There used to be about 10,000 actual, over-the-air radio stations. It seemed like a lot. But, although as far as we know no one is counting, the number of virtual stations has surely left the old figure in the dust.
The latest is something called Slacker, which says that it has just launched "the world’s most complete music service for the Web, mobile devices and a range of automotive and consumer electronics platforms."
“Slacker is the most complete music service on earth, with 10 times the music of Pandora, expert-programmed stations Spotify can’t touch, and personalization that satellite services only dream of,” said Jim Cady, CEO, Slacker. “We’ve quietly built a scaleable business with more than a half-million paying subscribers and more than four million monthly average users. 2013 will be a blockbuster year for Slacker as we ramp up our marketing efforts and take the service to a broader audience.”
Yeah, so ...
OK, so how does it differ from Pandora, Spotify, MOG and all the other streaming and on-demand music services? Well, we're not sure. It sounds pretty similar but to hear Slacker tell it, the world's never heard anything like this.
"The new Slacker gives listeners anytime, anywhere access to millions of songs and hundreds of expert-programmed stations for free on any device. Slacker also raises the bar for music discovery, highlighting stations, personalized picks and exclusive content from Slacker’s team of expert curators," the company enthused.
Slacker, available at www.slacker.com, works from the web or you can download the app for iOS, Android, Windows Phones and Blackberry devices.
Slacker claims to offer more than 13 million songs and offers customization tools that even extend to news, sports and talk from ABC and ESPN. It has more than 200 genre and specialty stations.
There is a free version of Slacker. A commercial-free version of Slacker Radio Plus is $3.99 a month. The Slacker Premium service includes on-demand listening and the ability to create custom playlists for $9.99 a month.
Although it was founded back in 2006 as a satellite radio company, Slacker has been slumping along under the radar for quite awhile. It became a digital music service in 2010 and says it has doubled its business every year.
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