Music player Slacker signs deal with industry’s big four

Slacker, a portable music player/radio service that some have billed an iPod-killer (though the killer phrase is getting bothersome; Nokia is prepping an iPhone killer, Tube, for example), announced today that it’s signed deals with the big four music publishers. This is good news for Slacker, but it’s also another sign you don’t need to be a big tech player to strike deals the major music companies.

When Slacker was announced a year ago, it got positive press for being the first portable player that uses a satellite to deliver music constantly to your device. Similar to personalized internet music services like Last.fm and Pandora, users tell the program whether they loved or hated a song, and Slacker updates their playlists based on their responses.

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By reaching agreements with EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, Slacker will be able to deliver a substantial music library to its users. Slacker customers probably won’t notice anything, since the deals were actually completed before the San Diego-based company released its music player earlier this year, but it also means their service shouldn’t be affected by legal disputes later on.

The announcement marks Slacker as part of a growing trend of startups who are actually taking the time to talk to the music corporations, rather than just launching and worrying about the legal details later. (We cover companies taking both approaches in our overview here.) Despite a healthy amount of publicity and more than $50 million in funding, the company is hardly an Apple or a Microsoft.

Why are the labels suddenly talking with these relative small fry? Well, for one thing, companies like music-sharing social network imeem are getting popular using the ad-based, free music approach — and now that there’s a chance to make money, the music industry is willing to talk.