How do you monetize your radio?
- Thread starter sojic
- Start date
not an easy subject - I think the harsh reality is (just like the old Band II FM pirate days in the UK, Netherlands and perhaps various other countries) most people don't or can't! - at least not the station itself.
Even with normal radio stations smaller specialist ones are losing money- there was an article in the British Guardian newspaper about one with national reach where the owner has had to put in £3 million of his own money and is still making a financial loss)
Also with intense and ruthless competition, long ad breaks will make people tune out to another station, the businesses who advertise on radio are also skint or getting the ads will limit the time you have to make content or force you to censor it to be family / business friendly with no guarantee of a return for the sacrifice of freedom of expression.
With pirates playing specialist dance music what happened is that record labels waived their copyright entitlement for publicity, there would be occasional ads for dance music events which part funded the station, but in many cases the DJ's themselves ended up having to contribute towards the cost of the station! And of course in some cases the sales of drugs funded certain stations. I do not suggest this, its illegal and can cause all manner of unpleasantness down the line.
For the 21st century : might as well forget about trying to make a profit from creative media. If it happens its cool but best just trying to "break even" or accepting that at least its not too expensive a hobby project compared to pirate broadcasting (or many other things) and won't usually get you in trouble! (though copyright and decency laws will be enforced against online stations if they aren't already...)
After all, you don't normally try to monetize your pet dog by trying to train it to pull shopping carts for old people, nor your pet cat by hiring it out to folk with mice and rats in their house. it probably wouldn't work and might even get you arrested under animal rights legislation in many countries! - but lots of people the world over keep pets and derive much enjoyment from them. incidentally I noticed one of the Dutch adverts on the Belgian station C-dance is for pet supplies
what might work is to link your station to a website or portal where you can sell advertising, but remember people who listen to online music already detest being aggressively marketed to and expect a substantial amount of content for free (though they will pay for live events and well produced/high quality content).
Even with normal radio stations smaller specialist ones are losing money- there was an article in the British Guardian newspaper about one with national reach where the owner has had to put in £3 million of his own money and is still making a financial loss)
Also with intense and ruthless competition, long ad breaks will make people tune out to another station, the businesses who advertise on radio are also skint or getting the ads will limit the time you have to make content or force you to censor it to be family / business friendly with no guarantee of a return for the sacrifice of freedom of expression.
With pirates playing specialist dance music what happened is that record labels waived their copyright entitlement for publicity, there would be occasional ads for dance music events which part funded the station, but in many cases the DJ's themselves ended up having to contribute towards the cost of the station! And of course in some cases the sales of drugs funded certain stations. I do not suggest this, its illegal and can cause all manner of unpleasantness down the line.
For the 21st century : might as well forget about trying to make a profit from creative media. If it happens its cool but best just trying to "break even" or accepting that at least its not too expensive a hobby project compared to pirate broadcasting (or many other things) and won't usually get you in trouble! (though copyright and decency laws will be enforced against online stations if they aren't already...)
After all, you don't normally try to monetize your pet dog by trying to train it to pull shopping carts for old people, nor your pet cat by hiring it out to folk with mice and rats in their house. it probably wouldn't work and might even get you arrested under animal rights legislation in many countries! - but lots of people the world over keep pets and derive much enjoyment from them. incidentally I noticed one of the Dutch adverts on the Belgian station C-dance is for pet supplies
what might work is to link your station to a website or portal where you can sell advertising, but remember people who listen to online music already detest being aggressively marketed to and expect a substantial amount of content for free (though they will pay for live events and well produced/high quality content).
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rocketradio
Member
If I may add my thoughts to this thread:
We set out with our station to make it a business, not just a hobby and acted accordingly.
What we have found is that small businesses are crying out for value for money, easy in / easy out ways of marketing their business.
Consequently, we have pitched a "30 days free advertising" offer at local businesses and it has worked. We charge £84 for the creation of a good radio jingle and yes we retain some of that money.
This is what might be termed a "loss leader". We get them in with a free offer and then try to upsell a longer period of advertising, and we have succeeded at that too, having secured a 6 month contract worth £1800.
We have sold 23 of the 30 day packages and currently have 9 businesses to target for the upsell.
We play adverts grouped together once an hour, so as to minimise listeners switching off and we haven't seen that happening to be honest.
At the very least the revenue from the free period covers our costs and in month 1 of this year's finances we just made a £320 profit and that's after we bought all of our DJ's new voice recorders from China!
Now I am not disagreeing with General Lighting because he has got a terrific insight into the entire industry, but what I would say is that if you intend to create a business, you should be able to do so. If you are happy with an expensive hobby, then that's sound too.
One thing I will say that we have learned is that its all about content. Good content well advertised will bring listeners, listeners will bring advertisers.
We set out with our station to make it a business, not just a hobby and acted accordingly.
