May 20, 2011: Yesterday at the Radio Ink Convergence gathering in San Jose, Slacker CEO Jim Cady revealed some impressive numbers about his company that many people may not have previously known. Refusing to use the "P-word" during his 45-minute keynote presentation, Cady laid out details about the Slacker model that differentiate his company from Pandora. And, throughout, he consistently stated Slacker is not a playlist, but more of a radio station.
Cady said Slacker is about "curation and personalization." The company has 68 program directors, radio people, and their job is to create stations. Cady said the advangtage the programmers have with Slacker is, "They have no rules, just build the best radio station for the consumer. They are measured and monitored by how many people listen."
Slacker, which doesn't get as much attention as Pandora, has some pretty impressive numbers: According to Cady, Slacker has 26 million listeners and 8.5 million songs in its library, and licensing deals with all the major labels. Slacker captures 65 million pieces of data every day from the consumer and serves 1,400 songs every second, and Slacker programmers have curated 150 stations.
Cady said he spends the majority of his time talking to consumers; he's on the phone every day talking about the Slacker experience. He also said he rarely speaks at conventions, preferring to stay under the radar. In fact, he said he doesn't read any blogs or pay attention to whether Slacker is radio or others are radio -- that doesn't matter to him. "We believe priorities are changing," Cady said. "Location-based services are going to be the norm. The new radio should be able to give people more control of what they have."
(5/21/2011 9:40:34 PM)
I have been quite impressed so far. Iv only had two stream issues and that was when my Mobil was switching between WiFi n 3g in the city. Otherwise I'm very pleased with the option to block an artist or song. As well as caching stations so you can listen w/o streaming all day n killing your battery.
It's only been a week, so so far I haven't heard the same songs twice (like every radio station out there). But time will tell.
(5/20/2011 3:41:56 PM)
Hmmm...I've used and paid for Slacker for several years now for music. Now I not only can stream according to my tastes, but can download whole stations and albums for cached listening. Kind of a podcast for music.
Short of Podcasting, is traditional radio even trying to innovate?
Programmers does not a radio station make. If people simply wanted music that they liked, they would build playlists in their ipods and radio would be dead. But yet radio listenership still thrives...must be something more than just playing the right music in the right order.
(5/20/2011 7:38:43 AM)
Slacker may have 26 million listeners today but needs to realize that the number is dynamic and people are fickled.
These is just another fad that will go that will disappear like broadcast.com.
(5/20/2011 6:39:31 AM)
How many listeners does HD Radio have, and I don't mean over translators. LOL!
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