DISQUS

last100: Mossberg reviews delayed-again Slacker Personal Radio, finds bugs

  • Decklane · 2 years ago
    Not for $199 to $299 just for the device that's for sure. I mostly like the radio concept because of talk radio, or the commentary on the jazz track that was just selected by a knowledgeable person. I turn off my own personal music and flip to radio to get some sort of personal touch not to listen to a 'Digital DJ'.
  • Hank Williams · 2 years ago
    "Are there really that many people who want to take a passive role in the music they listen to?"

    The stats on this are pretty clear. People listen to radio. Music radio. Terrestrial music radio. Internet radio, In big numbers. In fact the stats are also clear that after people buy iPods and the initial honeymoon wears off, people listen to it far less because of playlist fatigue. Most people are too busy to keep playlists fresh. They need help with music discovery. Your argument would suggest that you think Pandora, Last.fm, etc are all a bad idea. Do you really think all those pandora and last.fm users are imaginary or dying off or something? All this does is make the experience portable.
  • Daniel Langendorf · 1 year ago
    @ Decklane

    Nice insight into why you tune into the radio. I used to do that too, but the jazz around here is horrible, and unless you like pop punk and candyland radio, there are no knowledgeable DJs. Our public radio station gave up music for talk years ago.

    @Hank Williams

    I'm glad you responded. I hoped people would. You note about people needing help discovering new music is important. That's what I use Pandora and Last.fm for. In fact, I've bought quite a bit of music after hearing it played on Pandora. And for that reason, I like the portable idea, but I also like the intelligence behind what is being played. As @Decklane says, he listens to the radio to hear a knowledgeable person, not a Digital DJ. Pandora's Digital DJ are hundreds of volunteers who break down each song based on the music, its style, and so on. I feel better knowing that there is some reasoning and logic behind what's being played -- even if I don't agree with it -- than some algorithm spitting out what it thinks I want to hear based on some basic criteria I provide.