Streaming Music - Pleasantly Surprised

[cbaaz]

So - I came to the Model 3 after being used to Sirius/XM for the last decade or so. I do use a bit of Apple/Pandora/Spotify sometimes at home or at the office, but I had never used Slacker or Tune In services.

I was prepared to really miss the satellite radio and I was even researching install options, but - Surprise - it has turned out that I am liking the streaming services more than I ever did the satellite services ! It's especially nice to able to skip and/or thumbs-down tracks. I sure wont miss playing the annual stupid XM renewal price gouge game, either.

Things that I think need to be improved:

1) Auto don't "slam" music volume back full after a call terminates
2) The interface is clunky, but it is less painful once you get some favorites set up
3) Ability to use other streaming services

 

[Big Earl]

The streaming music built into the car is much higher quality than satellite music. Sirius/XM has finally stopped harassing me after canceling our account many months ago.

 

[JulienW]

The streaming music built into the car is much higher quality than satellite music. Sirius/XM has finally stopped harassing me after canceling our account many months ago.

Yes, Sirius/XM is somewhere around 30kbps (super POOOOR) and Slacker is somewhere around 64kbps (just kinda bad).

Sure wish Tesla would allow a higher data rate option (pay a little) and other services like Apple Music and Spotify but.......

EDIT: Don't remember the interview but Musk was asked and he basically said it was not a priority and no plans to make any changes.

 

[jebinc]

I too think the streaming audio in the Tesla model 3 is pretty decent, compared to XM that I have in the other ice car.

 

[FighterSquadron]

Questin. I have lost my USB icon in the music player list. When I install a USB drive in the front compartment (FAT32) the dash cam shows up with the red dot but when I put in a USB drive with music there is no USB icon. It used to appear there but no more. I have done a hard reset but nothing changes. Any ideas?

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

Yes, Sirius/XM is somewhere around 30kbps (super POOOOR) and Slacker is somewhere around 64kbps (just kinda bad).

Sure wish Tesla would allow a higher data rate option (pay a little) and other services like Apple Music and Spotify but.......

EDIT: Don't remember the interview but Musk was asked and he basically said it was not a priority and no plans to make any changes.

I thought you could pay for premium slacker and get a better rate(128 or so) + better song availability, like you can play whatever & rewind songs too(not 100% sure)

 

[JulienW]

I thought you could pay for premium slacker and get a better rate(128 or so) + better song availability, like you can play whatever & rewind songs too(not 100% sure)

I have heard this MAY be the case (higher bit rate) also but NOWHERE can I find any documentation. It seems that if you could get a higher bit rate in a Tesla Slacker would promote it as a selling point. If you can find any definitive info please post. I would pay for a higher bit rate. May look again to see if I can find any info.

 

[Knightshade]

I thought you could pay for premium slacker and get a better rate(128 or so) + better song availability, like you can play whatever & rewind songs too(not 100% sure)

Nope.

bitrate is set on the client.

If you pay for premium you can set the bitrate higher on your phone or web browser... but the Slacker client in the car has no such setting to change. (the S did, for a brief period of time, and then it was taken away- the 3 never had it though early copies of the user manual suggested it would)

This is probably because Tesla is paying for the bandwidth.

 

[Gabbleratchet7]

We have SiriusXM in our other car and also have their streaming app on my phone. The Slacker streaming service is good enough in the sense that after three months, I haven’t yet been compelled to play Sirius via phone and Bluetooth. And my kids are content with the Slacker hits station over Hits One on satellite.

The playlists are hit and miss, though. The worst was making a station based on David Gilmour’s first solo record: songs from that particular record and about five random others are the only ones that ever get played. And any stations with 80s songs always seem to eventually play Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins...

 

[Knightshade]

And any stations with 80s songs always seem to eventually play Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins...

You're saying that like it's a bad thing...

 

[immolated]

I don't like how if I choose a specific song, I'm banned from playing that specific song for the next few days. Only similar songs play. I usually just end up youtubing it through bluetooth.

 

[mikeskuro]

Questin. I have lost my USB icon in the music player list. When I install a USB drive in the front compartment (FAT32) the dash cam shows up with the red dot but when I put in a USB drive with music there is no USB icon. It used to appear there but no more. I have done a hard reset but nothing changes. Any ideas?

Can’t use the dashcam and usb audio from the same drive. A usb hub is needed. I just found this out 2 hours ago myself! Puzzling but makes sense now.

 

[Knightshade]

Can’t use the dashcam and usb audio from the same drive. A usb hub is needed. I just found this out 2 hours ago myself! Puzzling but makes sense now.

you can do both on the same drive, but they need to be on separate partitions.

 

[mikeskuro]

you can do both on the same drive, but they need to be on separate partitions.

Another day another thing to learn! Glad I have not ordered a hub yet. Super big drive!

 

[jkoya]

Sirius/XM has finally stopped harassing me after canceling our account many months ago.

I'm going through this now with Sirius. Cancelled service in March for our Volt and keep getting calls and renewal offers in the mail. Latest offer is $ 4.00 a month.... I've been pleasantly surprised by Slacker as well.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

We've had arguments about the bitrate in every thread that brings up Slacker, and all we can determine is that officially it's set on the client, someone looking at code via a hacked car claimed it never set it higher than 64kbps, but to me it sounds like it can't possibly be only 64kbps.