Slacker officially launches Slacker Premium, brings on-demand music for $9.99 per month

Slacker has launched their long awaited Premium Radio subscription service, which brings the available account levels up to three. Moving forward those looking to Slacker can choose between the free account, the Radio Plus account for $4.99 per month or the Premium Radio account for $9.99 per month.

The launch of the Slacker Premium Radio service comes with an updated app for iOS, Android and the BlackBerry, which means that those who sign up for and/or upgrade to the Premium service will get on-demand listening with off-life support on any of those devices.

In terms of features, Slacker Premium Radio offers everything that Radio Plus users get which includes the ability to skip an unlimited amount of songs, cache stations for offline playback, news radio, complete song lyrics and no ads. In addition, the Premium Radio users will be able to play songs, albums and artists on-demand and more. The full list of Premium Radio features include;

• Search, play and replay specific songs or entire albums
• Create specific playlists on mobile and on the web
• Off-line playback of stations, playlists and albums on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry smartphones
• Replay specific songs on programmed and custom stations
• Browse and play “Favorite” songs, now collected in one location
• Unlimited song skipping
• Ad-free listening
• Complete song lyrics
• Browse Top Charts on all Slacker genre stations
• “Peek Ahead” artist, album and song preview
• Ability to skip forward and backward

Via [Slacker on Facebook]

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

Slacker Radio Launches Slacker Premium with On-Demand Access to Slacker Music Library

SAN DIEGO – May, 17 2011 – Slacker, Inc. today launched Slacker Premium Radio,
a new tier of service that provides music lovers with on-demand access to the Slacker music library including individual songs, albums, top charts, station playlists, single- artist radio stations and more. Slacker Premium takes the power, functionality and music discovery that Slacker Radio provides and combines it with the flexibility of integrated on-demand access for a new tier of service that provides the best of all worlds. Slacker Premium is available today on the web, and as new applications for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry smartphones. The new applications deliver features for all listeners, including free listeners, subscribers to Slacker Radio Plus and now subscribers to Slacker Premium Radio.

With the launch of Slacker Premium Radio, Slacker becomes the first music service to deliver three complementary tiers. From the entirely free Slacker Basic Radio service, to the ad-free and feature-rich Slacker Radio Plus and now on-demand access with Slacker Premium Radio, Slacker meets the needs of all music fans. Whether listeners prefer a superior free personal radio experience or the power of a fully-loaded music subscription service, Slacker is the only offering to provide the full suite of options.

Slacker Premium Radio enables listeners to search, play and replay specific songs and entire albums from the Slacker library, which features over 8 million songs, as well as easy access to top songs and artists from each of the 150+ expert-programmed Slacker genre stations. Listeners also have the ability to create specific playlists both on mobile and on the web, and even experience off-line playback through the ability to cache stations, playlists and entire albums.

A new Slacker station creator provides all listeners the ability to quickly and easily create multi-artist stations, with custom fine-tuning features for the perfect radio experience. All Slacker listeners also have the ability to create a radio experience ranging from stations based on a single artist to stations created by entering hundreds of hand-picked artists. In addition, Slacker Premium listeners can create and enjoy stations that will only play songs from a single chosen artist or band.

In addition to the ability to search the entire Slacker catalog, the new Slacker Premium Radio service gives listeners more ways to browse stations than ever before, allowing an even deeper music discovery experience. Listeners can now browse expert hand- programmed genre stations to search and play top artists, view and play top songs and albums, allowing behind the scenes access to the “Top 50″ charts for every station. The Slacker Premium Radio interface also includes all-new artist pages, featuring the artist biography, all songs by the artist, discography and related artists in addition to displaying on which Slacker stations each artist is programmed, for the ultimate artist access.

“Up until this point there has been an array of ‘Internet radio’ and ‘on-demand’
services with much debate about which is better from a content, experience and
technology perspective,” said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president of marketing
at Slacker. “Slacker Premium Radio provides music lovers with the best of both. We
believe the combination of a world class radio service providing music discovery up front with on-demand access to any song and entire albums is the winning combo.”

Slacker Radio offers a fully customizable and personal online radio experience that
includes the most varied and compelling range of content offered by any Internet radio service. The Slacker Radio experience includes over 150 expert-programmed music stations, ABC news, comedy, custom artist-hosted showcase stations and leading music festival stations along with personalized ESPN Sports content integration coming soon. With a music catalog that is over ten times larger than the leading radio competitor, Slacker Radio gives listeners the ultimate music discovery resource.

Slacker Premium Radio:
• Search, play and replay specific songs or entire albums
• Create specific playlists on mobile and on the web
• Off-line playback of stations, playlists and albums on the iPad, iPhone and iPod
touch, Android and BlackBerry smartphones
• Replay specific songs on programmed and custom stations
• Browse and play “Favorite” songs, now collected in one location
• Unlimited song skipping
• Ad-free listening
• Complete song lyrics†
• Browse Top Charts on all Slacker genre stations
• “Peek Ahead” artist, album and song preview
• Ability to skip forward and backward