Slacker confusion?

It goes to the song channel and will play "similar" songs. Sometimes the song you choose is the first in the list, sometimes it isn't.
It's certainly not the Any Song, Any Time that Elon talked about, but it's close. When this happens to me, I just keep hitting "next song" until the song I chose originally plays

If you ask for 'Lucid Dreams' by Franz Ferdinand it will come up second (or not at all). It really depends on the song, and/or how recently you had it play.

GDH said:

I love slacker, I like the fact that it plays similar songs after the one that you requested.

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That's a different thing that what the OP is saying. He's saying he never gets the song he requested, which is what occurs when Slacker doesn't have the rights to play that song. Instead of getting the song you requested and then songs like it, it skips right to playing songs like it.

Elon is not exactly being accurate when he describes Slacker functionality in Model S. He makes it sound like you simply speak the song and artist into the voice command and it will automatically play the song. Nope, not even close. You speak into the voice command, then you are given a huge list of possibilities from which to choose, requiring you to take your eyes away from the road and inspect the song list on the 17" touchscreen, requiring you to physically touch one of the entries before any playback begins.

Also, how do you get a playlist of specific songs? I don't see a way to do that.

I think there is a lot of confusion about what slacker is. It is not a "jukebox in the sky". It exists under the broadcast radio regime. As such, it has to follow a set of rules about how frequently a given artist's work is played. You can't have a "playlist" because they aren't allowed to tell you what's going to play before it is played (you might record it, gasp!). There are lots of other rules that I happily disremember from a former life. Layer on top of that the fact that they may not have the rights or actual track you requested and it gets messy. This is all debris from how the music industry failed to understand the internet. That wholly unsatisfying experience , in turn, gave rise to the Napsters of the world which caused the music industry to crash and burn.

tliving said:

Right thats odd. It showed me the song, I picked it, it started to play something else. I can't see how thats anything but broken.

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They don't have the rights to play that song. What would you have them do, get sued over it?

Sometimes, they're bound by license agreements that limit the number of times a song can be played to a particular # of audience members. I recall the days when Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" was a hot song -- you'd ask Model S to play it and occasionally, it might be first but more often than not you got similar songs until you fast-forwarded about 10-20 songs, then it would play when a slot would open for you.

Now, it'll play it directly.

I have found that some songs are not in the slacker system, or do not come up even when searched. However, with your case, the right artist may not be playing because you are requesting from an album, not a specific song.

I think there are several threads discussing these topics but I ultimately talked to ownership about this as I found it confusing too. In addition, the,interfaces and features between iPhone, iPad, PC, tesla are all fairly different. I eventually sprung for the premium version which actually does allow me to request a specific band, album or song and get consistent results. Initially this was great but I did find that I missed having essentially customized radio stations the way it used to work. There doesn't appear to be an easy way to switch between the explicit mode and the similar songs mode - at least not with the car. There seem to be opts for this on the PC and in the apps but I'm still trying to get to know these features. I thi ultimately I'll create a few "custom stations" for types of music I typically listen to and then in the car I can use these along with specific requests.
I have to admit, I've really taken to slacker despite occasional bouts of confusion and I find myself using this more than most other sources.

tliving said:

How about tell me they can't play the song?

And while we're at it, if I ask for a specific song, don't play other junk after it that you guess I may like, I never do.

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It sounds like the main problem is that you have a fundamental misunderstanding about what Slacker is. Slacker is radio, and like all radio, you're not guaranteed to hear the song you want. Slacker generates a custom radio station for you based on the style of the song or artist you select, and in the case of a song, tries to play that first before moving on to similar music.

What you want is Spotify or Rdio support, which I thoroughly agree with, but Slacker is not that.

Gizmotoy said:

It sounds like the main problem is that you have a fundamental misunderstanding about what Slacker is. Slacker is radio, and like all radio, you're not guaranteed to hear the song you want. Slacker generates a custom radio station for you based on the style of the song or artist you select, and in the case of a song, tries to play that first before moving on to similar music.

What you want is Spotify or Rdio support, which I thoroughly agree with, but Slacker is not that.

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To be clear, If you pay for the Premium Service you can mostly get exactly which songs, albums and artists you want. There are still a few artists where you can't get specific songs, notably if you ask for the Beatles you will get a 60's medley; however, in many other cases you can ask for a specific album and it will play that specific album song by song. I realize now, that I really liked the station approach in cases where I want to listen to a certain genre or type of music and I can't just specify an album or artist to do this. It appears that using the computer I might be able to vary the settings but it would be nice if the Tesla interface supported the ability to request either a specific album or songs "like" that album. Another example that doesn't work is Pink Floyd. If I ask for this artist I get a small selection of songs that are either tributes to PF or previously unreleased tracks. Presumably they don't have any rights to the real PF catalog.

gpetti said:

To be clear, If you pay for the Premium Service you can mostly get exactly which songs, albums and artists you want. There are still a few artists where you can't get specific songs, notably if you ask for the Beatles you will get a 60's medley; however, in many other cases you can ask for a specific album and it will play that specific album song by song. I realize now, that I really liked the station approach in cases where I want to listen to a certain genre or type of music and I can't just specify an album or artist to do this. It appears that using the computer I might be able to vary the settings but it would be nice if the Tesla interface supported the ability to request either a specific album or songs "like" that album. Another example that doesn't work is Pink Floyd. If I ask for this artist I get a small selection of songs that are either tributes to PF or previously unreleased tracks. Presumably they don't have any rights to the real PF catalog.

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Agree with you. However, I have no problem getting Pink Floyd songs. Strange.

I spend the $10 a month and set up a 300 song playlist with my pc, probably one of my better investments, it really makes the slacker something you will enjoy and at $10 a month, you really can't go wrong and you can always cancel if you don't like it.

Seven7 said:

I spend the $10 a month and set up a 300 song playlist with my pc, probably one of my better investments, it really makes the slacker something you will enjoy and at $10 a month, you really can't go wrong and you can always cancel if you don't like it.

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How does one sign up for premium and then configure the Model S to the account?

Jer in Toronto said:

How does one sign up for premium and then configure the Model S to the account?

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I saw the slacker username and password under the Apps section (either under Media or in Control Settings... I forget which one). To sign up for the account, use the internet and do it on Slacker's website.

It plays the song I've selected about 98% of the time. Its rare when it plays something similar to my selection and not the actual selection. When it does play something similar its usually when I've asked it to play a song while its still loading or doing something with the existing station.