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
- Sound quality is superb on mobile (I am using a mytouch3g)
- Clean web interface.
- Good phone app
Pandora the Bad
- 6 skips per hour, needs to be changed, its just not enough.
- No month to month subscription option.
Pandora in the middle
- The desktop client is ok, but still not the best.
Slacker the Good
- Unlimited skips with paid sub.
- Month to month sub.
- The desktop app is small, cute, and really nice looking. A++ for this one.
Slacker the Bad
- Sound is bad on mobile (at least on MyTouch3G)
- 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.