Finally! Slacker in Canada

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Amen and Amen! hehehe

You are right we sort of go against the grain in terms of being Slacker! I always knew you were a secret playlist junkie, Thank you Slacker! LOL

I have 1 station - one playlist. The beauty for me is that I can combine my likes. On SXM I like ClassicRewind, the 80s, the 70s, The Bridge and Lithium. I have to choose which of those I want to listen to on a given day/time. With Slacker it mixes the choices.

One thing that bugs the heck out of me is that thhey have some really wierd or non-conventional versions of some songs.

Also, I have yet to hear any Eagles or AC/DC. I understand they had issues with thoe artists on the portables but I thought they could play on the web player.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I also like that some Canadian artists and content is available, most of which get no airplay on SXM (not that I would expect them too). But a lot of this is music I grew up to and it is good to hear again.

 

[DAB]

I have 1 station - one playlist. The beauty for me is that I can combine my likes. On SXM I like ClassicRewind, the 80s, the 70s, The Bridge and Lithium. I have to choose which of those I want to listen to on a given day/time. With Slacker it mixes the choices.

One thing that bugs the heck out of me is that thhey have some really wierd or non-conventional versions of some songs.

Also, I have yet to hear any Eagles or AC/DC. I understand they had issues with thoe artists on the portables but I thought they could play on the web player.

I heard a few songs by both of those artist this weekend! AC/DC's Hell Bells I remember and there was one other, then Eagles, New Kid In Town and Desperado.

I have a couple of shuffle channels myself, but I tent to slant them heavy in one genre or the other, which I like to listen to depending on my mood. I also tend to slant them to classic or older music vs current or newer music. The possibilities are un-ending.

I also like that some Canadian artists and content is available, most of which get no airplay on SXM (not that I would expect them too). But a lot of this is music I grew up to and it is good to hear again.

I notice that they have added some Canandia specific channels which are pre-programs. I see there is one in the Rock, Hits and Country genres. Not sure how good they because unless those Canadian artist go mainstream I probably wouldn't know them.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I heard a few songs by both of those artist this weekend! AC/DC's Hell Bells I remember and there was one other, then Eagles, New Kid In Town and Desperado.

I have a couple of shuffle channels myself, but I tent to slant them heavy in one genre or the other, which I like to listen to depending on my mood. I also tend to slant them to classic or older music vs current or newer music. The possibilities are un-ending.

I will keep listening for them.

I notice that they have added some Canandia specific channels which are pre-programs. I see there is one in the Rock, Hits and Country genres. Not sure how good they because unless those Canadian artist go mainstream I probably wouldn't know them.

I have listened the 80s channel which I had started to customize and never listen to anymore and my own station. I see no need to move beyond that. If you program a channel which plays all the songs you like, why listen to other channelsf? I find myself listening to Slacker at the computer (home and work) and SXM in the car, portably, or when I go to sleep and wake up. I think the services compliment each other (for me) and I have decided to keep Slacker beyond my 1 week. I am month to month so I can always cancel. It costs me a bit more but until I am sure I won't get tired of it, I want to not be locked into a 1 year contract.

 

[DAB]

I have listened the 80s channel which I had started to customize and never listen to anymore and my own station. I see no need to move beyond that. If you program a channel which plays all the songs you like, why listen to other channelsf? I find myself listening to Slacker at the computer (home and work) and SXM in the car, portably, or when I go to sleep and wake up. I think the services compliment each other (for me) and I have decided to keep Slacker beyond my 1 week. I am month to month so I can always cancel. It costs me a bit more but until I am sure I won't get tired of it, I want to not be locked into a 1 year contract.

It all boils down to what one wants. While I have a throw everything in the pot sort of station, which is nice. I sometimes want to hear specific genres and so I have my own setup with just the songs I like. I may take me a month to hear certain songs on an all you can eat station. 24 customized stations and counting! Wouldn't have it any other way!

I sometimes go to sleep listening to Slacker, sometimes Pandora and sometimes XM so I don't much care for limitations that come with specific equipment for only one service or the other.

Good move on the month to month till you know for sure!

