1/3/2024 0 Comments Start slacker radio![]() Other music services that rely on handpicked djs or editorial staff, though not direct competitors, include 955 Dreams, Groovebug and Dubset. I'd like to think that human curation can be a strong selling point but I wonder how much expertise is discounted in an environment in which music suggestions seem to emanate from all directions. Slacker's willingness to fund a staff of djs is a strong differentiator from other streaming music services at a time when competition is intense. Riggs is at the heart of Slacker's efforts, overseeing a group of contract DJs who build their stations' playlists from scratch and continually fine-tune them." "Although Slacker has struggled over the years to find the right business model, it has not deviated from its DJ-centric approach, believing that the way to people's ears - and wallets - is to offer music curated by experts in dozens of genres and sub-genres. "As director of music programming at…Slacker Inc., Riggs oversees about 70 DJs who select most of the songs played on the company's 150 stations, including genres as varied as trance, hip-hop, gospel and swing…" Mudd said Slacker is backed with $13.5 million in funding and employs around 50 full-time employees.Music curation is taking on many forms and Slacker was recently profiled in the LA Times including some thoughts on the power of djs vs algorithms for programming choices. Jonathan Sasse, vice president of marketing, is the former chief executive of iriver America, another media device maker. ![]() Slacker's president is Jim Cady, former chief executive at Rio, a digital media player maker. Mudd was previously chief executive of Musicmatch, an online music company which was sold to Yahoo in 2004. Slacker's founders have a strong pedigree in the digital music industry. It said it also agreed terms, but not signed deals yet, with Warner Music Group. Slacker said it has signed music licensing deals with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and hundreds of independent labels, and has around 2 million tracks at launch. "I expect that we'll be competing with several people but not directly because we're creating a new category," said Mudd. The company also plans to offer in-car digital radios with the Slacker Satellite Car Kit. ![]() Personalized radio online allows users to customize music based on similar artists and genres, and has been made popular by other start-ups including Last.fm and Pandora, as well as Yahoo Launch. "This is going to be the first personalized radio that's really portable," he said. Chief Executive Dennis Mudd said in an interview on Friday. "The hardware player is critical," Slacker Inc. The device will also be able to play MP3 and WMA audio files, and MPEG and Windows Media video formats, to compete in an increasingly crowded digital music player market that includes offerings by mobile phone makers. Stations are loaded via Wi-Fi wireless Internet connection. Slacker, which has the backing of three of the four biggest music companies and hundreds of independent labels, also launched its own Internet radio stations atįans can customize radio stations using their computer and listen to them on Slacker Portable Radio Players, which will retail from around $149 starting this summer. The new gadget, by a San Diego-based start-up of the same name, aims to compete with Apple's iPod and in-car digital radios offered by XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
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