The Slacker Media Player: Nostalgia (the Good Kind) in the Palm of Your Hand
Kids, I want you to take off your jetpacks, and step out of your flying cars for a minute. Come sit down over here, and let Old Man Wheaton tell you a tale of a time when television didn’t have a pause button, renting videos meant actually going to a store - during hours that they set - and listening to the radio meant hearing the same 27 songs every two and-a-half hours, with ten to eighteen minutes of commercials every 60 minutes.
Now, I realize that some of you think I’m just making this up to scare you, but it’s true. We didn’t have any control over how we got our entertainment back then. We couldn’t skip songs we didn’t like, and we couldn’t tell the radio how frequently it should play certain songs. It was a different time, when nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them and the King of England would just show up at your house and expect you to make him a cup of tea.
Those of you who have grown up in a world where you have unprecedented control over your media (DRM, which is beyond the scope of this story, notwithstanding) may have a hard time believing that we who came before you would actually wait for a song we hated to go away, or sit through loud and obnoxious commercials and DJs because we knew a song we loved was coming up. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true; that’s just how the world worked back then, and we accepted it without question.
Oh, how the times have changed!
The change came to me in 2002, when I got my very first XM Satellite Radio. No longer was I limited to a handful of radio stations that all played the same basic playlist! When I drove out of major media markets, I was able to listen to more than just country and right wing talk radio! There were comedy stations! Old Time Radio stations! Eclectic stations that reached deep into the catalogs of everything from classic rock to jam bands to truly alternative music from the 80s. It was absolutely glorious, and I couldn’t believe that we ever listened to radio any other way. We all thought that it was too good to be true.
Last year, when XM merged with Sirius, we found out that it was too good to be true. Most of the stations I loved on XM, if they stayed on the air after the merger at all, became as repetitive and pedestrian as the ones that drove me away from FM radio so many years ago. It seemed like the programming departments (with a few notable exceptions - the decades remain great, and XMU and XM Chill seem to have been left alone) made the inexplicably stupid decision to simply recreate the unsatisfying FM radio experience that drove so many of us to become XM and Sirius subscribers in the first place. The talk stations are all the same, the DJs are interesting and many of them provide great nostalgic value, but radio is ultimately about listening to music, and what’s the point of paying for satellite, if it doesn’t offer anything substantially different from what we already get with our basic radios?
I recently wrote that years of listening to Pandora and using social news sites like Reddit had conditioned me to expect a greater amount of control over the information and entertainment that I consume. Being able to train a service to give me more of what I want and less of what I don’t isn’t a luxury; it’s a requirement.
One afternoon last December, after hearing “Eyes Without A Face” for the third time in five hours on a station that used to play great New Wave music, I looked at my radio and I said, “I wish I could train you like Pandora, so you’d stop playing this crap I can’t stand and play more of the music I like. What happened to you, man? You used to be cool!”
My iPod, sitting unused on the passenger seat, said, “hey, I’m right here, you know. I have all your favorite music, all ready to go.”
“That’s not the point, iPod,” I said. “I want radio. I grew up with radio. I’ve listened to radio my whole life. Radio is important to me, and you, iPod, are no radio!”
“I also don’t play a lot of music you don’t like, tough guy,” my iPod said, nonplussed.
“Touché,” I said. “Now, let’s stop talking before the people around me think I’m nuts.”
“They already think you’re nuts. You have a bumper sticker on your car that says ‘There’s no place like 127.0.0.1’. You frighten and confuse them. They’ve probably called the police already. Hey, speaking of The Police...”
That’s when I put my iPod into the glove box, kids.
As fate would have it, there was a Woot Off that day, and one of the items offered was the Slacker portable media player. I’d heard of it before, but I hadn’t paid especially close attention to it; after all, I had XM and my iPod. Why did I need something else? What did the Slacker portable media player offer that I didn’t have already? Well, after a bit of research I determined that, distilled to its most fundamental essence, the Slacker is like Pandora-on-the-go. It combines a web-based music player with a portable music player where all your ratings and custom stations are synchronized. I decided to take a chance, and bought one for myself.