 

[xan_user]

Sounds like they have canada on a slow server? I never have those issues, even over weak wifi off dsl.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I heard a few songs by both of those artist this weekend! AC/DC's Hell Bells I remember and there was one other, then Eagles, New Kid In Town and Desperado..

Still haven't heard Eagles, AC/DC, or Bob Segar. All have multiple songs on favourite and Bob Segar is a favourite artist. Heard all the Carpenter songs I have as favourites.

The liscencing issues they had with the Eagles was for portables. I wonder if there is a Canadian liscencing issue with one or more record companies?

 

[DAB]

Still haven't heard Eagles, AC/DC, or Bob Segar. All have multiple songs on favourite and Bob Segar is a favourite artist. Heard all the Carpenter songs I have as favourites.

The liscencing issues they had with the Eagles was for portables. I wonder if there is a Canadian liscencing issue with one or more record companies?

I am sure that these artist have to be licensed in Canada and it could be that some of them aren't. I am not sure though if there are two systems one for the US and one for Canada or the system is the same?

I hear all those artist in rotation on the stations I've created. Bob Segar is one of my favorite artist, so I have many of is songs favored. I also heard a couple more Eagles songs since we last discussed this, but have not heard AC/DC for awhile, but I think I only have them on my rock station and I may not have listened to it in awhile.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I am sure that these artist have to be licensed in Canada and it could be that some of them aren't. I am not sure though if there are two systems one for the US and one for Canada or the system is the same?

I hear all those artist in rotation on the stations I've created. Bob Segar is one of my favorite artist, so I have many of is songs favored. I also heard a couple more Eagles songs since we last discussed this, but have not heard AC/DC for awhile, but I think I only have them on my rock station and I may not have listened to it in awhile.

We do have something in common after all (Bob Segar)! I noticed I had not heard him when I heard him on Classic Rewind. Its been too long for this to be chance. If they had liscencing issues with their mobile devices, they probably have a system to suppress certain artists on certain streams.

I think this weekend I will create a channel of just Bob Segar, The Eagles and AC/DC and see if anything plays.

 

[DAB]

I think this weekend I will create a channel of just Bob Segar, The Eagles and AC/DC and see if anything plays.

I think the minimum artist to a station is 15. If you don't add at least that many the system will do it automatically! I think I tried this early on and that is what happened. Try it and report back!

Seems I remember asking about this on the Slacker forum and they said their licensing required a minimum of 15 artist within a station.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

We do have something in common after all (Bob Segar)! I noticed I had not heard him when I heard him on Classic Rewind. Its been too long for this to be chance. If they had liscencing issues with their mobile devices, they probably have a system to suppress certain artists on certain streams.

I think this weekend I will create a channel of just Bob Segar, The Eagles and AC/DC and see if anything plays.

I just did that -- made those the only 3 artists on the channel, made their hits favourites, tuned the station to play favourites + hits with 0 artist discovery ---- skipped for about 40 songs --- not 1 song by those 3 artists was played. Clearly they are indeed missing.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I think the minimum artist to a station is 15. If you don't add at least that many the system will do it automatically! I think I tried this early on and that is what happened. Try it and report back!

Seems I remember asking about this on the Slacker forum and they said their licensing required a minimum of 15 artist within a station.

Yes it added a whole bunch more. But I would have expected at least 1 of those songs by one of those 3 artists to play in the first 40 --- none did.

 

[DAB]

I just did that -- made those the only 3 artists on the channel, made their hits favourites, tuned the station to play favourites + hits with 0 artist discovery ---- skipped for about 40 songs --- not 1 song by those 3 artists was played. Clearly they are indeed missing.

Wow that is interesting!

 

[Aaron]

You are right we sort of go against the grain in terms of being Slacker! I always knew you were a secret playlist junkie, Thank you Slacker! LOL

I've kind of forgotten about Slacker in recent months, but man I loved creating the dozen or so channels that I created. Just loved the process of building playlists! :bigthumbup:

 

[DAB]

Yes it added a whole bunch more. But I would have expected at least 1 of those songs by one of those 3 artists to play in the first 40 --- none did.

I just tried it and I got different results. I got a lot of Eagles, AC/DC. However I didn't get any Bob Seger. Which is odd considering that I know I heard a Bob Seger song just yesterday on one of my other stations.

