Ok so I am new to listening to “radio” online. I first started with Pandora a few weeks ago, and the sound quality was great for a free service. I was not so crazy about the 6 skips per hour rule and a total of 12 a day, so I inquired as to how many skips I would get if I upgraded to Pandora One, still 6 per hour, but no daily limit… I decided that is still not worth a paid subscription.

Last night I learned of Slacker which guess what, NO SKIP LIMIT if you get a subscription which I was more than willing to do, BUT when I downloaded it to my MyTouch the sound was horrible. It sounds muffled, too much bass perhaps? AND while it states it can run in the background so I can continue to use my phone to check email, browse the internet, etc. it did not. It closes when I try to get to my home screen to do something else.

If Slacker would fix its sound quality and re-design their web interface which I think is way too “loud” then it will get a new paid user, but until then I will be staying with Pandora. Pandora I am sure people would pay more than $36 a year if they could have unlimited skips. Now I now Pandora state this is because of their licensing agreement, well they need to negotiate a new one because this one is not working, its crippling the service and I believe it is holding it back. I also think they should offer a month to month sub. Some students, college, etc. just cant shell out $36 all at one point, but broken down to a month to month would be something they could do and not feel like they are tossing their money they need to eat with, away. So to summarize:

Pandora the Good

1. Sound quality is superb on mobile (I am using a mytouch3g)
2. Clean web interface.
3. Good phone app

Pandora the Bad

1. 6 skips per hour, needs to be changed, its just not enough.
2. No month to month subscription option.

Pandora in the middle

1. The desktop client is ok, but still not the best.

Slacker the Good

1. Unlimited skips with paid sub.
2. Month to month sub.
3. The desktop app is small, cute, and really nice looking. A++ for this one.

Slacker the Bad

1. Sound is bad on mobile (at least on MyTouch3G)
2. Web interface is way to “loud” paid or not.

So for now as I said, Pandora will remain on my phone and be used, Slacker will remain on my phone just to see when a update is available to see if any of the issues I mentioned are addressed, which with mobile the only issue is the sound quality.