While I'm a fan of (good) broadcast radio, I do sometimes check out streaming options. There are services such as Litt Live (formerly Dash Radio) and Jango which offer multiple streams of commercial-free music and no subscriptions (or requests for donations). The two aforementioned services have been around for a while. What I'm really wondering is... how is it financially viable for such services to operate? Anyone have any insights?
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Free Music, No Commercials... How's It Viable??
- Thread starter DrJerry
- Start date
Jango is pay for play. They charge the artists for airplay. While this is illegal for broadcast radio, known as payola, it's legal for streaming services.
Ah the good old days when the record company reps personally delivered 45's with C notes neatly tucked in the record cover.
Easily Amused
Banned
Boyce and Hart's company rep must have been in this bunch. 'I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight?' seemed to play hourly on WKBW 1520 AM back in the day.
Well... Boyce and Hart had a lot to do with the Monkees. B & H were talented and were in the studio for all of the recording sessions, sang background, wrote the show theme and Last Train to Clarksville. They were with the studio musicians that recorded the instrumental tracks for Monkees to sing on later. Some folks say "musically" Boyce and Hart were the Monkees.
They wrote Not your Stepping Stone for Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Come a Little Bit Closer for Jay & The Americans. They even got co writer credits for the theme to Days of Our Lives soap opera.
They wrote Not your Stepping Stone for Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Come a Little Bit Closer for Jay & The Americans. They even got co writer credits for the theme to Days of Our Lives soap opera.
Some of the bigger long established streaming service cover expenses and maybe some extra to keep up with equipment repair.
But many stations arent even breaking even... and the smaller bedroom hobby stations probably cost $100 or less a month to run and many guys just eat that and make very little and cant come close to covering that
Don't the music rights cost a lot more than that?
It's complicated. The fees are based on the number of users. It can be as cheap as $60 a month. But if people listen longer, the price goes up:
Live365 - Start Your Station - Pricing
Start broadcasting in minutes. All the tools and licensing in one place.
live365.com
Interesting, thanks.It's complicated. The fees are based on the number of users. It can be as cheap as $60 a month. But if people listen longer, the price goes up:
Live365 - Start Your Station - Pricing
Start broadcasting in minutes. All the tools and licensing in one place.live365.com
Iheart’s “Lost 80’s” and “Alternative Rewind” don’t have commercials but have pop up ads on the screen.
Who's watching? It's RADIO!
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Or, in your case, WADIO. 😁
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Except for that one episode of WKRP In Cincinnati where it was a controlled powdery substance instead ...
Ep, 14 - Welcome Home Johnny
January 23, 2015 Writer: Blake Hunter Director: Asaad Kelada Original Air Date: February 26, 1979 This is a strange episode to be the ...
wkrp-relived.blogspot.com
Some streaming services like TuneIn have pre roll ads and you'll hear an ad saying "click the link on your screen for..."--so in that case a screen is involved...in streaming radio
It's legal for stations if there is sponsor ID and plays are logged like the commercials they are. What is "payola" is when an employee without the consent of management plays music for money.
Cue Joe Isgro: You're on!Except for that one episode of WKRP In Cincinnati where it was a controlled powdery substance instead ...
Ep, 14 - Welcome Home Johnny
January 23, 2015 Writer: Blake Hunter Director: Asaad Kelada Original Air Date: February 26, 1979 This is a strange episode to be the ...
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Deleted member 76036
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I’m not a fan of how TuneIn operates lately. In addition to the pre-roll ads, they now interrupt live streaming stations to play their own ads. It’s incredibly annoying. There used to be a way to just pay them for no ads and I used to do this. It also let me record stations. However, now they require you to subscribe to their other premium services which I have no desire to do and they no longer offer the recording option. At least I don’t believe so.
Also, a long time ago, I created an online station and ran it for about 6 months. I did it just for fun, as a friend had given me a ton of high quality Shoutcast streams for dirt cheap. Because of that, I just covered the rest of the costs. If I had planned for this to be more than long term, I would’ve done things quite a bit differently.
In the late 90s, when Don Imus was still syndicated nationally, he started bitching about what a pain his then-current job was and said:
"I don't usually live in the past, but I miss the old days at WNBC where I could start a panic by calling Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records around 9:15 and saying "If the cocaine's not here by 9:55, the Stones aren't getting played this morning."
I had to wait for an ad the last couple of times I listened to WLML. It's a commercial station! There are ads! So I will hear those.
I haven't observed that lately, but I know TuneIn has paused live streams to insert ads in the past when streaming from a web browser. Not sure if that's because it isn't being done anymore or because I listen to stations that pay for their listings. From what I understood at the time, it did that to stations that didn't pay for its TuneIn OnAir service.
I seem to remember TuneIn discontinued the recording service because of copyright issues in Europe. TuneIn Pro isn't much different from the free TuneIn app at this point. I understand the free version has banner ads the pro version doesn't, and TuenIn Pro still allows you to add your own streaming links (when it works, anyway).
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