Two months and hundreds of listening hours later, I can tell you that, just like my first encounter with satellite, I can’t believe that I ever listened to radio any other way.
Like Pandora, Jango, and other web-based music services, there are a ton of pre-programmed stations to choose from and tweak to your liking, but where Slacker really shines is in the creation of totally customized stations that you continue to modify and optimize whether you’re on the go or at your desk. For example, two of my favorite stations on XM were Fred and Ethel. Fred was an 80s alternative channel, and Ethel was a modern rock channel. I was also a huge fan of Top Tracks, a classic rock station, and Big Tracks, its 80s arena rock cousin. Right up until the Sirius merger, all of these stations were awesome, but whatever uniqueness they once had is nearly gone. With the Slacker player, I have recreated all the XM stations I loved and miss. As a bonus, I’ve been able to explicitly tell all of my stations to exclude certain bands I just can’t stand - Linkin Park and The Eagles, I’m looking in your direction, and hopefully never hearing you again.
In addition to the basic “I love this” and “I hate this” options, Slacker lets you add and ban specific artists (“No, Slacker, I do not want to hear ABC on my Skinny Puppy station, but you go right ahead and put them on my 80s pop station.”) and tell the Mysterious Hivemind if you want older songs, newer songs, or a mix of both, as well as whether it should mix in new artists it thinks you’ll like, and play mainstream hits or more obscure “fringe” releases. I built a “fringe” station that only plays older music, built off Bauhaus and Joy Division, and titled it “Dark Entries.” It is awesome.
If you’re interested, you don’t have to invest anything other than some time, because the basic web player is free at Slacker.com. But since this is a gadget blog, I’m going to get specific about the portable player, which I absolutely love.
I have the most basic model, and I’m very happy with it, but the new G2 looks pretty cool. Once you own a portable, Slacker offers free and subscription listening experiences. The free version plays one 60-second commercial and allows up to 6 skips in an hour, while a basic subscription renders your listening experience commercial-free with unlimited skips and the ability to request specific songs. There’s a super duper premium subscription option that allows you to save songs you like and replay them as often as you want, but that seems a little excessive to me. I have the free version, but if my commute was longer than 21 feet, I’d probably want at least a basic subscription to get more skips per hour.
The player doesn’t actually use an antenna like a traditional or radio. It’s more like an MP3 player that lets you refresh your stations whenever you connect to a wireless network, as often as you like. Once connected, the Slacker server will take into account your ratings, and adjust the new music it sends to your player accordingly. It can take some time to train new stations, but all of mine seem to have learned very quickly, and the genre-based pre-built stations aren’t bad at all, and you can add and remove stations from the web player as often as you want. While you’re listening, you can see what’s coming up next, and navigate to screens that display album art, extensive liner notes, or band bios. This is much cooler and useful than it sounds, especially if you grew up listening to DJs like Rodney Bingenheimer or Uncle Joe Benson, who really knew their music history.
So is it worth buying a Slacker portable media player? Well, kids, it’s not going to replace your iPod, but if you still want to have a radio experience where you can exert a tremendous amount of control over what you listen to, or you want to discover new music within certain genres, my answer is an unqualified “yes.” And if you want to relive those horrifying days we called “the nineties,” where radio inevitably disappointed us and played whatever, there’s probably a Jack FM station dangerously close to you.
--Wil Wheaton
Wil Wheaton’s latest book, Sunken Treasure, can be yours as a DRM-free PDF for just five bucks.
MeiLin Miranda on February 26, 2009 at 10:47 AM
But here's the sad part, Wil, about the death of terrestrial, local radio: DJs, the good ones, the ones who know the music and know their area, and are passionate about both. For a good DJ, I'm willing to put up with commercials. But they're not allowed to be good any more; they're not even there any more. Most of the voices you hear on the radio are "voice tracked" out of a city many hundreds of miles from wherever you are--wherever you are. Maybe I'm biased as a former radio person, but this makes me unutterably sad.
