The most recent threads I have found are from last year. I have a Model 3 I am picking up on Thursday this week. I currently have Sirius on my car but will be canceling that as handing it off to my kid who has Spotify. I mostly listen to books while I drive but occasionally like music. I know Spotify and Apple Music need to have a subscription but I have seen mention of something called Slacker which appears to no longer exist (bought by LiveOne?) and TuneIn. Are either one of these free? Commercial free? I don't listen to enough music to need a subscription but it would be nice to have an option if I am in the mood for some music in between books. I know I can also listen to music already on my phone via Bluetooth, if nothing is free I can just add to my personal playlists and use that.
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Free Music?
- Thread starter Jenny5309
- Start date
RTPEV
Active Member
I had expected someone to answer this by now...
Anyway, yes, Slacker and TuneIn are free services (although I think you can get more features by subscribing). I actually really like the free version of Slacker (or whatever it is called now). There are no ads, but you can't play a full album or limit songs to a specific artist (at least not that I've been able to figure out), but instead if you seed it with a specific song it will create a "station" of similar music. There are also many genres available to choose from.
TuneIn does play an ad when you first tune to a station, but after that, it's just the feed from the station itself (which likely contains its own ads). I used to use it for podcasts, but the functionality and controls were lacking (I haven't tried it recently), so I just ended up streaming those from my phone.
You do need connectivity in the car for these to work obviously, so that may or may not be free. You can either pay Tesla for premium connectivity (which I find to be a bargain), or you could create a WiFi hotspot on your phone and connect the car that way.
Anyway, yes, Slacker and TuneIn are free services (although I think you can get more features by subscribing). I actually really like the free version of Slacker (or whatever it is called now). There are no ads, but you can't play a full album or limit songs to a specific artist (at least not that I've been able to figure out), but instead if you seed it with a specific song it will create a "station" of similar music. There are also many genres available to choose from.
TuneIn does play an ad when you first tune to a station, but after that, it's just the feed from the station itself (which likely contains its own ads). I used to use it for podcasts, but the functionality and controls were lacking (I haven't tried it recently), so I just ended up streaming those from my phone.
You do need connectivity in the car for these to work obviously, so that may or may not be free. You can either pay Tesla for premium connectivity (which I find to be a bargain), or you could create a WiFi hotspot on your phone and connect the car that way.
One other option is to load up a thumb drive with Music (FLAC, MP3, M4A, OGG, or WAV formats), plug it into the port in the glove box (the ports in the center console don't do data) and listen to those.
There are no aux inputs, so things like an iPod can only connect via Bluetooth.
There are no aux inputs, so things like an iPod can only connect via Bluetooth.
Thank you. I plan to get the connectivity. I like the idea of seeding with a specific song and it creating a station. If I am not listening to a book then I pretty much listen to yacht rock or jazz so both of those would be pretty simple for it to create.
Thanks! I have pretty good play lists on my iPhone which I assume I can connect via bluetooth for trips.
E90alex
Active Member
Note that the Tesla music streaming service (aka Slacker) will not work without premium connectivity, even over wifi.
Tune in will work over wifi (with ads) as do the other services, provided you have a paid account with them.
Tesla Streaming (aka Slacker) actually has a Yacht Rock station
But yeah, i can ask if to play Journey, and then it'll continue with like-music such as Survivor, Eagles, BonJovi, etc ... No ads, but yes needed Premium Connectivity
Transformer
Do the math. Save the world. — Mark Leon
Welcome to the club!
Premium connectivity is also great for traffic info.
You can use an SSD in place of a thumb drive. Either way, get a large capacity drive and format a partition for music and a partition for sentry cam. There are forum posts on how to set up the partitions, the audio file format requirements, and the surprising metadata requirements.
BTW you can read the owner's manual online or download it as a PDF. Tesla writes the best manuals I've ever read and they add to them regularly.
Premium connectivity is also great for traffic info.
You can use an SSD in place of a thumb drive. Either way, get a large capacity drive and format a partition for music and a partition for sentry cam. There are forum posts on how to set up the partitions, the audio file format requirements, and the surprising metadata requirements.
BTW you can read the owner's manual online or download it as a PDF. Tesla writes the best manuals I've ever read and they add to them regularly.
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RTPEV
Active Member
Probably way overkill if you only occasionally listen to music. Size depends on how much music you have to put on it.
