I know, I know: "Slacker" really doesn't sound like an app that will work for you, but if you like your radio personalized, Slacker beats the technological pants off a personalized radio app like Pandora. I didn't hear about Slacker until a friend of a friend showed me the (gasp) Android app and gushed on and on about how great the app was. After wading my way out of that situation, I decided to give it a try.
Pandora, then my ONLY P.Radio app, was nice to start out with, but the premise of "Radio, your way" was lost on the task of having to work to personalize your "stations". C'mon, now: when I ask them to play "Come Fly With Me" by Frank Sinatra, I want a station that'll play Frank's bouncing tunes, along with other bouncy, fun, fast-paced music; something that Pandora promised. Pandora promised an amazing listening experience where your stations would be tailored to your likes and dislikes. They only didn't tell you that you had to sit in front of your computer (or iPod/iPhone) for hours/days/months liking and disliking artists and songs in order to play the songs you want. (By the way, it took me 4 months for my "Come Fly With Me" station to be tailored well enough to listen to)
Slacker promised something different, and I took the bait. I was NOT disappointed. Slacker delighted me as soon as I loaded the app when I found out that they have a "Comedy" station, and that I could get my Jackie Mason/Mel Brooks/Don Rickles fix wherever, whenever. Also, they had stations and substations for convenient quick listening, like "Christian", "Christian Rock", "Gospel", and more. Want to create your own station? Enter the artist or song you want, and Slacker creates the station to match, with scary accuracy. Entering "Frank Sinatra" led me to a station that would play The Chairman every third song, with favorites like Nat King Cole and Judy Garland playing in between. Need to change some settings or even tailor the station further? No problem. The settings page of each channel will allow the listener to tailor the station even further by specifying such things as "play count" or "frequency", "type of station (more indie music, familiar music, more popular music)" and other things. The biggest surprise of the app, not to mention one that I haven't tried out yet, is the caching of stations for offline listening. Caching is allowed for the first two weeks on the free plan, after which you must pay $10 a month for that and other features.
In the end, I love Slacker, and will continue to use it. Because who wants to sit there and tailor radio to fit you when you can let someone else do the work? That's what I call slacking.
