Slacker -vs- Pandora -vs- last.fm
- Thread starter roscoryan
- Start date
I voted "Other" because I still prefer Sirius Premium Internet.
I have used Pandora and Slacker which both give you greater control over what you hear. But I don't need another device in my house and the time spent listening to Internet Radio on my PC is limited so I have to stick with what I use the most: SIRIUS.
I have used Pandora and Slacker which both give you greater control over what you hear. But I don't need another device in my house and the time spent listening to Internet Radio on my PC is limited so I have to stick with what I use the most: SIRIUS.
Damnit. . . . You guys are pulling me in. . . . .
I was going to stay away from here.
With Boombox gone, I'm feening for my electronic tunes, and have to fix.
So I've been poking around a bit, and have been slowly gravitating toward Slacker.
I apologize for the total noob questions that follow.
Without a Slacker player, is there anyway to listen without live streaming over the net? (My office tries to lock down streaming from 8 till 5 to save bandwidth, but it's open during the evening.)
Is premium service ($3.99 / mo) required to use the player? The lack of ad's alone seems worth $4.
I was going to stay away from here.
With Boombox gone, I'm feening for my electronic tunes, and have to fix.
So I've been poking around a bit, and have been slowly gravitating toward Slacker.
I apologize for the total noob questions that follow.
Without a Slacker player, is there anyway to listen without live streaming over the net? (My office tries to lock down streaming from 8 till 5 to save bandwidth, but it's open during the evening.)
Is premium service ($3.99 / mo) required to use the player? The lack of ad's alone seems worth $4.
It's not required to use the player but it helps. The lack of ads, unlimited favoring/banning songs are the incentive to pay $47.88 a year for the plus service. I know of no other way to get slacker other than slacker.com or getting a portable. Or if you have the iPhone or Blackberry you can download a free app to get service there, too. I have the iPhone app and plus subscription service and it's fantastic.
Your gonna love making your own channels. Sounds like you are gonna need the g2 or an iphone or blackberry for work though.
Thanks guys. I tried to log on to both Slacker + Pandora from my phone (Samsung Omnia - posting from it now)but they wouldnt load. I'd rather not get another gadget, but the service is really sweet. I think I'll listen on line for free for a while. . . at least till I'm totally hooked. . . .
I like Pandora...Slacker only lets me fine tune a station by adding 3 or so artists. Pandora lets me add as many as I want.
Plus, on my iPod Touch, Pandora allows me to create new stations. Slacker requires you to log in on a browser to create stations.
AND...the interface on Pandora is almost identical to playing an MP3. Very slick.
Plus, on my iPod Touch, Pandora allows me to create new stations. Slacker requires you to log in on a browser to create stations.
AND...the interface on Pandora is almost identical to playing an MP3. Very slick.
When creating stations via the web, you can add as many artist as you want, so where you are getting that Slacker will only let you add 3 that just isn't so, in fact they have a 15 artist minimum. Pandora will allow you to add just 3 artist and still create a channel filling in the gaps. Slacker will fill in the gaps too, but with artist they select. Pandora also give you no ability to play just the artist you want where Slacker will. Pandora gives no real preference to your favorites where Slacker will.
One of the pluses I give Slacker is that they don't use that same interface with the tiny text that you just about need a magnifying glass to see. Why they use that gray text instead of white is beyond my understanding. It is almost unreadable in many cases.
Also I remember in version 1 of the Pandora app you couldn't create stations. Slacker is still at version 1, so we'll see. The problem I have with Pandora is repeats. But I will say that I have yet to be able to match my NewAge channel on Slacker that I created on Pandora.
I could care less about a channel playing only one artist...if I want that, I'll listen to my XM!
But what I'm talking about is in fine tuning a channel. Pandora allows me to add multiple artists to fine tune the sound. Slacker seems to not allow me to link other artists to a channel. Example: I created my own "Margaritaville" channel, but I can't seem to add other artists, only the first: Jimmy Buffett (of course). Now, it only plays Country music, when I'd like it to play Jackson Browne, Toots & The Maytals, Bob Marley, Paul Simon, Jack Johnson, etc.... How can I fine tune it to do that without having to love or ban 20+ songs?
I could care less about a channel playing only one artist...if I want that, I'll listen to my XM!
But what I'm talking about is in fine tuning a channel. Pandora allows me to add multiple artists to fine tune the sound. Slacker seems to not allow me to link other artists to a channel. Example: I created my own "Margaritaville" channel, but I can't seem to add other artists, only the first: Jimmy Buffett (of course). Now, it only plays Country music, when I'd like it to play Jackson Browne, Toots & The Maytals, Bob Marley, Paul Simon, Jack Johnson, etc.... How can I fine tune it to do that without having to love or ban 20+ songs?
Yes can add as many artists to any channel you want. At least I can. Select the channel that you wish to add an artist to. Click CUSTOMIZE. enter artists name in the search bar and then add songs. After that is done, Slacker will automatically play more songs from that artist.
Ahh...okay...I'm getting it now. I was requesting songs, which seems to be a no-no unless you subscribe. You can request artists, it seems...nice..
After listening a bit more, I have another complaint about Pandora. I've notice it seems to have a hard-on for live tracks. This gets VERY old after a while, especially when it seems every third song is a live song. Are they just too cheap to get real music licenses?
You know I couldn't put my finger on this, but now that you mention it you are correct. The also use these WOW, NOW and any kind of Various artist type music they can get, much of which is live. I tried creating a Southern Gospel station and all they seem to play is one live Bill Gaithier Show after another. It was like listening to Homecoming Radio on Sirius. LOL
I also find the repeats are terrible on Pandora and there is no way to ban artist you simply don't want to hear!
Well, I'm now a Slacker convert. I don't have a G2 (thinking about it..maybe when a G3 comes out...), but I'm loving listening to MyMargaritaville on my iPod Touch. Seriously questioning if I'll subscribe to the SIRIUS XM premium internet when it becomes available in March. I'll wait to see if the uSIRIUS iPhone/iPod Touch app becomes available by then...
), but I'm loving listening to MyMargaritaville on my iPod Touch. Seriously questioning if I'll subscribe to the SIRIUS XM premium internet when it becomes available in March. I'll wait to see if the uSIRIUS iPhone/iPod Touch app becomes available by then...
Well, I'm now a Slacker convert. I don't have a G2 (thinking about it..maybe when a G3 comes out...
Great!
Well, I'm now a Slacker convert. I don't have a G2 (thinking about it..maybe when a G3 comes out...
Glad to have you onboard! Did you share your MyMargaritaville channel yet? I can't remember if you did or not, I'd love to check it out.
Some of you guys are GREAT programmers!
I haven't had a problem with not being able to ban artists; the system they use to figure out what you like and don't like seems to do well enough that I don't ever really feel the need to. Don't really notice the repeats either, but that's probably because I listen to it about an hour or less at a time. Not saying it's a bad service at all, I just like Slacker a lot better.
Well, I'm now a Slacker convert. I don't have a G2 (thinking about it..maybe when a G3 comes out...
I'm in a similar boat. I won't be subscribing to the premium stream unless they find a way to make it work with my Squeezebox (I'm an XM sub and it's not listed; the only option is Sirius)
Yeah, you wouldn't notice the repeats unless you listened for long stretches at a time. The thumb down works okay to get rid of some artist, but sometimes you have to thumb down multiple songs before it finally realizes you just don't want to hear that artist.
I had one of my channels that I had thumbed down Bill Gaithiers Homecoming stuff I know 20 times before it finally quit playing it. If there was a ban I would have been able to get rid of it immediately.
I like Pandora, but like you simply prefer Slacker!