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Slacker, Inc. today announced it has entered into agreements with top music publishers, including EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner/Chappell Music. The new deals give Slacker the content rights to enable Personal Radio that can be played everywhere on Slacker Portable Radio Players.
With these publishing license agreements, Slacker users can transfer songs from the Slacker service and store the music on Slacker Portables giving listeners the best on-the-go personal radio experience available today. The agreements, completed prior to the availability of Slacker Portables, also enable Slacker Premium Service customers to save songs and replay them whenever they want. "By working with the publishers, we can offer a radio experience that is more personalized and -- for the first time -- completely portable," said Dennis Mudd, CEO of Slacker. "These new partnerships give Slacker customers the freedom to customize personal radio stations to their style and take them wherever they go." Slacker Personal Radio enables listeners to create, edit and share their own stations or personalize over 100 professionally programmed stations. Slacker listeners also have easy access to artist profiles, album reviews and cover art within the Slacker Web Player, Software Player and on the Slacker Portable. Personalization options include rating songs or artists, playing more popular vs. more eclectic music and listening to newer vs. classic songs. "As publishers, we must continue to be flexible and open to new business models and find creative solutions to license them," said David Renzer, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group. "Credit to Slacker for making sure they secured the proper rights before launching and we look forward to distributing royalty checks from Slacker to our UMPG songwriters." "People who love music want to discover new artists, listen to their favorites and take their songs with them wherever they go," said Roger Faxon, EMI Music Publishing Chairman and CEO. "Slacker's Personal Radio service is a promising distribution channel that fulfils a clear consumer demand, and that has to be good for our songwriters and for the industry as a whole." "The multi-tiered format of this new digital service creates a potentially rewarding user experience," said Martin Bandier, Chairman and CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. "We are happy to agree to license a business where our writers get paid, and move the industry forward in legal song streaming and delivery in the digital space." Dave Johnson, CEO of Warner/Chappell Music added: "Today's music delivery options are evolving rapidly and interactive Internet radio services have the potential to be a promising new business. Slacker's personalized service provides the kind of interactivity and portability that consumers demand and it offers an ideal platform for us to distribute our talented roster of artists, songwriters and producers." Slacker Basic Radio is free to use on Slacker Software and Slacker Portables, while Slacker Premium Radio is available at $7.50 per month with an annual subscription. Last year, Slacker signed deals with all the major record labels and thousands of independent labels to give Slacker listeners access to a deep catalog of music. In March 2007, Slacker launched the free Basic Radio service and in November 2007, Slacker Portables and Premium Service were announced.
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