Slacker, AOL Team Up to Revamp AOL Radio, Make Big Bucks

Jeffrey L. Wilson - PC Magazine

Slacker Radio will power a revamped AOL Radio, the two companies announced Tuesday.

The new AOL Radio will offer an enhanced streaming Internet radio experience with fewer ads, new personalization features, and premium subscription offerings. It will deliver three product tiers that should ring famaliar to Slacker Radio users: a free, ad-supported AOL Radio service, an ad-free, feature-rich service, and on-demand premium subscription service.

AOL Music will continue to host AOL's 250 programmed, original music stations, as well as additional new Slacker programming like ESPN Radio and ABC News Radio.

"Slacker Radio is the perfect partner to significantly increase the quality of our offerings," Lisa Namerow, head of AOL Radio, said in a statement. "By combining AOL Radio's reach with the success of Slacker in mobile, we are increasing the distribution of our brands and further identifying AOL Radio as a leader in delivering superior radio experiences."

"Both companies bring unique content and functionality to this new partnership," said Jim Cady, CEO of Slacker. "Aligning our strengths will enable us to expand our reach to greater opportunities across multiple platforms. We are thrilled to work with AOL Radio to continue to improve how music lovers experience radio."

AOL's partnership with Slacker will let music lovers create personalized radio stations, save favorite songs and stations, read album reviews, access artist biographies, review station histories, increase song skipping capabilities and more, depending on the tier of service selected. The partnership allows Slacker to expand its reach to a new audience, and allow both companies to develop new advertising opportunities for mutual clients as well as integrate AOL Music's original editorial voice across all its services.

When the new AOL Radio launches, Slacker will lead advertising sales within the player, enabling AOL to package a portion of the inventory for premium AOL Music integrated sponsorships.

The new AOL Radio and its iPhone app will relaunch in late summer. Android and other platform launches are expected to follow shortly afterward.