Wil on February 26, 2009 at 11:25 AM
I totally agree with you, MeiLin. One of the other factors that drove me away from terrestrial radio was the loss of my favorite DJs and the rise of voice tracking.
Flap Jackson on February 26, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Glad to have you on board! Slacker has been one of the best listening experience I've ever had, and it's introduced me to so much!
Hank on February 26, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Been using Slacker for about a year now and can't ever go back to Satrad! Spread the word about Slacker!
U of T Dude on February 26, 2009 at 12:13 PM
I got excited reading your article and then got even more excited when I went to the Slacker website, my dreams of getting back a Pandora-like service were almost in my han...oh, only available in the United States...why must there be so much discrimination against Canada? Is it because of the Leafs? We hate them as much as you do, though!
Hank on February 26, 2009 at 01:12 PM
No it is because Canadian quarters look like ours and we get pissed when we have to put quarters in a vending machine and find out we can't use them becuase they are Canadian! So take that!! LOL
John on February 26, 2009 at 01:22 PM
Wil, I think you meant to say that your iPod was *not* nonplussed.
Great review of what sounds like a cool gadget, too!
Twirrim on February 26, 2009 at 01:22 PM
MeiLin, I'm in agreement. In the UK the BBC has had the option to give their DJs slack, and on some stations have done so. A particular gem amongst them all is 6music: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/
Tom Robinson's daily evening shows were an absolute delight, a DJ who loves stuff from pretty much every category of music, knows both the genre and the people involved and comes across as "a nice guy", not pretentious, loud or arrogant, just a normal bloke.
A local radio station actually promises "52 minute" music hours, and it gets lots of listeners as a consequence. 8 mins of adverts an hour is absolute bliss :)
It seems so strange that everyone I've spoken to about radio has the same complaints, repetitive songs, irritating DJs and so on and yet commercial radio stations haven't really taken major steps to address these.
Paul on February 26, 2009 at 01:25 PM
Wil, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed the very depressing change in satellite radio since the merger. My wife and I have been complaining about the sudden influx of DJs onto the stations, talking to us as if we give a damn about them. Play the songs already! It used to be the whole selling point of XM that there was so much music and I wasn't paying a monthly fee for someone's "personality." I don't mind it so much on the decade stations, it actually fits there, which was really the only place XM used to indulge in it, but now it's everywhere (XMU, as you say, being a notable exception) and the playlists are clearly shrinking. I knew I'd reached a turning point recently when I read the article about businesses that may not be around in a year and XM/Sirius was one of them and I found I really didn't care.
I hadn't head about the Slacker, so thank you. You may have given me the final reason to cancel my satellite subscription.
Kirk on February 26, 2009 at 01:55 PM
I think there is something missing after "whatever some" in your last sentence. Otherwise, I enjoyed your review.
Silicon Shaman on February 26, 2009 at 05:08 PM
Portable music, plays your personal radio wherever you... yeah, not so much actually.
The service is only available in the USA. Again, welcome to Planet America, where the rest of the world does not exist.
Sucks. Big time.
ryaninc on February 26, 2009 at 08:42 PM
Slacker completely rocks. My wife and I both have G1s and use them all the time...in the car, around the house, etc. I has XM for years but canceled recently and I wonder why I didn't check out Slacker sooner. It's awesome. :-)
Moondogger on February 26, 2009 at 08:52 PM
A great article. I enjoyed it. Just one slight correction. I "was" a huge fan of the XM decades channels. In particular XM5 and XM6. Since the merger you can wade through the absolute depths of their playlist without getting your ankles wet. I actually canceled my subscription before I found Slacker. For the most part I have been able to re-create the music of XM5 and XM6 plus some really good jazz and country stations.
