Hands On With Slacker’s G2
I got a wonderful package in the mail a couple of days ago. It was a Slacker G2, and indeed it lives up to the high standards we have come to expect from a service such as Slacker. The G2 is small, light, intuitive, and best of all carries a great selection of songs without me having to download all of them.
For audiophiles, Slacker is a great solution. The concept and service sit in a niche between satellite radio and MP3 player. The stations refresh according to your style and taste, which allows for new music discovery, yet at the same time you can build your music library with the simple press of a button.
Slacker bills itself as the solution for connoisseurs of music, and with the new G2 this is perhaps an understatement. Slacker subscriptions are reasonably priced anywhere from FREE to $10 per month. The free service has commercials. The premium service is only $7.50 per month if you subscribe on an annual plan.
The Slacker G2 has won a spot on my dashboard, and will be a constant companion on flights. While I love satellite radio, there are times when I just want to jam to tunes with the ability to fast forward.
You can see a full review of the Slacker G2 at Slacker Active.
I would think that as fans of satellite, we would be talking highly of the new XMp3 versus competition.
I guess this is what it has come to.
i was thinking the same thing Getit. If anything post it in the boards not on the main page.
I love Slacker, and support their efforts. I will be reviewing the XMP3 in due time.
Slacker understands the value of marketing their hardware by letting sites such as this do a review on their products.
Sirius, XM, and now Sirius XM do not seem to grasp this concept. I love satellite, but am not about to buy each and every player that comes out.
Tyler, I can understand you wanting to give something a decent review in light of receiving a free product from them but isn’t there anywhere else you could post this, i.e. seeking alpha or the boards as dave suggested?
Tyler,
huh???? This look familiar?
SiriusBuzz
SIRIUS XM SATELLITE RADIO NEWS
So what, are you “teaching SiriusXM a lesson” because they won’t give you one of their products to review? I don’t get your reply, nor your reason for putting that as a headline to your site. Doesn’t seem particularly well thought out.
SiriusBuzz
SIRIUS XM SATELLITE RADIO NEWS
Maybe change your name to ImGivingUpOnSiriusBuzz?
Maybe Sirius will come up with their own type of slacker service.
I have written and spoken about Slacker many times. It is a service that I have embraced and use. It is a service that many satellite radio customers use.
I did the full review on Slacker Active. This article linked there.
My review of the product is not influenced by the fact that they sent a player.
I will be reviewing the XMP3 player shortly. It is being sent by TSS-Radio, and I will be returning the unit after the review.
The point is that even a demo unit that is returned would be fine by me. I want to do reviews on all of the products, but this site simply can not go out and buy them all.
Every review I have ever done on a Sirius or XM product has never been supplied by Siriuys or XM.
I wish satellite radio would do some of the things Slacker has done. If they did, they would be better than they are.
There is no “lesson” I can teach Sirius XM. they do things their own way, and that is life. Slacker, Logitech, Ultimate ears understand the value in getting reviews from grass roots sites such as this.
If you guys can not handle a review of a GOOD PRODUCT that walks in a similar circle as Sirius XM, then I would suggest that you not visit the site.
I write about HD Radio, terrestrial radio, satellite radio, iPhones, zunes, and other products as well. Why all of the hostility towards Slacker.
Thanks Tyler. Painful as it may be, smart investors need to know about the competition.
I like to know Sirius’ enemies. Hopefully so does Sirius.
Ha . . . this is exactly what Mel Karmazin needs . . . a good swift kick in the pants. Bravo Tyler!
It would appear that Sirius XM has the same utter disdain for its customers as it does for its shareholders; oops, oh yeah, I forget . . . most of the customers ARE shareholders; that explains it.
What a complete debacle the management of this company is . . Bill Gates could run it better out of his parents garage!!
Mel . . . it’s called GOODWILL Mel! GOODWILL!!!
It pays for itself Mel . . . that’s the general idea Mel.
For the love of God get someone in this company that understands marketing, advertising and promotion!!
PLEASE . . . ooh-fah what a disaster
Even though all of the comments here seem to be about the writer and the choice of topics, I’ll step in and say that the Slacker service is awesome and I have also been loving my Slacker G2 since I got it at Best Buy last weekend.
Tons of free music, and it gets better the more I listen. I’m a music guy that doesn’t care for talk radio so Slacker is unbeatable.
I can understand both sides of the argument.
SiriusBuzz.com, Sirius XM Satellite Radio News, is the Site’s Marquis. Articles such as this and the recent Political Cartoon might raise questions as to the sites true mission and future direction. Defining that mission is not the reader’s responsibility, but the site’s Founders. Being a “Free” site, I can choose to follow the advice that Tyler articulated so well above: visit, or not.
If the article were presented more in line with a comparative to Satellite radio’s product offerings, then maybe it still falls within the bounds of why I come here: to look for news on satellite radio and its competitors and how that effects Sirius’ Stock Price.
On the other side I can see why the sights founders are looking for news to stay relevant. The company has really offered nothing in recent weeks, and simply talking about the Stock’s Price is what we readers do enough for everyone.
Sirius XM Radio, the manufacturers of sat rad products, and retailers should take a lesson from the people at Slacker and Market their products better. Make them available for review and critical evaluation. We all know they can use the feedback and exposure.
With the company’s recent decline in Stock Price and dramatic increase in investor dissatisfaction, I can only imagine how difficult it is for Tyler, Brandon, Charles, and the other contributing authors of articles, (that’s you Newman), to keep the site vital. So why don’t everyone take a deep breath and read about what the competition has to offer, while we wait for more relevant news from the Company (SiriusXM).
cos1000. Well said.
Tyler,
You still invested?
Evolution of SiriusBuzz
SiriusBuzz was established as a place for SIRI stockholders to get information and news about their company. It has grown and, along with SiriusBuzz Radio, has evolved into a commercial venture.
So, what’s the problem?
We still have the forums as the means to get our news, information, and release our tensions thru discussion. We haven’t lost anything!
Perhaps some controversy could have been avoided if Tyler had put that cartoon in the Political Forum, which they created just for that purpose.
On the other hand, if Tyler and Charles can make a few bucks in exchange for the time they put into this site and the radio show, that’s OK with me.
Keysmark
yeah like Mels reading SiriusBuzz
Mel should read SiriusBuzz.
I’m all for Tyler posting whatever it is he wants since after all it is his site but a non-sirius/xm product being promoted is just one more thing working against us. It’s getting harder and harder to be a bull on this thing with all of the competition out there.
The reality is if you aren’t a fan of the proprietary shows sirius/xm have on them such as stern or oprah you can get most of the stuff utilizing other services.
And my one big pro of satellite radio is being able to get a signal wherever I am but even this is proving to not be such an advantage anymore with all of the cellphone towers around. I can get 100’s of radio stations through my phone for free nowadays.
So… we should bury all the facts about competition? We posted XM news before the companies were merged and no one complained. I am not sure what the change of heart is here.
The reality is people should know about the competition and related products. There has been a “competitors” category section here for years.
No. Not bury them. In some ways knowing everything about your competition is important. My point is if you’re Microsoft, you don’t go around promoting apple. They are your biggest competition and the more you hype the good things about the competition the more likely you are to lose your own customers.
The most successful companies out there always promote/hype their own strengths and never play down their weaknesses or build up others strenths.
Do you feel differently Charles?
Dave
You might be surprised. The folks at sirius XM are very active readers of the site.
I agree that it would insane for Sirius to start promoting slacker on their website and the day Sirius does start to promote Slacker I will be right there next to you giving them hell.
Okay. I get it now.