One of the things that always amazes me is that services I use every day like Slacker, Pandora, and Hulu are not available to outside the US. Slacker tried to at least extend their service to Canada but it was not free and had a 30 day trial… that is until today. Slacker has announced that their basic music streaming service is now free for an unlimited number of songs in Canada. That includes their BlackBerry app!
For once its is nice to see a media app work hard to extend beyond the US. Until now Nobex Radio has been the only one doing so and they now have some nice company with Slacker joining them in Canada.
Full press release below or simply check out the new free service at www.slacker.com. Now if only we could get Slacker to get a move on their 4.0 version with music on demand.
Unlimited Free Slacker Radio Now Available in Canada
Canadian Music Fans Can Now Enjoy Unlimited Free Slacker Personal Radio
LAS VEGAS – January 6, 2011 – Slacker, Inc. today announced the expansion of its free unlimited Basic Radio service to all Canadian listeners. Initially offered as a 30-day trial, Slacker Basic Radio is now available for free indefinitely offering Canadian music fans all the benefits of Slacker Personal Radio. The Slacker music experience is available on the web at www.Slacker.com and as a free app for leading smartphones including: iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm webOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7.
Slacker Radio provides Canadian music lovers with the ability to create their own personal radio stations or listen to and personalize more than 80 expert-programmed genre stations, including select stations programmed by Canadian DJs such as Today’s Hits, to provide a uniquely Canadian perspective. Users can also read artist bios and album reviews, while viewing artist images and album art. The Slacker music experience includes station fine-tuning, enabling listeners to choose between hearing newer vs. classic tracks and popular vs. fringe songs. The Fine Tune feature also allows listeners to adjust the frequency that favorite songs play as well as the amount of artist discovery on custom stations. In addition to marking songs as favorites, listeners can also ban songs and artists or make their own stations with their favorite artists to create a truly personalized radio experience.
Canadian users now have unlimited access to free Slacker Basic Radio with the option to upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus. Slacker Radio Plus features all the same great benefits of Slacker Basic Radio along with station caching for supported mobile devices, ad-free listening, complete song lyrics, unlimited song skipping, song requests and more. Station caching enables mobile listeners to store their personal stations on selected smartphones for listening anywhere, anytime, uninterrupted and without incurring data charges while playing.
“Turning Canada on to personal radio earlier this year was a giant milestone and the ability to expand the free Slacker Radio experience beyond the 30-day trial period is another exciting step forward,” said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president of marketing at Slacker. “Whether it’s from the web or a smartphone, Slacker takes the work out of listening to your favorite music and discovering new artists wherever you want.”
Slacker Personal Radio is the first and only personal radio service available for Canadian listeners. Slacker has agreements in place with key content owners providing listeners in Canada with a deep catalog of music for expert-curated Slacker genre stations as well as the ability for listeners to create their own custom stations.
Slacker Basic Radio:
• Create custom stations based on artists or songs
• No monthly listening limits
• High-quality stereo playback from any available wireless connection
• Over 80 professionally programmed and customizable genre stations
• View artist biographies and photos
• View album art and reviews
• Pause and skip songs
• Rate songs as favorites
• Ban songs and artists
Slacker Radio Plus
• Cache stations to leading smartphones and listen even without a wireless network
• Unlimited song skipping
• Ad-free listening
• Complete song lyrics*
• Unlimited song requests for creating stations
• “Peek Ahead” artist and album preview
• ABC News station and headline news updates for any station
Pricing and Availability
Slacker Basic Radio is available for free on the web and as a free download for leading smartphones. Look for the Slacker application in popular mobile application stores or visit www.Slacker.com from your mobile browser to be directed to the free download. Slacker Radio Plus is available for as low as CAD$3.99 per month. For additional details, please visit www.Slacker.com.
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