Slacker!

No, I'm not talking about me ... this time, anyway :-).

I'm referring to the Slacker streaming radio service.

I read about this a long time ago, without really getting the point, but now that they will be releasing their portable players at the end of the month, I decided to take another look.

It's a subscription service ... there's a free one and a paid one that gives you more control over the content ... which offers over a hundred radio "stations", each dedicated to a specific genre or a particular artist.

You can subscribe, and listen, to the service on their website, which features a fairly sexy browser-based player.

With the portable devices, you buy a model that holds a certain number of these stations. You can wirelessly synch the stations to the player and then listen to the music on the go, free of an internet connection.

Purportedly, the fidelity of the music supplied by the "stations" is CD quality. It certainly sounds excellent in the online player.

You can also put your own MP3s on the portables, so you get the best of both worlds ... new music programmed by "professionals" and your own choice of music, too.

I guess it's similar to satellite radio, which has become popular in the US over the last couple of years, but without the coverage issues.

The portable players look quite snazzy, with high resolution, 4 inch screens to display album artwork, reviews and artist biographies.

Of course, as always, whether this approach to music listening works for you will depend on how well their choice of stations matches up with your musical taste.