Slacker.com: NEW Satellite radio service coming

[Kieran]

Now this should worry XM/Sirius/NAB/CRTC/etc

Check out www.slacker.com

It is an on-line radio service that is just about to introduce a satellite radio service using unused channels of Ku satellites. At the moment you can sign up for free to listen on-line. To sign up, you will require a US ZIP code (14092) and an e-mail address. They do list a portable player and car kit under the products section but these are not yet available. Since it is using the Ku band, I would expect the car antenna to be larger than XM/Sirius?

[Danster]

I've been listening to it for the past 2 days now and this is what I think of it:

The major difference it seems is that the music is streamed like if you were listening to your MP3 collection from your computer. The sound is very nice, the choice of songs are well balanced.

One very nice feature is that you can skip any song at least 6 times in an hour per station. So if you skip 6 songs on the 60's channel, you won't be able to do so again on that channel for an other hour. Go to the 70's channel and you will be able to do so.

As far as XM and Sirius being afraid, I doubt this channel will fly for long. The quality of the sond is very high (at least through my computer 5.1 sound system) and I wouldn't be surprised if the RIAA will step in and shoot it down pretty quickly.

I'll be listening to it for as long as it will be free and alive!!

Danster

[Walter Dnes]

Originally Posted by Kieran

It is an on-line radio service that is just about to introduce a satellite radio service using unused channels of Ku satellites.

This is what SIRI and XM should've been doing all along.

• SatTV companies amortize the cost of satellites to carry hundreds of channels on half a gigahertz or more of bandwidth, and charge their customers up to a couple of hundred dollars a month for full service
• SatRadio companies have to put up a similar constellation of satellites, at a similar cost for hardware and launch and orbital control. They get to broadcast 12.5 megahertz of audio channels and charge their customers at most $12.95 per subscription.

Then people wonder why satellite radio is losing money hand over fist. If Galaxie and MaxTrax are smart, they'll set up an American subsidiary, and distribute their service via American cablecos and SatTV outfits after satellite radio finally implodes.

[Wharfe]

Nobody should be scared of this, the music isn't great, especially the dance channels.

Rock categories are bad, no channel names.. no big deal. Not interested at all

[classicsat]

There are alruady a couple "digital music" channels serving the US market. Galaxie or Maxtrax doesn't need to compete with them at this time, nor take the place of an imploded mobile satellite radio service or two. Not to mention several online music/audio streaming servcies.