Slacker Personal Radio

[The Invisible Guest]

A buddy of mine brought this website to my attention. You can basically create your own personal radio station/playlist with a few clicks. It can either be artist based, or genre based. Overall this thing is pretty cool, and the price is right (free). It's got a huge database of bands to draw from as well .. basically anything you can throw at it .. it's got.

http://www.slacker.com/

 

[Jasonic]

Wow, there is a Novembers Doom station!

Gets 2 thumbs up from me!

 

[The Invisible Guest]

There's some limitations and stuff, but for some decent internet radio listening it's pretty cool.

Britt

 

[Jasonic]

Yeah, like you can only skip past 6 songs I noticed.

This reminds me of the YAHOO Music Site, called www.launch.com.

The problem there is that almost every metal band's stations has a bunch of metalcore and nu metal tossed in, so I click off after an hour.

So far, it seems the related artists in each station are fairly relevant.

This will be perfect for work!

 

[BlackRoseMetalHeart]

Not bad.

I prefer the Last.fm "create your own station" player since it bases what it chooses to play on what you normally listen to anyway in your normal listening software (iTunes, WMP, etc.). You can also browse for stations of your favorite artists, but those stations are a mix of things that the software considers "similar" based on tags and what other bands the users who listen to that band also listen to. Only problem with Last.fm is that I can't download the player to use it hear at work, but when I'm looking for new music when I'm surfing the web from home it's a great resource. I guess this one will do for while I'm at work, although I've been getting pretty good at sneaking in a few metal CDs here and there to upload to my work PC's hard drive.

Oh, and Jason, from my experience, Last.fm is pretty good about not mixing in the metalcore and nu metal with the "real meta" , but if you find that they throw something your way that you dislike/hate you have the option to "ban" the selected artist from your listening stations.

 

[Jasonic]

I am currently playing the PENTAGRAM station.
Here is what was played so far:
"Ice Monkey" by Saint Vitus
"Broken Vows" by Pentagram
"Jack Frost" by Saint Vitus
"Scorpionica" by Orange Goblin
"Dragonaut" by Sleep
"Mind - Food" by Saint Vitus
"Black Dwarf" by Candlemass
"I Bleed Black" by Saint Vitus
"Mr. Haze" by Witchcraft
"Voodoo Fire" by Cathedral
"Day of Reckoning" by Pentagram
"19 Witches" by Monster Magnet
"Gothic" by Paradise Lost
"Quincy the Pig Boy" by Orange Goblin
"Sear Me MCMXCIII" by My Dying Bride

All good stuff. The only stinker was Monster Magnet.
I never heard Paradise Lost. This track was really impressive, though I hear they went down the toilet.

Orange Goblin rocks hard! I always thought they were just generic stoner.

I am sure if I sign up, I can create stations, etc.

I like how you simply input an artist, and it plays random tracks related to that artist.

BlackRose - Ha! That would be cool to "BAN" artists.

 

[BlackRoseMetalHeart]

OK, this player just pissed me off.

Now Playing: Iron Maiden - Aces High
Album listed: The Essential Iron Maiden

Although they are a few rare exceptions, songs never come from a "Greatest Hits" or "Best of" compilation. They come from studio or live albums. If they are not even going to bother putting in the correct original album (Powerslave) for a song, why even bother playing it. :Smug:

(And wasn't "the Essential Iron Maiden" a label thing, something that wasn't even really endorsed or encouraged by the band? I could be wrong, but I thought I heard that somewhere.)

 

[BlackRoseMetalHeart]

BlackRose - Ha! That would be cool to "BAN" artists.

I think you can do that on this "Slacker" player too. It's the button next to the heart/love button.

 

[Jasonic]

I will try that next time I am on.
Yeah, I have seen that on LAUNCH too, where the song comes from a non-studio album release (IE - a Soundtrack, Greatest Hits, etc).

I wonder if the site does a quick internet search from the wave file, and wherever the track pops up first is what is used as the album?

Or, do fans actually create the stations?

 

[Saladbar]

OK, this player just pissed me off.

Now Playing: Iron Maiden - Aces High
Album listed: The Essential Iron Maiden

Although they are a few rare exceptions, songs never come from a "Greatest Hits" or "Best of" compilation. They come from studio or live albums. If they are not even going to bother putting in the correct original album (Powerslave) for a song, why even bother playing it. :Smug:

(And wasn't "the Essential Iron Maiden" a label thing, something that wasn't even really endorsed or encouraged by the band? I could be wrong, but I thought I heard that somewhere.)

One thing I noticed on lastfm is that everytime I play a live album it shows the cover of the studio album for that particular song. Like when I play "Death" - Live in L.A. and as soon as "The Philosopher" comes on, my page shows the cover of "Individual Thought Patterns". Weird.

 

[BalanceofPower]

www.pandora.com is another great personal radio station site.