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AOL Radio

 & Jeffrey L. Wilson Managing Editor, Apps and Gaming

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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AOL Radio, now powered by Slacker Radio, combines elements of both platforms to deliver a very solid streaming music service that will be of interest to both mainstream and niche tastes. - Streaming Music Services
4.0 Excellent

The Bottom Line

The Slacker Radio-powered AOL Radio boasts a deep music library, informative DJs, and fun playlists that make it worth a listen. That said, it's not an exact duplicate of Editors' Choice Slacker Radio.

Pros & Cons

    • Deep music catalog.
    • Excellently curated stations and fun playlists.
    • Good sound quality.
    • Live ESPN Radio.
    • ABC News updates.
    • Lacks lyrics.
    • Missing a few albums.
    • No Artist DNA, The Weather Channel, or lifestyles stations.

If you're looking to license a streaming music service to act as your company's jukebox, you should license the best in the field—and that's exactly what AOL did when it revamped AOL Radio. The company's streaming tune service is now powered by the PCMag Editors' Choice award-winning Slacker Radio, and includes many of the features that propelled Slacker to the top: a deep library, sports talk, creative playlists, and more. AOL Radio lacks a few of Slacker Radio's finer elements, but it's still worth a listen.

If you're familiar with Slacker Radio, you'll feel right at home with AOL Radio. You'll find crisp audio, fun playlists (such as 1-Hit Wonders and TV Tunes), ABC News, live ESPN Radio, and more than 20 genre channels. AOL Radio boasts a similar pricing scheme, too.

With the Basic plan, you get the ability to skip a maximum of six songs per hour, but you must endure numerous audio and banner advertisements. Subscribing to the $3.99 per month Radio Plus removes the ads and skip limitations, and lets you cache stations for offline listening. The Premium builds upon the Radio Plus tier by letting you create custom playlists, cache albums and playlists for offline listening, and play songs and albums on demand. It all sounds very much like Slacker Radio, right? Well, there are some subtle differences.

AOL Radio

Final Thoughts

AOL Radio, now powered by Slacker Radio, combines elements of both platforms to deliver a very solid streaming music service that will be of interest to both mainstream and niche tastes. - Streaming Music Services

AOL Radio

4.0 Excellent

The Slacker Radio-powered AOL Radio boasts a deep music library, informative DJs, and fun playlists that make it worth a listen. That said, it's not an exact duplicate of Editors' Choice Slacker Radio.

About Our Expert

Jeffrey L. Wilson

Jeffrey L. Wilson

Managing Editor, Apps and Gaming

Since 2004, I've written about consumer tech for many publications, including 1UP, Laptop, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. I now apply that knowledge and skill set as the managing editor of PCMag's apps and gaming team.

The Technology I Use

As a member of the App & Gaming team, I use a wide variety of apps and services. Google Drive is an essential file-syncing service for moving documents between team members in this work-from-home era. Scrivener has been an invaluable writing tool as I rework my fiction manuscript. YouTube Premium and YouTube TV deliver hours of entertainment (though I only use the latter service during the F1 and NBA playoff seasons).

In terms of hardware, I use a Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1 laptop for work and an Origin PC tower for playing PC games. I also have a Steam Deck, which lets me play my favorite titles under a shade tree. Of course, I have a smartphone, and the Google Pixel 9a is my handset of choice.

My main input devices are the Das Keyboard 4 Professional and Logitech MX Vertical Ergonomic Mouse, though I bust out the Hori Fighting Commander Octa or Hori Fight Stick Alpha when mixing it up in fighting games. I have a thing for arcade sticks. I collect Neo Geo AES games, too, but only if I can find the carts on the (relative) cheap.

For video and music consumption, I fire up my Lenovo Tab P11; it has a sharp screen and great Dolby Atmos-powered speakers. My Kindle Paperwhite has received much use, too. I have a standalone, Sony Blu-ray player connected to a TCL television when it's time to go full cinephile. I'm also a vinyl guy, so the Bluetooth-enabled Audio-Technica AT-LP60XBT keeps the wax spinning.

My first computer was a Commodore 64. Long live BASIC and retro computers!

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