Scott on February 26, 2009 at 09:11 PM
Nice review Wil. I'm a big, big fan of the web based Slacker service, it's all but replaced any of the others that I used to use, especially since Yahoo killed of my Launch stations.
One of my favorite features also is that the ratings are specific to a particular station. Having that level of customization is awesome indeed, especially with a bit of time invested in them. I'm mostly creating my one "master station" but I've tinkered with some more genre specific ones as well.
I don't have one of the players yet as my listening time away from my laptop is limited, but I'd like to pick one up eventually.
Care to share your favorite station?
SB
Cannonball Jones on February 27, 2009 at 03:00 AM
Bah, only available in the US so I can't check it out. Have to stick with LastFM for the time being I guess.
Wil, speaking of Dark Entries have you heard the Revolting Cocks version of that song on their Cocked And Loaded album? It's a lot of fun :-) Dark Entries was one of the first songs my first band in high school learned to play, always good to hear folk twisting it up a little bit (or a lot...)
Sammy on February 27, 2009 at 07:37 AM
In Canada, CBC's Radio 2 fills all my commuting needs essentially commercial free. Both in the morning and in the evening, they've got great music and great DJ's.
I'm not sure whether it is a new development as I've only been listening to Radio 2 for about 6 months, however, my previously held opinion that Radio 2 was only an old man radio station (ie. classical music 24/7) has been shattered. If you're looking for great commercial free music, I'd try Radio 2 before investing in another service.
Bill Lefler on February 27, 2009 at 08:49 AM
Pandora on a 3G iPhone works just great.
Decibel! on February 27, 2009 at 10:02 AM
GAH!!! Seriously folks, say it with me:
127.0.0.1 IS NOT HOME! IT'S localhost!
Other than that, great review. Though, Slacker still saddens me a bit, as a good friend of mine owned that domain since like 1994 when he finally caved in and sold it to Slacker. A tiny, ugly piece of me secretly wants them to fail so I can have decibel@slacker.com back.
David on February 27, 2009 at 10:04 AM
Another approach to music discovery is 'social music recommendation' based on the psychological perception of music. Our new service Music Patterns (http://www.signalpatterns.com/music_survey) provides customized playlists based on music that 'People Like You' actually listen to.
Using a psychology-based approach to music preferences, this method combines your individual preferences with identifying those that are similar to your 'music personality.'
This new form of social music recommendation was developed from years of research in this area by best selling author Dr. Dan Levitin and our team at Signal Patterns.
Randy (DrGaellon) on February 27, 2009 at 10:12 AM
I actually miss the morning DJ on XM On Broadway. The playlist hasn't shrunk any, but that's because of the sheer mass of showtunes out there.
Chris on February 27, 2009 at 10:45 AM
How about this - TURN OFF THE DARN RADIO AN ACTUALLY THINK!!!!!
Wow, original thought. Oh, I guess you don;t have an original thought because you are afraid to actually be alone with your thoughts.
Paul on February 27, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Chris is right, because it's been scientifically proven that people are incapable of ever being inspired by, you know, music. All of the great innovations throughout history have all come from people trapped in sensory deprivation tanks. It's true, look it up!
hank on February 27, 2009 at 02:25 PM
sorry david there are no other people like me so i don't care what anyone else is listening to.
gene on February 27, 2009 at 08:00 PM
Wil - Great review. I just picked up a G2 this week and canceled my XM. It's a great product. I would encourage anyone who is disappointed with the XM/Sirius merger to check it out.
Thanks for spreading the word!
MikeV on February 27, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Don't forget that there are Slacker mobile apps for your Blackberry and iPhone/iPod Touch as well! The Blackberry app even allows caching stations similar to how Slacker's own portable devices work! I axed my XM in October, a couple weeks before the channel lineups "merged", if you can call it that. I called it destruction, personally. The great thing about Slacker is that once you get your stations sounding just like you want them, you do NO WORK (other than refreshing your portable) to enjoy new music all the time! You CAN be a Slacker about your music, and still enjoy it too!!