You have just made up your mind that you want to start an online radio station. However, you are not too buoyant and you are hoping that you need to make money from your radio station. You are not alone since we often want to do things that will profit us financially, even when we are doing it for fun, how much more when we are doing it for business reasons. On the other hand, you might not have plans of starting an online radio station, but you are just curious about how internet radio stations make money. This article will discuss various ways these stations make money.
- Donations
Since new radio stations with little to no followership and even a lot of existing radio stations cannot directly start to request that people pay before listening to them, they are forced to maintain a free radio station. However, a lot of radio stations put a donate button on their website so that their listeners who enjoy what they are doing can support them. In the world today, we still have a lot of reasonable people who would consider the owner of the radio station to help him with part of his expenses. As the station’s followership increases, naturally, the donations will increase. Thus the individual just has to concentrate on putting a lot of effort in developing content that people will love and get hooked to whenever they visit the radio station.
- Paid Subscriptions
For bigger online radio stations from a big brand, with a huge reputation and followership, there will be a lot of people that will be willing to pay to listen to their station. Such stations can request for any amount they feel is reasonable, their customers can afford and willing to pay. This fee then goes to running the radio station as well as profit.
- Adverts
By allowing businesses and individuals to place adverts, an online radio station can earn money. This is how most traditional radio stations earn their money. However, internet online radio could receive adverts in 2 ways. They could play jingles during the course of their programs that someone has paid for or display banners on their website or online radio page. For some of the radio stations, these are 2 services you could request and pay for separately. For others, once you pay for one, you get the other as a bonus. It all depends on the bargaining power of the radio station and how much requests they are receiving for adverts. CNN radio live streaming accepts adverts from companies, countries, and individuals to run their radio station and earn a profit.
- Sales of products
Some online radio stations sell some products to raise money. For example, a radio station could have a web hosting platform or other products that they sell. It could even be a product you can order from their website or other websites. They will regularly advertise such products. Part of the profit from the products will be used for running their radio station.
- Consultancy and other Services
Some of the online radio stations provide consultancy services for other individuals or companies that want to start an online radio station or other internet businesses for a fee. They might be able to provide website design services or other services for their listeners. Thus, they can announce the services and drop their contact. Some of their listeners would subsequently patronize them and the funds would come in handy for running their online radio station.
Conclusion
There are several ways that an online radio station can make money as discussed above. The best way to follow will be dependent on how long your station has been existing and how much followership you have. It is also possible to combine two or more ways like putting a button for donation, selling products as well as offering consultancy and other services.