Entertainment system baffles me

[PhilRogers]

I’m a new Model 3 owner and love my car. But the entertainment system really baffles me. I signed up for streaming. Under “streaming” it has several suggested “stations” — like “Tesla favorites” or “Classic Rock”. I keep hearing about Slacker. Is this it? It also says at the bottom “Have a streaming account? Sign In”. Does that mean I’m not signed in for Slacker?

how about the search icon “Any music”? That seems to be where I’m finding my podcasts but where are they coming from? Slacker? And when I search for radio stations it finds them but many are wrong. WCBS which is 880 in New York comes up, but when I listen to it it’s actually an 880 station out of Canada. Same with 1010 WINS. Even comes up with the right logo. But when I play it it is a 1010 station out of Canada.
And after I saved those as “favorites” they show up as favorites in the “TuneIn” app. It’s asking me if I want to log in there but I don’t have an account for TuneIn.
I’m Really confused. Can anyone give me any guidance?

(And how do you get rid of all the clutter of “recents”?)
Thank you!

 

[C141medic]

Yes. It’s slacker or Live X Live which I believe is their new name. No need to purchase a slacker subscription. My premium connectivity expired some months ago but this streaming still works as long as I use my iPhone as a WiFi hotspot which is great. Haven’t tried Spotify to see if that would work the same way without an account.

 

[Wennfred]

Slacker was replaced by Spotify, lower right side of the music menu says Any Music, use that feature to search stations and all types of sounds, or just click on the right button on the steering wheel and say Play Elton John, it will take you there and that type of music.

Fred

 

[C141medic]

Slacker was replaced by Spotify, lower right side of the music menu says Any Music, use that feature to search stations and all types of sounds, or just click on the right button on the steering wheel and say Play Elton John, it will take you there and that type of music.

Fred

Really? I thought the streaming was still through slacker/live x live and Spotify was an additional streaming option like tune in?

 

[PhilRogers]

This sort of confirms what I’m saying. No one is sure. And the interface is REALLY confusing. And I can’t find anywhere online that explains it

 

[Matsayz]

This sort of confirms what I’m saying. No one is sure. And the interface is REALLY confusing. And I can’t find anywhere online that explains it

3 replies on a Saturday does not confirm no one knows. I think most people dont understand what you want. You login with your Spotify info if you have it for Spotify. Slacker comes with the car... there’s no real login for that, if you click it it’ll show you your [email protected]

 

[Wennfred]

Really? I thought the streaming was still through slacker/live x live and Spotify was an additional streaming option like tune in?

It’s could be, I know that when slacker disappeared Spotify showed up, but who knows right.


Fred

 

[tomas]

It’s could be, I know that when slacker disappeared Spotify showed up, but who knows right.


Fred

No, @Matsayz is correct.

 

[Fernand]

FWIW, once you set up a paid Spotify subscription on some other system, you can specifically say "Play Billie Eilish on Spotify" or "Play Barry Manilow on Slacker".

 

[sduck]

Slacker was replaced by Spotify, lower right side of the music menu says Any Music, use that feature to search stations and all types of sounds, or just click on the right button on the steering wheel and say Play Elton John, it will take you there and that type of music.

Fred

No, Spotify was added on, and does not replace slacker/livexllive. For slacker, or whatever the new name is (I never use it) you get a free account from tesla by default, but if you have your own account you can sign into it. To use spotify you need to sign in with an account. There is also a Tunein thing, which is somewhat similar to slacker, but has a lot of radio stations available also. If you have an AM station you like, that's the place to look for it. The FM radio section can be a bit weird - you get a normal tuner, with your local stations, but there's also access to digital versions of some of these, which is where things can really go off the rails, as you can find Canadian and other stations with similar names but different programming.

 

[crackers8199]

It’s could be, I know that when slacker disappeared Spotify showed up, but who knows right.


Fred

i don't believe slacker has ever disappeared, at least it hasn't on my car. spotify appeared as another option, just as @C141medic said.

 

[Zcd1]

...And when I search for radio stations it finds them but many are wrong. WCBS which is 880 in New York comes up... Can anyone give me any guidance?

1) Read the Owner’s Manual, which is available on the car’s screen.
2) The car doesn’t have an AM radio tuner, so you won’t find normal AM broadcast stations. You’d have to listen to those stations’ streaming versions via the web browser or your phone if they offer that.

 

[iamnid]

For AM stations, you might also look to see if the station you are looking for simulcasts on HD radio and find it there (FM dial). Alternatively, if they broadcast on the web, such as through iHeartRadio, you could stream on your phone and have the phone's audio play on the stereo.

 

[SalisburySam]

Owners Manual (v2020.4) has the media control stuff on pp136-138. And yes, it’s less than intuitive or obvious. For me: two local FM stations I listen to and music from my DashCam/Sentry SSD. Both work well, and about as far as I can go without investing boring into the rest of the media interface (see what I did there?).

 

[RayK]

(And how do you get rid of all the clutter of “recents”?)

Unfortunately at the moment, you can't. It looks like it should be possible, based upon how you can delete your FM radio favorites (press and hold any one of the radio favorites then press the X mark on what you want to remove).

 

[LACALawyer]

Slacker was replaced by Spotify, lower right side of the music menu says Any Music, use that feature to search stations and all types of sounds, or just click on the right button on the steering wheel and say Play Elton John, it will take you there and that type of music.

Fred

No, it wasn't.

 

[LACALawyer]

It’s could be, I know that when slacker disappeared Spotify showed up, but who knows right.


Fred

Slacker never disappeared, Fred. It's called the "default option."

 

[gcmak]

If you have an issue reading the manual in the car, you can use a phone or computer to view the PDF manual: https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf
As far as my experience is, Tesla does update this manual to reflect changes in software for the car.

Page 136 begins with Media and Entertainment. There is a lack of specifications for the various streaming services in the car.
Strictly focusing on audio streaming options, aside from Spotify (requires your own personal subscription), you shouldn't need to log into other services for it to operate if the car was properly setup from the beginning and as long as you haven't manually logged out of any given service. I regularly use streaming radio and podcasts. When looking at my account details on the screen, it shows a tesla specific username - which was originally setup/assigned to me at the factory - I do not know the password to the account.

I also want to +1 that "Slacker" (or whatever parent company acquired them) still exists in tesla and is the default service for streaming radio/music/podcasts.

 

[Morhydro]

All interesting - and I finally set up my Spotify account on the M3.

One similar question about the radio;

In the UK the car seems to default to the DAB radio. Sometimes if there is no DAB signal and there is an equivalent FM frequency for the station you are listening to the car will switch to FM. However were I live the DAB signal is not great. So it is often better to list to FM, even if it gets a bit hissy at times. For speech programs this is a must or you miss some critical part of the discussion.

So - how do I tell the car not to us DAB and just to stick to FM? Does not appear to be any settings for that.

 

[Matsayz]

All interesting - and I finally set up my Spotify account on the M3.

One similar question about the radio;

In the UK the car seems to default to the DAB radio. Sometimes if there is no DAB signal and there is an equivalent FM frequency for the station you are listening to the car will switch to FM. However were I live the DAB signal is not great. So it is often better to list to FM, even if it gets a bit hissy at times. For speech programs this is a must or you miss some critical part of the discussion.

So - how do I tell the car not to us DAB and just to stick to FM? Does not appear to be any settings for that.

I think you’re out of luck for that. Can you stream it from your phone and just Bluetooth it to the car? Might be your best route if possible