HARMAN's Aha Platform Brings Slacker Radio into the Car

PALO ALTO, Calif. & SAN DIEGO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Aha by HARMAN and Slacker Inc. today announced a partnership for Aha to bring Slacker’s Personal Radio and Premium on-demand music services into cars. This deal marks Aha’s first official music partnership and gives Aha listeners a library of millions of songs on-demand as well as over 150 expert programmed genre stations. Starting this fall, most Aha users will be able to access the Slacker on-demand music service, along with personalized music, comedy, sports and news stations.

“Our partnership with Aha makes it easy for us to bring Slacker to drivers, so our listeners can access our vast Personal Radio service right from the dashboard.”

Aha lets drivers have a truly connected driving experience by giving them access to a vast array of web content right from the radio. Aha stations include news, traffic, local business ratings, social media like Facebook and Twitter feeds, podcasts and now music, with new stations and categories added all the time. In the car, Aha lets drivers access Internet content through after market audio systems, and soon Aha will power the fourth band of radio in new cars, alongside AM, FM and satellite stations.

Slacker delivers a free, personalized radio experience. Slacker combines the knowledge of the nation's leading music experts from every genre and each person's own personal tastes to create the perfect radio stations for each and every listener. Slacker Radio has millions of songs from thousands of artists and is the best way to discover new artists and hear favorite songs. With the launch of the Aha partnership, Slacker will be available in cars, on other Aha enabled devices, online, and on smartphones. In addition to the millions of songs in the Slacker music catalog, Slacker will also deliver personalized news from ABC and personalized sports from ESPN for the ultimate personal radio listening experience.

Aha will be demonstrating Slacker and Aha’s other capabilities at the Frankfurt Motor Show September 13-25, 2011. Media who would like to schedule a live demo on September 13-15 can email press@aharadio.com to book an appointment. Demonstrations will take place within HARMAN’s booth, which is located in hall 8, booth D24.

"We have incredibly passionate users who have been eager to find a way to elegantly and safely use Slacker Radio even when in the car," said Steve Cotter, SVP Business Development at Slacker. "Our partnership with Aha makes it easy for us to bring Slacker to drivers, so our listeners can access our vast Personal Radio service right from the dashboard."

“We want to make it easy for drivers to safely access great content, so we are delighted to help bring Slacker’s premium music services into vehicles,” said Robert Acker, HARMAN VP and General Manager of Aha. "Our users want music as a part of their listening experience, and Slacker's robust catalog, personalized stations, deep relationships with music labels and excellent reputation among music lovers makes it a natural partner. We look forward to helping Slacker reach even more listeners as the Aha service expands to more cars, smart phones and eventually home audio systems.”

Aha is available as a free app for iPhone. Aha is currently working with automotive and consumer electronics manufacturers on multiple integrations that will launch throughout 2012.

Aha is a part of HARMAN International (NYSE: HAR) the premium global audio and infotainment group.

About Slacker, Inc.

Slacker offers the world's most complete range of radio services. Whether it's the award-winning free Slacker Basic Radio, or the fully-loaded subscription services Slacker Radio Plus and Slacker Premium Radio, listeners enjoy a unique, custom listening experience. Slacker enables music lovers to play highly personalized music online at the Slacker web site, on connected home devices or on-the-go with Slacker Personal Radio applications. Slacker mobile applications are available for Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, Palm webOS, Nokia, Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry smartphones. For more information visit: http://www.Slacker.com/everywhere.

About Aha Radio by HARMAN

Aha, a unit of HARMAN International Industries, is the first customizable radio platform in the cloud. Aha organizes content from the web into personalized, live and on-demand radio stations that consumers can listen to at home, on the go, or safely from the driver’s seat. The Aha Radio platform and service was started in 2008 by a group of Web and multimedia veterans with a shared passion for delivering an “always-on” audio experience to connect drivers to the content they really want. HARMAN, the company that designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets, acquired Aha in September 2010. For more information, visit www.aharadio.com and www.harman.com.