Is Slacker the New Pandora?

Slacker isn’t slacking anymore. The digital streaming service Slacker is making an attempt to lose it’s “slacker” image. With a new redesign, Slacker hopes to have a chance to win over new followers.  The music service has been on the market for six years now but has a significantly smaller market share than the similar service, Pandora.  While Pandora has approximately 65 million users, Slacker only has a measly 4 million by comparison. With their redesign, Slacker intends to change those numbers.

One of the major changes is how they provide songs to the user. According to Slacker, they will not be using algorithms to choose their songs.  Instead, Slacker staffers will hand pick song choices. No longer will songs be auto-selected from an artists library.  Slacker’s new system revolves around the idea that by having people hand select songs for the user, they will be able to provide more personalization in accordance with user preferences.

Another huge selling feature for Slacker is the sheer quantity of available music content. Slacker has Pandora beat with 10 times as many songs available. As part of the redesign, Slacker also updated its user interface.  The new design has a fresh, modern look with easy to navigate features and clean aesthetic.

Other new feature that are sure to please include the ability for the user to to add in other selected media beyond music.  Users can choose from a selection of news channels, sports and talk radio. The slacker app is available for iOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows Phones.

Slacker is still free if you don’t mind listening to ads.  If you prefer and ad free experience, you can subscribe to Slacker Radio Plus for a small fee of $3.99 a month.   The premium on-demand Slacker experience is priced at $9.99.  The new look and features may be exactly what Slacker needed to pull in a greater share of the digital streaming market.

[Image via abcnews.go]