Poll: Slacker Permium (did you subscribe?)

[Ski_]

Background for newer folks—
Here in the US, our Tesla’s have streaming Internet radio provided via Slacker Radio (Slacker.com) over AT&T’s cellular network. This is free, with the car, for at least 4 years (probably more...). Some people love it and others like it less (a lot less...). Tesla’s deliver with a pre-configured account that is roughly equivalent to a paid “Plus” version of the subscription (worth ~$4 per month). Slacker has a downgraded “Basic” subscription that is free for anyone and also a more expensive “Premium” subscription (~$10 per month). The issue is that one cannot upgrade Tesla’s “Plus” account to the “Premium” subscription, but rather must create a whole new account, pay the full ~$10 per month, and login via the car with it (easy to do on the bottom of the main Streaming screen).

Poll Purpose—
I’m on the fence if I should buy a new Premium subscription and I wanted to poll the TMC community to see where folks landed and how they felt about it. $10 per month is not a wallet killer— I just already have a number of existing music subscriptions I think I like more (Pandora, Amazon Prime Music, etc...) and that I already use heavily at home and elsewhere. But, it would be nice to not need to use my cellular data from my phone to stream these over Bluetooth.

So....

• Who has it— and is keeping it vs. wanting to cancel it.
• Who does not have it— and wants it vs. does not want it (Tesla’s default version is fine)

Please answer the poll as our software stands today: bugs and all
(meaning: assume Bluetooth and USB work as they do now, and we don’t have other options like CarPlay or Pandora as built-in Tesla apps)

Sorry for limiting the non-US folks! Most of you have Tesla provided Spotify instead of Slacker— and I know some my be jealous of that!

 

[Sandiegodoug]

Whatever car comes with is fine.

 

[EV-lutioin]

Since there are no ads with the basic, I wonder what there is to upgrade? Better selection of music?

 

[hollywood]

I'm not sure what's in premium, the included service seems pretty solid. Some stations repeat the same songs often though.

 

[DrivingRockies]

Since there are no ads with the basic, I wonder what there is to upgrade? Better selection of music?

One is being able to select songs/repeat just heard songs.

 

[travwill]

I've had premium and used the account in the Tesla. There was no difference in capability or sound quality. Not worth it if you don't use the service. Using Apple Music now instead since integrates with phone well, etc. Gives you more choice as well and a 2nd source to stream to car if you want... No need to pay duplicate for something you get free from Tesla...

 

[Ski_]

All, great feedback— thank you for all the inputs!
Overwhelming results— and saving me a bunch of time.
Here is a link to @NathanWolf’s reddit post he just made detailing his experience— great review and some solid comments. Thanks for this!
Link: Slacker Pro • r/teslamotors

 

[iSpyLife]

I gave Slacker premium a try, cancelled it after a full month. I didn't find it was much different from the Tesla account that comes with the car. I just signed up for a free 3 month trial of Apple Music and will try streaming with that via Bluetooth when Im in the car (of course Ill probably still use the Tesla Slacker account time and again).

 

[singal3]

I've been using it for the past week. It doesn't allow you to change the bitrate (I also have Premium sound on my Model X) and I can't even get it to play specific songs (logged in and out without success, and can play the specific song on slacker app on my iphone), so I don't really find it useful.

 

[verygreen]

Hell no! Once I tried Spotify, Slacker is not an option anymore in any form, their library is just that bad!

Whoever was organizing those petitions to enable Spotify in NA - work harder!

 

[Jason S]

I've had premium and used the account in the Tesla. There was no difference in capability or sound quality. Not worth it if you don't use the service. Using Apple Music now instead since integrates with phone well, etc. Gives you more choice as well and a 2nd source to stream to car if you want... No need to pay duplicate for something you get free from Tesla...

Pretty sure Slacker Premium is the only one to provide 320kbps quality. It does not default to that, so too bad if you missed out upgrading your sound quality to 320kbps. (you need to log in via web or phone app to change the account to use the high bitrate)

I'm not impressed with Apple Music, so never bothered. Slacker is fine. I like the custom playlists, favorites station (I've got ~700 songs on favorites) and the regular features.

Couldn't stand hearing the same songs over and over on Pandora so I switched to Slacker cause then I could use the same service in car. If Tesla provided Tidal or Spotify I might try that instead but don't want to downgrade the music by going over bluetooth. (My desk setup is a Chord Mojo driving JH Audio 11Pro customs, so I appreciate good sound)

 

[singal3]

Pretty sure Slacker Premium is the only one to provide 320kbps quality. It does not default to that, so too bad if you missed out upgrading your sound quality to 320kbps. (you need to log in via web or phone app to change the account to use the high bitrate)

I'm not impressed with Apple Music, so never bothered. Slacker is fine. I like the custom playlists, favorites station (I've got ~700 songs on favorites) and the regular features.

Couldn't stand hearing the same songs over and over on Pandora so I switched to Slacker cause then I could use the same service in car. If Tesla provided Tidal or Spotify I might try that instead but don't want to downgrade the music by going over bluetooth. (My desk setup is a Chord Mojo driving JH Audio 11Pro customs, so I appreciate good sound)

From what I have read (on this forum) Tesla requests a song and bitrate from Slacker (regardless of what you have set on your phone app). I certainly noticed no difference in sound quality (in my Tesla) when I went to premium and bumped up the bitrate on my phone app.

 

[Maaz]

Yep I have it so I can create my own playlists. For me the experience is much better for the price of a couple Starbucks visits.

 

[bareyb]

Is Apple Music available in 2013 Model S vehicles? How is it implemented?

 

[rush6410]

The features that make it worth Premium are; you can create a station with the artist you want with all songs by that artist, create playlists of your choosing.

 

[bareyb]

The features that make it worth Premium are; you can create a station with the artist you want with all songs by that artist, create playlists of your choosing.

You can create a station with the artist you want without premium, but it doesn't give you access to JUST that Artist. It mixes up some of their songs with other artists that I guess they think are similar.

With Premium you get nothing but the Artist you chose?

 

[rush6410]

You can create a station with the artist you want without premium, but it doesn't give you access to JUST that Artist. It mixes up some of their songs with other artists that I guess they think are similar.

With Premium you get nothing but the Artist you chose?

Exactly why I got premium.

 

[bareyb]

Exactly why I got premium.

I think that might make it worth it to me too. That's a nice feature.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

We got Premium for one reason - Playlists - and are keeping it.