When I saw a company called Broadband Instruments on my calendar a few weeks back, I started thinking about who I could pawn the meeting off on. Yawn. Why did I set this up? Turns out, that incredibly dull name was just a cover. (One I should have known about.) The real company is called Slacker, has launched a free Internet radio station, and will release a portable flash player that will download music not just via WiFi, but satellite connections as well. I am glad I took the meeting.

Slacker launched today at SXSW. PC Mag's Tim Gideon and AppScout's Kyle Monson are "working" the show, but to me Slacker is one of the most interesting tech developments. Purely as a Web service, Slacker will work a lot like Pandora or LastFM, basically a radio station that offers a lot of ways to customize your stations. They will have about 100 stations. Free stations will include some ads, but for $7.50 a month you can go ad-free. Later this year, you will be able to purchase copy-protected tracks for the standard, ridiculous $1. The thing that will make Slacker different is the hardware player that will ship this summer.

I just saw a prototype, but it looks pretty cool. It is a flash player available in a range of capacities and prices, starting around $150 for a 2GB model. (Acording to Slacker, other prices will probably be $200 (4GB), $300 8GB, and $400 (12GB). Whenever you are in range of an open WiFi Network the player will download music. If you are outside of range (think driving), it will use a satellite connection. The company is leasing time on two satellites (No, this has nothing to do with Sirius/XM) that will send new music to your player every 15 seconds. Of course, you can also load tracks via USB, but what is the fun of that?

As the name implies, Slacker is trying to appeal to users who are tired of managing massive music libraries of $1-a-track songs and just want to listen to cool music that they like. Of course, this goes directly after the core Sirius/XM audience. if you hear a song you like, you can click a button to save it to your player. Slacker has an uphill battle, to be sure, but this player/service looks like a ton of fun.

My only question is, how much did they have to pay for Slacker.com. Was that URL really just sitting around doing nothing?