Description of App
Slacker Radio is all about reconnecting you with what makes radio great. Our team of curators have built hundreds of stations that will deliver the hits,
surprise you, and keep you completely looped in to what's happening in the worlds of music, news and entertainment. Our hosts will keep you company along
the way, including guest-commentators ranging from John Legend to Tyler Oakley to Florida Georgia Line.
While we start with an expert team of curators who create exceptional stations, the final music flow is dictated by the songs and artists that you "heart"
and "ban." This interactivity even extends into news and sports programming from ABC, ESPN and more.
Listen free for as long as you like or upgrade to a Slacker subscription for ad-free listening, unlimited song skips, offline play and on-demand access
to your favorite songs, albums and artists.
Slacker Radio…radio that listens to you.
Comments
Button Labels
Version 3.8
Reports of major problems with version 4
This has just been updated and there's been a complete overhaul of its interface (which always sets off alarms bells for us VoiceOver users).
I don't have access to the app here in the UK, but I'm hearing reports that it now has major accessibility issues and that VoiceOver users are being warned not to update!
Can anybody confirm that this is the case?
The app is not accessible any
Ouch!
Slacker Radio latest update makes it inaccessible
New version is pretty broken
V 3.8.45
Charles, read!
A Better Reply
Version 4.0.163
Your voice was heard! Thank you to all of you and to the team of Slacker. As you will now notice one of the things they have fixed are the Voice Over accessibility functionality. It is a great start for them but there are still more that they can do. We still have a few unlabel button in and around various places. Mostly in the Play mode.
So keep letting Slacker know that we appreciate their effort and love to see this even more accessible!
What's New in Version 4.0.163
This build addresses several issues with the previous version and adds the following new functionality:
-Improved accessibility with VoiceOver
-Reintroduction of "Ban Artist" on the flip side of the Now Playing cover art.
It works Again
Version 4.0.163! Much improved!
Slacker Radio
That did it!
latest slacker
fine tuning Slacker station
Accessibility Issues with IOS 7
Slacker Somewhat Working
Hmmm. I'm not sure if I'm not
It works Again
Version 5.0.244
Airplay
Hello, I am running Slacker on an iPhone 5s with the latest iOS and the latest Slacker version. I am wondering if Slacker is useable with Airplay? I can't seem to find an Airplay button when the music is playing. Thanks.
WARNING: Slacker Subscribers
If you have not done so, do not update your Slacker app. In the past couple of days, Slacker has released two updates. Their developers, in their wisdom, have broken it once again. IT is virtually impossible to scroll and find music you want to listen to. Also, finding the refresh buttons for the album content have become much harder. There are also several buttons that do not register when you double tap on them. I guess Slacker subscribes to the motto of the 2010s, "if it ain't broke, break it!"
I must apologize
I must apologize for my extremely negative post above regarding Slacker's accessibility. However, there are certain apps that bother me more when said accessibility is broken. This app happens to be one of them. It's not an excuse just an explanation as to why the comments above are so harsh.
Disappointing
I have a love-hate relationship with this app. I love it because of the amount of music available to me. I also appreciate the fact that I can cache music on my phone and avoid high charges for using so much data. However, I hate (or at least, am strongly disgruntled by) the developers' tendency to break this app from time to time. I never know whether to update or not, and tend to be unlucky enough to either hit Update or have the IPhone set to automatically update my apps when this one undergoes a visual makeover which ends up making the app a challenge to use.
More frustrating than caching songs, though, is my inability to Fine Tune the stations I create. I can move the sliders for Related Artists, Favorite Songs, etc, but I don't know where the button is located to save my changes. This makes that part of the experience difficult. I will ask for some sighted assistance next time I am in proximity of a sighted colleague and provide some insights.
If there is an app that has a music caching feature that doesn't require me to pick out the individual songs and albums, and some way to fully customize stations, I would certainly love to hear about it.
Frustrating
I too have a love hate relationship with Slacker. I love being able to listen to random music, but also most full albums on demand with the paid service. I have discovered a lot of new music this way. the variety and lack of constant repeats is also a welcome difference.
I have once again E-mailed the developers to let them know about the VoiceOver problems. They did reply, and pretty much stated that yes, they are aware of the lack of accessibility in this version. Accessibility wasn't part of the initial release of this new interface update, but would be added again later.
This approach is quite frustrating. I love the service, and am even willing to pay for the premium version. They know about accessibility because I and other users have reported problems in the past. The past few major versions of Slacker have all majorly broken accessibility, but thankfully have eventually fixed most issues. You'd think, after having to go back and consistently fix problems after each update, they would finally learn and include at least a base level of accessibility in a new interface update. They are obviously quite aware that VO users like and use their app.
Devs are aware of the accessibility issues, and will hopefully release a fix in the near future. I really, really want to love Slacker, but with each version breaking VO support, I'm tempted to drop my premium subscription.
I went back to Rhapsody
It's not perfect, and I do like Slacker better ... when it works ... but I went back to Rhapsody. The plus for Rhapsody is that they have a totally accessible player for Windows. Of course, the downside is that they don't have a Mac app, and their iOS app is clunky at best. It's annoying to have to keep jumping back and forth between these two.
How to Fine Tune A Station
As promised, I took some time to explore the Fine Tune feature with sighted assistance. While the station is playing, if you double tap that button labeled "icon elip", you can then get to the Fine Tune button. At this point, you'll need to double tap then hold when you're at the particular slider(s) you want to manipulate. Then you will need to slide your finger across the screen as VO lets you know the approximate percentage. Slacker doesn't give you the ability to change one to a random percentage (e.g. 28% popularity), so it will end up going to one of Slacker's pre-determined intervals. Once you are done fiddling with the sliders in this fashion, you'll need to find Fine Tune. It's located towards the very top of the screen (about where the clock, battery display, and signal bars normally are), on the right half of the display. You'll need to double tap and hold on Fine Tune, then swipe right and release. You will then end up back at the Now Playing screen showing the title of the track currently playing, Heart, Dislike, and Next buttons. If all went according to plan, you will have saved your changes and your station will be more to your liking.
I hope this helps anyone still holding out hope for this app.