For years, I’ve been listening to various forms of online radio while I work. Shoutcast, Launch, Live365, Last.FM, Pandora, Sirius/XM are a few of the more popular services that I’ve used and I’ve given several others a fair test run. My main source of online radio for the past two years has been through a service called Slacker.
“Slacker is a free personalized radio service featuring over 100 expert-programmed genre stations and the ability to create your own perfect stations. To get started, pick your favorite type of music or search for your favorite artist or song.”
A couple of reasons I prefer this service over all of the others that I’ve tried…
- It’s free, but there is also a cheap, premium service that unlocks more features.
- It has a web player which plays in your browser, but there is also a desktop application, as well as mobile apps for your iPhone or Blackberry.
- Music is cached for uninterrupted music playback. If you’re getting on the subway or the metro with the Slacker G2 or an iPhone or Blackberry running the app, you don’t have to worry about your connection being disrupted.
- Pleny of features that let you fine tune your station, with the best recommendation engine I’ve seen in any service.
- You can share your stations with your friends.
- There is a portable player out called the Slacker G2, which allows you to take your stations with you to the gym or to play in the car.
- If you use Last.FM, there is an app called LastSlacker that will scrobble your songs for you.
Try it out for yourself and send me a link to your station!
