Slacker Radio Review

August 8, 2010 | By WenWP

Before I went on vacation I contacted Slacker radio’s PR reps and I said I would like to do a review for their product. Three weeks later it seems about time that I get going with the review and after the review is over I will be doing a giveaway, so look out for that.

Slacker radio, the one stop shop for all the different type of music you want and for a great price, let us start the review.

Price:

Having the best music at all time includes paying a little, but actually with Pandora and Slacker… That is not needed. Allowing users to choose either paying or going every couple of songs with an advert is what Slacker and others have done, and in this review we are talking paid service. The Radio Plus service slacker offers gives some great features over the free services for example:

Slacker Radio Plus:
*Unlimited Skips
*Unlimited Song Requests
*No Audio or Banner Ads
*Complete Lyrics
*Station caching on the Leading Smartphone’s
*Over 2 Million Songs

Now to get all these services it would cost you a fairly low price of 4.99 if you pay monthly or 3.99 monthly with a one year subscription. That price means it cost around $47 a year which is significantly more expensive than Pandora’s $36 a year. The only good thing about it is… With Pandora you are required to pay the whole year at once, and you cannot choose to pay monthly, but other than that, Slacker is not really a great deal over Pandora.

If I had to pay for this service, I would actually do it. The service is great because that means I always have a fresh song in my ear (even though you might hear the same song twice or more in one day), and I do not have to pay for new CD’s. The other good thing about the price is that Slacker is a cross platform service, which means you can use it on multiple devices that have an internet connection, which is good.

Usability:

Paying for a services means you want something you can easily access, and Slacker does a great job of that. This music service, unlike Pandora, has a constantly updated Windows Phone application. The software even has a version for your desktop computer, Android phones, iPhones, and other mobile systems. This means you can access it just about everywhere.

The software for Windows Phone is quite nice and easy to use.

First the log in screen is very simple, easy to read, and loads in about 10 seconds depending on your device speed. From there your in the music catalog, and you can select from over 2 Million songs that are in many different categories for you. Now if you are trying to be a little specific to who you like listing to, then you can easily search and a new station will be created and saved for later.

When your listening to music you have very few buttons but just what you need.

The button on the top right takes you to information, where you can read up on just about everything you might want to know from album information, lyrics, author bio, and a review of the CD the song is from. All this information is taken from the cloud and is loaded with the song, so you do not have to wait to see it. It is also very nicely displayed as you can see in the image above.

Returning to the now playing menu the same song is playing and other than that, there is not much more to the buttons. There is a dislike and like button. A next button. A button for settings and lastly the station return button to be sent back to the home screen.

All this information is displayed in a way that you do not feel overcome, but you still have all you need. The application has a very nice design to it, and its same through the desktop application, and even the Android counterpart.

At the end of the day, I can say the usability for this software is great and it’s very comfortable to use.

Conclude

Since this is a simple application I’ll just leave it at that. The software is very nice, and the price is fairly decent. Now I would not pay for this if I had a service like Zune on my device (which I will soon), but it’s a great alternative to keep you head banging until that is possible. With all that said, I would recommend this to anyone that like listening to a wide array of music and do not want to constantly pay for full albums.

I will not give software star ratings.

Look out tomorrow, I will be giving away 5 free subscriptions. These subscriptions will last you till a Windows Phone 7 device is available in your retail stores. The winners will send me their emails and I’ll have them sent into Slacker for upgrades. I will tell you more on that tomorrow, but for now I hope you’re enjoying your slacker life.

About Wen M

Working for WMPU is awesome. Love to write personal articles, and I do it very often. I am the reviewing editor (self appointed), so you will see alot of reviews and giveaways from me. I own quite a few devices not just Windows Phone but Android and others. I live in Minnesota, USA and love traveling to other places.

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KennyB123

"If I was to pay for this service, I would actually do it."

What?

Anyways, the software looks nice. I use the ZunePass on my ZuneHD, so this doesn't interest me. However, I can see why this would be great for those needing all their music on their connected WM6.5 devices.

RIPPEDOFFBY SLACKER

THERE PLAYER IS JUNK. I HAVE GONE THROUGH 3 AND EVERY ONE DIED IN A MONTH OR LESS. THEY REFUSE TO HONOR THERE OWN WARRANTY FOR A REFUND. THEY JUST WANT TO SEND ME ANOTHER PLAYER. 4 PLAYERS IN LESS THAN A YEAR. THATS JUNK AND I DESERVE MY MONEY BACK. I AM STARTING A LAWSUIT AGAINST THEM SO IF ANYONE HAS HAD SIMILAR EXPERIANCES WITH THEM THAN CONTACT ME AND WE WILL MAKE THIS A CLASS ACTION SUIT.

efjay

I find the selection of music from Slacker much better than Zune for the genres I like, smooth jazz and R&B. Zune doesnt even have a smooth jazz category so I would actually prefer to use Slacker to discover new music and buy on Amazon. Not convinced zune is worth the price they're asking.

Wen(WM)

Really?
I have never heard that before.
Good to know.
I am just happy they have Swing….. Does Zune?

efjay

No Swing category that I can see from the default list.

