Official Slacker Forums

[crimpshrine]

I see the list continues on artist being dropped from being cached/saved. Led Zeppelin is missing from my porbable now! They are also missing from my library too. Keeps getting better everyday Slacker!

[ljb6599]

?

[AnitaBath]

Kashmir played last night on station FOX Fringe - Dr. Walter Bishop Radio on my G1. But it's probably been cached in there from last week.

So I just now created a Led Zeppelin station and sent it to the G1. And the first song it plays is Immigrant Song.

[deathopie]

I see AC/DC is still not available. My kids love the song "TNT" (one of their teachers had it as a ringtone), so I added it to a station I made for them and favorited it. It's never played on the portable. I did hear it on the web player though.

[ljb6599]

deathopie....Get used to it .You may never hear AC/DC.Whomever is in charge of the rights related to their music mke it very difficult to hear their music on portabe devices.Basically I believe that many of these people are just rigid and uninformed.Slacker is a radio service.You can never hear complete albums just random songs like FM radio.There is no reason that these people shoud be concerned.In fact it could help them to sell more of their albums.Somehow they believe their music is going to be stolen.The old days of Napster are still embedded in their memory centers.

[BillD3818]

I hear Zeppelin all the time on my G2..

Just heard Stairway to Heaven yesterday

[crimpshrine]

I bet the next time you refresh your portable you won't. The only song available now is "Immigrant Song". Believe me, I had almost all of their songs saved on my portable and now they are gone. It won't even let me playback the saved ones I have in my library anymore.

[AnitaBath]

The only song available now is "Immigrant Song".

This is true. I listened to about 100 songs today (on my Zep station) and Immigrant Song played three times. No other Zep!

[sphere79]

Out of curiosity I listened to the Classic Rock station on my G1 (which since the last license debacle had been playing alot of Zep) and I skipped a bunch of tracks. I was on the third Doors song and still no Zep. So I loaded "Led Zeppelin" on my device and boom - first song, "Immigrant Song". The problem is, the only other Zeppelin song I heard after skipping a bit was - "Immigrant Song".

On a good note, someone had previously complained that Chinese Democracy was no longer on the cached devices - my wife heard the title track and then I heard "Better" so it's back. I think almost all the album tunes were request-able so they may finally have the whole thing too.

Pink Floyd is still dismal though. I noticed the actual Slacker Classic Rock station playing some older pre-Dark Side Floyd now as they have recently secured some cached licensing for that. Other than the old stuff it's pretty much just songs from Wish You Were Here over and over. No Wall, Dark Side, Animals, Final Cut, etc. I did notice I now hear Roger Waters and David Gilmour live versions of Floyd tunes (which previously went away) on occasion.

I want to see more caching Slacker-capable hardware available, as I'm concerned without new devices there'll be little incentive to keep up on licensing. I'll say it again - the caching ability is what sets Slacker apart. Phase it out or let it fall behind too much and I'll go somewhere else for music.

[Pop1967]

Somehow they believe their music is going to be stolen.

Yeah, maybe someone can explain to me why it's perceived that music would be more easily stolen on a portable device than when streaming to a PC.

If a song is going to get stolen, what's the more likely scenario: A person makes a copy of a streaming song using a PC-based tool that does something like record off the sound card (eg TotalRecorder), or a person records off the portable device via a cable connected from the headphone jack to a PC or some other recording device.

I know that people more savvy than me about licensing have come up with some reasons, but I don't get it.

[sphere79]

It's because the licensing is treated like an Amazon MP3 store "download" when cached compared to a "live" stream which is treated as a "broadcast".

I know the RIAA mafia and the labels suck to deal with. But I don't agree with simply blaming things on the artists when it's not played on Slacker Radio - in many cases the artists are not the "rights holders" so it's completely out of their hands. The other Slacker issue is simple disclosure, which I still don't think has been properly done. Last I checked (it could be gone now) you could still demo a "virtual" G2 that would play Zeppelin and Floyd 'till the cows came home - but then after buying the device find it's a completely different experience. Does that seem right in any way? I'm sure buried in the legalese somewhere they cover their butts - but it should have been very clearly displayed on the demo page and on ALL Slacker caching devices literature and marketing materials.

Bottom line - I do like Slacker. But in a ideal world, as a consumer I'd would like to see Pandora or other services offer cached playback. That's the best outcome for remedying the licensing problems, imo. If Slacker won't pay or negotiate and someone else is willing to, it's a win-win for us. Even if you stay with Slacker, there'll be a higher likely-hood that they'll stay on the licensing if there's competition.

[ljb6599]

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[Pop1967]

Cure for dinosaur rock withdraw.Add some of your own MP3 music files from these artists i.e. Led Zeppelin,Pink Floyd,The Beatles, Metallica,AC/DC,etc to your portable.Listen some when you are experiencing withdraw symptoms then go back to your Slacker stations and enjoy the music.

Care to recommend some warm-blooded small mammal rock?

[crimpshrine]

I guess you will need to listen to other music for awhile.Hopefully there are other bands that you like.These dinosaur acts can be very frustrating.They just simply do not want to march into the 21st century.Other acts I would include in this category would include The Beatles,Bob Seeger,AC/DC and Metalica.I am sure their are many others.Try to more diverse as to what you listen to on your portable device.I think you will enjoy your listening experience more.Slacker staff have explained this situation on this forum many times over.I think they do the best they can in getting music to the portable devices.I know you probably will not like my suggestion but this is what this forum is for.

I would understand if the artist never made the music available before but it's been on the portable for a long time now. Why take it away now? In this case I don't think it's the artist but Slacker not wanting to pay the $.

I pay Slacker for premium service and it seems more and more artists have been disappearing from the portable. If this keeps up, it won't be worth paying for anymore! I'm just trying to figure out if they are trying to kill the G2 off slowly?

I'm not saying there isn't music on the portable that I enjoy but it seems the more I pay, the more gets taken away? After awhile you would feel ripped off, wouldn't you? If I was a free customer I wouldn't be complaining about this, but since I do pay I feel I should at least keep what I have had all along? /rant over

[MikeV]

I'm just trying to figure out if they are trying to kill the G2 off slowly?

I wouldn't think so, because if it doesn't play on the G2, it also doesn't play on a Blackberry with a cached station. It'll play streaming on a Blackberry, but if a station has been cached on the Blackberry, it only plays from the cached music.