Transformer
Do the math. Save the world. — Mark Leon
For music + dash/sentry cam video, I use a Samsung 500GB portable external drive. It's plenty. I allocated maybe 80% for video. camelcamelcamel says the T7 varied in price $50 - $95 over the last 3 years.
Note: The car has no "safely remove drive" feature so be sure to pause SentryCam before removing the drive.
Tesla Dashcam – TeslaTap has info on preparing the drive, etc. It looks like the Recommended Drives info hasn't been updated in years. Making 2 partitions should be easy in macOS Disk Utility.
This TMC thread might be useful but it'd be better if summarized somewhere like in a wiki page.
Note: The car has no "safely remove drive" feature so be sure to pause SentryCam before removing the drive.
Tesla Dashcam – TeslaTap has info on preparing the drive, etc. It looks like the Recommended Drives info hasn't been updated in years. Making 2 partitions should be easy in macOS Disk Utility.
This TMC thread might be useful but it'd be better if summarized somewhere like in a wiki page.
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Thank you. I have a few spare 1TBs laying around that are super slim and compact so I might go with that so I don't have to buy something new. I've bookmarked the links for reference!
I was considering that other data as well. No clue. I suppose if I have a spare 1TB might as well use it. I listen to a lot of books on tape as well and that library is rather large.
RTPEV
Active Member
Note that whatever you use, it must be rated for automotive use. Run of the mill USB drives and flash memory cards will not endure the cabin heat very well and won't last long.
As for video data, yeah I suppose if you never clean out saved dashcam footage it will eventually consume 1TB, but it will be awhile!
Transformer
Do the math. Save the world. — Mark Leon
The car doesn't remember the playback position into more than the current audio source, unless 2024.14 fixes that, but 2024.14 does make it easier to drag the playback position.
Good point! So Samsung's downloadable brochure or spec sheet says their T5 and T7 SSDs handle 0℃ to 60℃ = 32°F to 140 ℉ operating range and -40℃ to 85℃ = -40 ℉ to 185 ℉ non-operating range.
RTPEV
Active Member
I don't know if that's necessarily the exact wording you will find, but average run of the mill USB drives will generally not work (for long). You want one that is appropriate for dashcam use, or otherwise specifies a wide temperature range.
The key thing is to get a quality drive from a reliable source: Amazon is NOT a reliable source as their supply chain is wildly unregulated and counterfeit drives are a continual issue.
I used two SanDisk Cruzer drives (one for Sentry, one for Music) that I only retired after about 2.5 years because of capacity issues (too much FLAC music). They've been sitting in my car ever since and are still usable (I checked one out a couple of months ago and it worked fine). I got those drives from Costco (which has a solid supply chain, but they don't carry these any more) but there are plenty of solid options out there.
PianoAl
Active Member
I use separate USB drives for Sentry vs. music. Both are plain vanilla (but good quality) USBs. Been using them for four years with no problems.
I've put some shorter audiobooks and comedy sets on USB, and that works.
Streaming from the phone works well, but you can't legally change sources, etc while driving, depending on your state*. For example, I have my phone in my pocket, so if I want to change to a different audiobook, I must stop. For me, that's rare.
Premium connectivity is great, and it does a great job of playing similar songs after the one you asked for.
Looking forward to having Audible as a native app.
*In California:
I've put some shorter audiobooks and comedy sets on USB, and that works.
Streaming from the phone works well, but you can't legally change sources, etc while driving, depending on your state*. For example, I have my phone in my pocket, so if I want to change to a different audiobook, I must stop. For me, that's rare.
Premium connectivity is great, and it does a great job of playing similar songs after the one you asked for.
Looking forward to having Audible as a native app.
*In California:
(c) A handheld wireless telephone or electronic wireless communications device may be operated in a manner requiring the use of the driver’s hand while the driver is operating the vehicle only if both of the following conditions are satisfied:
(1) The handheld wireless telephone or electronic wireless communications device is mounted on a vehicle’s windshield in the same manner a portable Global Positioning System (GPS) is mounted pursuant to paragraph (12) of subdivision (b) of Section 26708 or is mounted on or affixed to a vehicle’s dashboard or center console in a manner that does not hinder the driver’s view of the road.
(2) The driver’s hand is used to activate or deactivate a feature or function of the handheld wireless telephone or wireless communications device with the motion of a single swipe or tap of the driver’s finger.
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