When comparing cmd.fm vs Slacker Radio, the Slant community recommends Slacker Radio for most people. In the question“What are the best music streaming services?” Slacker Radio is ranked 12th while cmd.fm is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose Slacker Radio is:
Actual human beings take time to decide what should be played, and on what stations. Sometimes people curating these stations are professional DJs who have experience in curating music content. This makes the music streaming service feel much more organic.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy music discovery
Just type in the command to play a particular genre you are interested in and it will play that style of music randomly. This allows for a way that you can discover new music you may not be familiar with.
Pro Fun terminal-like interface
Using a terminal interface as the front end of the player is quite the unique twist for a music player on the web. It can be fun for those that are/aren't familiar with such an interface due to how original and easy it is.
Pro Fast interactivity
A fast music service geared towards terminal users. The premise being, that you input specific "terminal" commands to listen to particular genres or artists. This can be a quick way of finding and playing music for those familiar with a terminal interface.
Pro Curated music streaming service
Actual human beings take time to decide what should be played, and on what stations. Sometimes people curating these stations are professional DJs who have experience in curating music content. This makes the music streaming service feel much more organic.
Pro Large music library
Offering such a large library ensures there is enough music of different kinds to appeal to anyone.
Pro Algorithmically generated stations
Stations are created based on an artist, album or track. Slacker then recommends tracks to the user who can either upvote or downvote them, and Slacker will follow suit and recommend tracks considering how the user voted.
Pro Low cost subscription
There's a mid-tier subscription of only $3.99 and a full subscription of $9.99
Pro Works on a large number of platforms
Web, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry are all platforms that Slacker will work on.
Pro Streams for free on T-Mobile
Pro Allows downloading stations locally
Easily save music for offline use by downloading the tracks that you enjoy.
Cons
Con Limited genres
For the available genres the user can pick from, there are only so many listed. Any more fine grained controls of being able to play genres not listed is not supported. This means the eclectic and more niche genres can only be played by directly selecting the bands that play that style of music.
Con Only uses the Soundcloud music streaming service
There is no way to get other licensed music, you can only play what is available on the Soundcloud music streaming service.
Con UI is too focused on social media
About half of the UI wastes space on social media info posted by Slacker Radio hosts and DJs. Basically advertisements (but different from their regular advertisements), but in a social media setting.
Con Rather intrusive ads
While it's understandable that the free tier will have ads, between video, audio and banners, they can be quite intrusive.
