Sprkus

If you’re a fan of Pandora or Internet radio in general, you should give Slacker a shot.

Like most internet radio sources, Slacker is free and offers a lot of music stations to choose from — Everything from alternative to youth stations.

Where Slacker exceeds the other Web sites, however, is the level of user control over each station.

Users can remove or add artists at will or create their own station from scratch by entering any number of artists. Users can also control whether the station plays only the hits from each artist, or delves deeper into their library by playing lesser-known tracks and b-sides. Users can also choose whether they want their station to play similar artists in order to discover new music or to stick strictly to the artists picked.

An upgraded membership gives you the ability to save any song the station plays into your favorites folder, enabling you to play that specific song whenever you want. But $9.99 a month seems way too expensive for that feature.

If you really get into Slacker, you can even purchase a Sirius-like portable player, which start at $200. I’d rather buy an iPod.

Despite the questionable premium services, the free offering makes it worthwhile to check out.

Here’s the station I’ve been working on: