skip limitation, as well as any ads that are shown. That service will supposedly cost $7.50/month.

Adding Presets



Presets are easily added by pressing and holding your mouse over an empty preset slot. It will then add whatever station you're currently listening to into that slot.

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Slacker Media Player



Cnet has some nice exclusive hands-on images of this player. The player looks very large for a flash player. I usually like a pretty even edged device too so I was a little bit thrown by the tapered edge on one side of the player. The controls are on the sides of the player and mirror those found in the radio service. You have buttons like the home button, favorite and ban buttons. The player uses a (non-proprietary) mini-USB for transferring files, and has an SD slot for expansion. In the future, Slacker may also open the doors of their Internet radio service to other players.

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First Impressions: So far I'm really liking Slacker. The interface is nice, and it's just plain easy to use. Although the music is streaming the quality sounds excellent. The upcoming media player also looks promising but I'll have to see a full spec list before talking more about it. As mentioned, it's only in the beta stage right now but in the future there will be a standalone music program that will allow you to add your music collection to its library. I don't see this service being an overnight success, but I can definitely see it making a name for itself in this Industry. Whether it's a good name is up to the public to decide.

Sources:

Slacker
Cnet
Gear Log
Wired Blog


Thanks, Utew