Feb. 14, 2013, Bloomberg announced that Slacker Inc. will be completely overhauling the Slacker Music App to compete with the likes of Pandora and Spotify.
The company behind the app Slacker Inc, has had their fingers in the Internet music and radio business for the past six years. Their mobile app, Slacker Radio never caught on with the public. In turn, the entire company and its leaders have made little to no money.
Slacker Inc, will not go quietly into the night without a fight. They announced a completely new mobile application, redesigned main website, and an almost $6 million dollar ad campaign to tantalize the loyalists of Pandora and Spotify to their service.
It will be extremely tough for Slacker Radio to make a new name for themselves in a crowded space with deeply established listeners. Slacker Inc, has stated the new service will have ten times the amount of songs as Pandora and contain content from Disney, ESPN, and ABC.
Pandora Radio makes its profits from 90 percent of ad sales, while Slacker Radio focuses only on paid subscriptions to their service. Slacker Radio receives two-thirds of their profits from this paid model. They invested heavily in consumer research to determine what it would take for a monthly subscription price to get customers to switch to Slacker Radio. CEO of Slacker Inc. Jim Cady stated the following on the newly revamped Slacker Radio experience:
The company sells a monthly $3.99 ad-free service that includes unlimited song-skipping, and a $9.99 package that makes any song or album offered by Slacker available on demand. Cady said more than 500,000 of Slacker’s 4 million active users are paying subscribers."
Slacker's new website and music app will focus on making the user experience more simple and easy to find songs and locate stations to play. Slacker has a long road ahead and a tough fight to win. With their easy to use website, app, and clever ad campaign; they may re-establish their place in the digital music realm alongside Pandora and Spotify.
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