Custom Station Spec Sheet

[ibprtazpolpcp]

We should try to build a Custom Station Spec Sheet. I doubt Slacker (and especially their licensors) would want to publish one, so it'll take experimentation. By spec sheet, I mean things like...

• How many entries can the fav/ban list hold?
• What % of the artist's catalog is listed in "Request Songs"?
  • does Slacker have rights to all their songs?
  • of those they have rights to, do they list them all?
• What's the max frequency we can achieve for an artist?
• Can the "Fine Tune" slider effects be quantified?
• etc

I believe many of these questions have two answers, one re the free account, and another if there's a paid "subscription".

 

[ibprtazpolpcp]

So to start, I have a free account*...

15 artists minimum

I had an idea to build a station with just one artist. I chose an artist with a large catalog. Then I thought of 14 other artists with only one CD ever released, so I added those then banned all their songs. As I was banning I also kept track of the running total of songs. I found out...

The fav/ban list would only hold 100 songs

So I had to make sure the 14 artists (14 CDs) averaged about 7 songs per or less. Obviously I set the Artist Discovery to Off. When I played the station, it had to ignore that setting. Slacker has said their licensors restrict artist frequency, so that's why.

The result is, I heard the "just one artist" I had intended only about once every 10 songs instead of every single song. I recall the results were about the same whether I was listening via my PC browser or via my G1.

* please remember to specify this if you contribute observations

 

[sphere79]

The fav/ban list would only hold 100 songs

I wasn't even aware of limitations such as this one. It must only be with "free" accounts. But then what happens if you load a custom station with 1000 favorites onto a "free" account? Does it function differently?

 

[ibprtazpolpcp]

But then what happens if you load a custom station with 1000 favorites onto a "free" account? Does it function differently?

Yes, it keeps the list even if it has >100 songs. I just tested this with rosco|radio (~540 songs).

Next I'll try to "Save As" this station, and see if I can add 100 more songs. Or what about 101 more. Interesting...

 

[ibprtazpolpcp]

I wish others would add their observations. Oh, well.

Can the "Fine Tune" slider effects be quantified?

I was having trouble with a custom station of mine. I set the artists that I mostly wanted to listen to. Then I added or favorited some songs from other artists. "Fine Tune" settings were all the defaults at first, and it would play one of the favorited songs about once every three songs total. That's too often.

So I went back to the "Fine Tune" settings. More and Maximum also caused the station to play the favorited songs too often. Minimum seemed to drop the favorites completely.

What's strange is, it took me changing one of the other "Fine Tune" settings to get what I wanted. When I set Favorites back to Auto and changed the Year setting to Current, I finally got less favorites but I still get to hear one once in awhile.

Try it!

 

[HecticArt]

Thanks for reviving this thread. I hadn't noticed it before.
I've been using the free service, and haven't really gotten around to customizing very much, and am always curious about how to get more of what I'm looking for out of Slacker.

 

[Bigrock]

and thanks for Roscoradio! I knew it would be good one. Thanks Rosco

 

[roscoryan]

You're welcome Bigrock! This is a good reminder, since I have to go on there and add some new stuff tonight.