Slacker Radio is now available in Canada.  You can read the press release that we picked up off CrackBerry.com after the jump.  Down here in the States we have Slacker Radio which is completely free, and Slacker Plus, which is a premium service with a monthly subscription.  What we aren’t completely clear on is if the basic free version of Slacker is free in Canada as well.

The press release, which is a bit confusing, says that Slacker is free BlackBerry app available via www.slacker.com.  Later it states that Slacker is only free for the first 30 days.

Slacker Radio Now Available in Canada

Canadian Music Fans Can Now Enjoy Slacker Personal Radio Wherever They Happen to Be

SAN DIEGO, CA – January xx, 2010 – Slacker, Inc. today announced that Canadians can now enjoy Slacker Personal Radio, which is the first personal radio experience to service Canada. The Slacker music experience is available now on the web at www.Slacker.com and as a free app for BlackBerry smartphones and Android handsets, with an application for the iPhone and iPod touch coming soon.

Slacker Personal Radio enables Canadian music lovers to create their own custom stations or listen to and personalize over 60 expert-programmed genre stations. They can also read artist bios and album reviews, while viewing artist images and album art. Users don’t have to worry about managing playlists, researching new artists or transferring their music collection from their home computers – just click play to start enjoying your favorite music today.

Canadian music fans will have access to the free Slacker Basic Radio for up to 30 days. After 30 days, they can upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus, featuring all the same great benefits of Slacker Basic Radio along with station caching for supported mobile devices, ad-free listening, complete song lyrics*, unlimited song skipping, song requests and more. Station caching enables mobile listeners to store their personal stations on selected smartphones for listening anywhere, anytime, uninterrupted.

Listeners can store a station by simply selecting “Cache Station” from within the supported app. The station can then be downloaded via Wi-Fi, over USB or through the cellular network. Cached stations are stored on the smartphone and can be accessed on planes, subways and everywhere in between requiring minimal battery usage and eliminating the need to access the mobile carrier network to play music.

“Turning Canada on to personal radio has been some time in the making, and we are proud to unveil our Canadian Slacker Radio experience,” said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president of marketing at Slacker. “Whether it’s from the web or a smartphone, Slacker takes the work out of listening to your favorite music wherever you want.”

Slacker Personal Radio is the first and only personal radio service available for Canadian listeners. Slacker has agreements in place with key content owners providing listeners in Canada with a deep catalog of music for Slacker genre stations along with their own custom created stations.

Slacker Radio Plus:

  • Cache stations to BlackBerry and Android smartphones; soon on iPhone/iPod touch
  • Enjoy Slacker music even without a wireless network on select mobile applications
  • Unlimited song skipping
  • Ad-free listening
  • Complete song lyrics*
  • Create custom stations based on artists or songs
  • Unlimited song requests for creating perfect custom stations
  • High-quality stereo playback
  • Over 60 professionally programmed genre stations
  • Fine tune stations on-the-fly to play more of the music you like
  • View artist biographies and photos
  • View album art and reviews
  • “Peek Ahead” artist and album preview
  • Pause and skip songs
  • Rate songs as favorites
  • Ban the songs and artists you don’t like
  • Downloadable “mini” player for your PC

Pricing and Availability
Slacker Radio is free for the first 30 days. Afterward, Canadian listeners can continue to enjoy the service by upgrading to Slacker Radio Plus, available for as low as $3.99 USD per month. For additional details, please visit www.Slacker.com from the web. BlackBerry smartphone users can download the free Slacker 3.0 app from App World or by visiting www.Slacker.com from the BlackBerry Browser.  Android smartphone owners can find Slacker Radio in the Android Market or by visiting www.Slacker.com from their mobile browser. The Slacker Radio application for the iPhone and iPod touch is coming soon.

About Slacker, Inc.
Slacker is the world’s first Personal Radio company offering “Your Radio Everywhere.” Slacker enables music lovers to play highly personalized music online at the Slacker web site or on the go with Slacker Personal Radio players and mobile phones. Visit www.Slacker.com for more information.