What we have found is that small businesses are crying out for value for money, easy in / easy out ways of marketing their business.
Consequently, we have pitched a "30 days free advertising" offer at local businesses and it has worked. We charge £84 for the creation of a good radio jingle and yes we retain some of that money.
This is what might be termed a "loss leader". We get them in with a free offer and then try to upsell a longer period of advertising, and we have succeeded at that too, having secured a 6 month contract worth £1800.
We have sold 23 of the 30 day packages and currently have 9 businesses to target for the upsell.
We play adverts grouped together once an hour, so as to minimise listeners switching off and we haven't seen that happening to be honest.
At the very least the revenue from the free period covers our costs and in month 1 of this year's finances we just made a £320 profit and that's after we bought all of our DJ's new voice recorders from China!
Now I am not disagreeing with General Lighting because he has got a terrific insight into the entire industry, but what I would say is that if you intend to create a business, you should be able to do so. If you are happy with an expensive hobby, then that's sound too.
One thing I will say that we have learned is that its all about content. Good content well advertised will bring listeners, listeners will bring advertisers.
This is the biggest factor. A lot of people outside Merseyside support LFC (I believe the popular trance DJ Ørjan Nilsen does, and he is in Norway!) Ads every hour is about the same as most of the Band II pirates and licensed community stations did, and would not interrupt something like a report of a football match.
Similarly for dance stations with actual beatmatched mixing and not robo-playouts of unmixed tracks shows are usually blocks of 1 hour - and well placed ads/jingles can even give the DJ a welcome break to select new tracks, or to change BPM range..
Though with both pirates and community stations most people end up subsidising the station with time working for free, even if they can cover the expenses. The mainstream industry is also having major issues paying its newer staff a living wage (that goes throughout all creative industries!).
the biggest problem that gets carried across from normal radio (especially from countries with big commercial networks laying off staff who then want to understandably set up their own online station) is folk think they can either keep show clocks which devote excessive of time to ads breaking up the content, or spend more time trying to get advertisers than making content, which is why folk gave up listening to "clone FM" !
telabadmanwot
New Member
it also makes you look like your promoting them. maybe your post should have been a new thread. but while this thread has been dug up from the grave, for anybody reading, anfield fm really is on to something with the way they advertise and make money, if your starting a new station, take note of the successful stations around you.
I have a rather unusual view of things in the internet radio market. I believe the "rules of radio" that have been tried and tested for years and years simply do not apply to us. Gone are the days where a radio station needed big studios full of expensive equipment where certain things worked and certain things did not. I think we are in a situation where we can literally break the mould of traditional radio values and that includes ad sales.
People dont like to listen to ads on the radio yet we need them to survive. Damned if you do & dont situation. But I think an even ground can be found, perhaps by limiting the number of ads per hour and keeping them short individually. I don't intend on playing more than 3 ads per hour (I've no real idea how this compares to other stations online or fm) and as you grow in audience you put value in those 3 ad spaces. If it is working for the advertiser and they are happy with the service so far then they will be happy to pay more so they don't lose that limited space to someone else.
You also need to make sure your brand is right and that it is something the public like and the advertisers will WANT to be part of.
Old School. New Rules.
(roddy piper)
People dont like to listen to ads on the radio yet we need them to survive. Damned if you do & dont situation. But I think an even ground can be found, perhaps by limiting the number of ads per hour and keeping them short individually. I don't intend on playing more than 3 ads per hour (I've no real idea how this compares to other stations online or fm) and as you grow in audience you put value in those 3 ad spaces. If it is working for the advertiser and they are happy with the service so far then they will be happy to pay more so they don't lose that limited space to someone else.
You also need to make sure your brand is right and that it is something the public like and the advertisers will WANT to be part of.
Old School. New Rules.
(roddy piper)
I'm not even a big footy enthusiast but I know how passionate folk are about it (similar to EDM).
A big part of this is the networking arrangement they have got with a major club which is as good as what the national / international broadcasters have if not better as it can concentrate on that club...
actually the same rules as the old school band II pirates - usually 3 ads per hour 30 secs,.normally advertising music events. Similar exists on ICR-FM but we have ads for a computer shop (which sold out of all its stock first week of TX), First Aid courses, and local music events.
At least you don't have to play them out using tape cassettes with the leader removed (a very fiddly business) for "instant start"!
PVR is funded through ads on the website forum and also forum subscriptions. There aren't any ads on the actual radio streams (ironically as our reach is so global its difficult to target any products to this diverse market) which is why we are eating into the listener base of the Hilversum "youth" stations like Slam FM, I tuned into their hardstyle stream and it was just auto DJ tracks (not even mixed or with a presenter) and I had to see a video advert for stomach pain remedy before I could listen. Ok for me that was just a free Dutch lesson but I can see how it would annoy the young target listeners.
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