The lazy music lover’s solution

Slacker Radio for iOS is your answer for streaming curated playlists for free right on your iOS device. Note, you must register with the Slacker Radio web service to access all available content.

Curated playlists

Slacker Radio is a web service that gives you ready-made playlists, or ‘Stations’, for a ton of different genres and sub-genres of music. The Slacker Radio for Android app lets you easily search artists or stations with the search bar at the top of the screen. The variety of stations and catalogue of artists is extensive. You can choose from hundreds of already-created playlists by accessing ‘Stations’ from the home screen and add artists to your own custom station by using the search function at the top of the screen. 

Aside from music, you can also stream talk radio from ABC and six different live ESPN stations. 

You can Bookmark, Share or Add an artist to a custom station, but are limited in creating your own playlists unless you upgrade to a paid subscription. A cool function allows you to see which playlist a particular artist or song is featured on when you search for it. 

Simple yet effective

The Slacker Radio app for iOS is simple and easy to navigate without any add-ons or apps that could make things overwhelming. The large scrolling header images give you suggestions for popular or trending playlists, while the bottom bar will take you back to your current or most recently played playlist. Just above the bottom bar, next to ‘My Music’, are your three most recently played stations.

Clicking on ‘My Music’ will show you ‘Recently Played’, ‘My Stations’ and ‘Favorite Songs’, while the ‘My Vibe’ section gives you suggested playlists for the current day and mood. 

Unlike rival app Spotify but similar to Pandora Radio, you don’t have to have a paid subscription to stream Slacker Radio on your iOS device, but you do need a paid subscription to stream music commercial free, create your own playlists, and download music onto your device so that you can listen in offline mode. Streaming, of course, depends on your connection speed, but we found it to be good during our test.

Hassle free music on the go

Slacker Radio is a great alternative if you want a huge catalogue of ready-made playlists for free on your iOS device (it’s not called Slacker Radio for nothing), but its limited to paid upgrades if you want to avoid adds and create your own playlists.