Slacker Radio now playing on Android phones

Slacker Radio on the Motorola Droid.

(Credit: Slacker Radio)

It's been about a month since we got a peek at the first generation of the for the Android platform. We liked what we saw. On Thursday, other Android users can also cast their own vote about Slacker Radio 1.0 for Android by downloading it for free from the Market application on their Android smartphone.

Like Slacker Radio on other mobile platforms--and also similar to other streaming radio and music discovery apps like Pandora and Last.fm--the app lets you stream music from pre-programmed genres and stations, or from stations you set up yourself online. You'll be able to view album art and bios, block a song or vote it a favorite, and skip ahead--this is limited in the free version and limitless in the premium upgrade. Like what you hear? You can share a link to that station on SlackerRadio.com via e-mail, SMS, or MMS via .

Upgrading to the premium Radio Plus subscription service brings you song lyrics in addition to those unlimited skips and no ads.

While the upcoming version will more or less mirror this Android build, Slacker Radio on Android makes one feature unique--the Now Playing home screen widget that shows you what's playing now. The widget, which you install by giving the home screen a long press and selecting Slacker Radio from the Widgets list, is embedded with pause, skip, favorite, and blocking controls. However, it currently lacks the capability to change stations.

Motorola Droid owners can also grab Slacker Radio in the Verizon channel of the Android Market. Slacker Radio has optimized the Android app for the Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris, HTC G1, and HTC MyTouch.

Note: Last.fm and CNET share a parent company, CBS.

Correction: Updated 11/6 at 8:25 am. You can share a link to a station from Slacker Radio for Android, not a link to a particular song.

[johnny--99]

Does Slacker for Android cache the music on the player like Slacker for Blackberry does?

[mhite--2008]

Seriously, then really need to add the caching to all the mobile platforms, not just Blackberry...

[atgrammer]

This doesn't cashe? I understand that iPhone doesn't want Slacker competing with iTunes but I don't get why this once wouldn't cashe.

[avalchfan]

It's caching for me on my Moto Droid from Verizon. 30 sec into song and entire 5:31 of song is cached.

Works great for me!

[avalchfan]

Forgot to mention this is the free version. I haven't upgraded yet..

[signal7svr]

No, it's not using the cache feature that the Blackberries have. It buffers like crazy, but no cache. I just bought a Samsung Moment, and I'm having a lot of skipping and freezing. Too bad, cuz I was just about to spring for the paid version.