Just check Amazon and iTunes and neither of them have but a few songs by Bob Seger. Seems he has his own store on his web site to sell his CD etc. I would not be surprised if he hasn't ended his licensing agreement with Slacker.

 

[DAB]

I've kind of forgotten about Slacker in recent months, but man I loved creating the dozen or so channels that I created. Just loved the process of building playlists! :bigthumbup:

Man, how on earth could you forget about Slacker, the BEST music service on the planet! LOL :scratch: hehehe

 

[leth]

I'm doing the 30 day trial right now, and based on my experience so far I think I'll let my Sirius plan lapse in April and switch to Slacker. The SQ is nicer, having more control over the music is excellent, and the price is better (not to mention that Sirius Canada is going up $1/month in March due to "Canadian Music Royalty fee".) The only thing I would miss from Sirius is Radio Classics, however we have a local AM channel that plays old radio shows at night so I could always setup a recording for that.

Right now I'm using the app on my Blackberry Bold 9700 and it works pretty good, however I keep experiencing "lagging" in the songs (slows down for a second then speeds up.) This happens only while driving, but not sitting in the office or at home, and even while playing cached stations; so I think it's something to do with switching cell towers (e.g. causing CPU to slow down.) Now that I'm typing this, I realize I was playing it on my car stereo through Bluetooth, so that might have something to do with it; I will have to try hardwired on the way home tonight.

Also sometimes the BB App seems to mess up and start playing two songs on top of each other, or won't play at all until I shut it down and open again.

The only other thing bugging me is the lack of normalization; some songs are really quiet.

However I do love the automatic caching over wi-fi (gets triggered when I plug it in to the charger.) And it would be nice to just have one device; many time I forget my SL2 at home.

So far Slacker seems like a winner.

 

[DAB]

Right now I'm using the app on my Blackberry Bold 9700 and it works pretty good, however I keep experiencing "lagging" in the songs (slows down for a second then speeds up.) This happens only while driving, but not sitting in the office or at home, and even while playing cached stations; so I think it's something to do with switching cell towers (e.g. causing CPU to slow down.) Now that I'm typing this, I realize I was playing it on my car stereo through Bluetooth, so that might have something to do with it; I will have to try hardwired on the way home tonight.

Also sometimes the BB App seems to mess up and start playing two songs on top of each other, or won't play at all until I shut it down and open again.

The only other thing bugging me is the lack of normalization; some songs are really quiet.

I think they are working on an update to the Slacker app, which will change teh way it caches stations. Hopefully like the iPod Touch and iPhone Slacker app they will add the volume normalization.

I've never had songs playing on top of each other on the iPod Touch/iPhone Slacker app, in fact is seems very stable thus far. It too though is soon to be updated to allow for caching,w hich is so exciting I can hardly wait so I can get rid of my Slacker G2.

Like you I totally love having a single device like this.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I'm doing the 30 day trial right now, and based on my experience so far I think I'll let my Sirius plan lapse in April and switch to Slacker. The SQ is nicer, having more control over the music is excellent, and the price is better (not to mention that Sirius Canada is going up $1/month in March due to "Canadian Music Royalty fee".) The only thing I would miss from Sirius is Radio Classics, however we have a local AM channel that plays old radio shows at night so I could always setup a recording for that.

Sirius Canada has never been economical. Thats why I went with the US sub. No idea why they would add the royaltee fee. I thought that only happened with a monopoly.

My biggest complaint about Slacker is the missing artists. A lot of my favourites are currently unable to be played in Canada. I am told that this will change over time. We will see. If it doesn't, I am not sure the service is worth the cost. The artist repeats are a bit much.

 

[DAB]

I am not sure the service is worth the cost. The artist repeats are a bit much.

Hearing you talk about artist repeats is really funny considering Sirius is the MOST horrible offender of this on most of its channels. If your custom channels are repeating artist too much you need to make some adjustments. I don't really listen to the pre-programmed stations enough to say for sure, but as I recall most of them seem to be okay. It doesn't take much though to beat what Sirius has going, which seems to be leth's point. Correct me if I am wrong leth!