Wen(WM)

Thats BS…
What do they have then.
I need my Swing music…
Now I am disappointed.

phalkon30

If you're going to review something, learn the proper use of your and you're!

Slacker is a great service, and the mobile software is really nice too. I just wish they would update it for VGA so you can actually see the play/pause/next buttons. Great sound quality and fast for music streaming on my phone.

I've also found the music variety better than most other services like pandora.

Wen(WM)

Hmm,
If your going to own a phone, you should have WVGA
And yes, I should.

Mani

Seems like a nice application, is it US only or can it be used in Europe as well? I guess I should give it a try as it would save a lot of time not to manage all my music on my SD card. Thanks for the review

Wen(WM)

Sure,
Glad to help.

elizabethreno

First, contrary to what their “Live Talk” Customer Service representatives tell you, when you sign up for a Trial Account you are required to enter a credit card. Then, just TRY to cancel! Good luck – there is NO place on their website to cancel. The Customer Service rep argued with me about the required credit card, then told me to call them. After being placed on hold for 30 minutes I gave up and have filed complaints with my bank regarding the fraudulent credit card charge, Better Business Bureau, and our state attorney general. Not worth the headache to deal with a company who refuses to place a “cancel my account” button on their website.
ilasli

Extremely long story short – I rarely check my wireless bill
as the charges are within a few dollars of each other each month. I noticed
after 4 months that I was being billed $3.99/month for an unknown service. I
contacted Verizon and they explained it was billing for Slacker. Though I had
only used the “free” version of the service once, at some point it
had “upgraded” me. I was told to contact Slacker, and I did through
the online chat service.

Conversing with Slacker representatives online is like
beating your head against a wall (listed in summary below).

SR.: We can assist you with any information regarding your
Slacker account or with the Slacker app on your phone. Is there anything that I
am able to assist you with that I can help you with at this time?

***: Yes, I am speaking with Verizon right now (regarding a
billing issue with Slacker – I never used or consented to use the full version,
but was charged for it.)

SR.: Again, we cannot assist you with any billing issues,
since all billing issues are handled by Verizon.

***: Can you tell when I initially downloaded Slacker and
when I began being charged?

SR.: No, we’re not able to say when the app was downloaded
(though the app would have been installed on your phone from the factory so
there wouldn’t have been an install).

***: Can you please tell me who I would contact regarding
usage data for my account?

SR.: We don’t provide usage data for accounts as that is
proprietary information.

***: Legally can you disallow my access and knowledge of my
own service usage and data?

SR.: Is there a reason you would need access to that
information?

***: Absolutely. Verizon believes it was a malfunction with
my phone – sure enough I returned one the next month for the reason that it was
random accessing and opening applications.

SR: Since the charge you are referring to appears on your
Verizon bill, that would indicate that you are charged by Verizon, so Verizon
would have to credit you for any purchases made on your bill you wish to
contest. If you had been billed by Slacker, you would see a notice on your bank
account from Slacker directly, as we only bill directly via credit card
purchase.

***: Absolutely, but I require account information from your
company to solve this issue.

SR.: If we are able to provide information to assist with
this issue, we will be happy to.

***: I regret that I have given you the impression that I am
foolish or inexperienced in billing matters. Though I have never had to deal
with an issue like this,. I am fully aware that I was billed through Verizon. I
am requesting your help in account issues and information – something that you
are clearly unable or willing to provide.

SR.: I am more than willing to provide that information.

***: I have stated that I require additional information for
Verizon to refund my account, and requested that you provide me with my account
usage history or direct me to some one who can. With out this information, I am
unable to determine whether the account is being used by some one using my
email address, or if it is in fact due to a software issue as we have surmised.

SR.: Is there anything further that we can assist you with
at this time?

***: I would hope in the future that Slacker would provide
you with the resources and abilities to provide such basic information as
“when was my account last used”. That would be lovely.

SR.: Account usage has no bearing on subscription refunds.

***: I’m looking for the candid camera.

SR.: Again, if Verizon is stating otherwise, we would need
the name of the person that is saying that.

***: You can see the relevance pertaining to my situation,
correct?

SR.: Slacker bills you for access to the subscription
service, not for how much you use the service. You can use the service every
day of the subscription period, or never during the subscription period, and
you are billed the same amount.

***: They were looking for evidence as to whether it was a
phone malfunction – account access data would provide evidence on this.

***: I very, very clearly understand that. That is not the
issue at hand. I have stated several times why it was necessary to know whether
or not the program was being used.

SR.: Again, that has no bearing on issuing a refund for the
subscription.

SR.: If someone was saying that it does, then we would need
their name.

***: In this case, as you have said Slacker is not
responsible for the billing, to Verizon, IT HAS BEARING.

***: You are welcome to, but I’m dropping the issue because
they provided a full refund.

***: You asked me what else could be done, and I’m answering
you by saying this: Providing basic account assess information would be not
only pleasing to your customers, but saving time in situations such as these.
Good day.

SR: Thank you for using Slacker Live Chat Support.

Have a wonderful day.

***: You too, and may the rest of your day be free from
those requesting the ever unavailable account information.

I could post more, but it would be only the same.

Bottom line is this: The service is inferior to other
options (Pandora, TuneIn, etc), the billing is deceptive, and the customer
service… well, you be the judge.