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Internet Radio Audience :

R

Radio-Bored-Op

If any one had the answer to this question
everyone would be successful but here it goes...

how do you get listeners to find & stay ?

a few thoughts:
my internet station isn't just playing
one song after another ;
I'm live daily and reach out to have "regular" persons have their own show
with the intent to give them a viand normally but available on a Terrestrial Radio station _ and hoping they ask
a few friends to tune in and grow from there.

any input will be helpful, thanks in advance
 
It's the approach. You need to fill a need. What is it that is wanted among online listeners that you can do better?

How you can keep the listener is consensus. Some say playing as many songs as possible but in reality, after you get past the biggest songs, everybody wants something different and it's never the same as the next guy. Sticking with a solid playlist everyone loves is the key.

Examine you and your friend's listening habits? What makes you switch to another station? Analyz how you keep them listening.

An operator or owner is not doing what they want but rather what their audience wants. So your position needs to be doing what your audience wants, not what you want. If you are very lucky you'll like the end product too.
 
TheBigA said:
One word: Marketing. You're a needle in a haystack, and you need to find a way to stand out from the pack. Work on search engine optimization. If people search for what you're doing, it needs to be top of the list. You're not in the radio business. You're in the internet business.
Click to expand...
From personal experience....SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is not cheap, and be wary of scam companies that offer digital marketing, fully vet them first For an effective marketing program, be prepared to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Granted, things may have changed with digital marketing in the past 10 years since my last experience.

As a business looking to grow a customer base, SEO makes a lot of sense when it comes to ROI, but as an internet radio station looking to bring in more listeners who won't be adding to any cash flow....is throwing your money away.
 
KilowattKat said:
As a business looking to grow a customer base, SEO makes a lot of sense when it comes to ROI, but as an internet radio station looking to bring in more listeners who won't be adding to any cash flow....is throwing your money away.
Click to expand...

He's looking for traffic. You can't attract traffic to a website using just traditional radio techniques. Lots of great programmers, including John Rook, have tried.
 
TheBigA said:
One word: Marketing. You're a needle in a haystack, and you need to find a way to stand out from the pack. Work on search engine optimization. If people search for what you're doing, it needs to be top of the list. You're not in the radio business. You're in the internet business.
Click to expand...

TheBigA's last sentence is key. Doing Internet radio and doing terrestrial radio, though similar, are different animals. Terrestrial radio stations, no matter where and no matter what band you use, require government licenses to operate. You have to make sure you *always* follow the rules, especially those rules regarding minimum and maximum power outputs, antenna height, transmitter location, and staying on frequency. You also have to follow noncommercial sponsorship rules if you were running a noncommercial outlet and make sure to remember to be on the air at the time your license says that you should be on the air. On the positive side, even the largest cities have limits (because of the limited number of frequencies available) which usually (unless your programming skills are absolute rubbish) means that somebody will be tuning in.

Internet radio is, as I indicated, a different animal altogether. There are no government licenses involved since there are no transmitters, antennas, or frequencies involved. You do have to worry about covering your costs though if you're a music outlet because along with ASCAP and BMI, you now have to worry about paying SoundExchange. There are also rules based on copyright law about how many songs by one artist can be played in a row or even during a three-hour period. In addition, the number of Internet stations available is much less limited than the number of over-the-air stations available because there are no frequencies involved.

With all of that said, I would follow the advice given by both B-Turner and TheBigA. Figure out who your audience is, what they wish to hear on the Internet that they can't hear on the radio, and then play to that audience, keeping tabs on any changes in what they wish to hear. The only additional advice I have to give would be to figure out beforehand how much you and your station can afford to pay ASCAP, BMI, and SoundExchange beforehand and then place limits on the total number of people who can listen to your Internet station at any given time to stay within that financial limit.

Good luck!
 
To the OP,

From my perspective, Internet Radio is now in a more advantageous spot than it was some 20 plus years ago.
Back then bitrates were low (thus crappy sound) and you had to listen from a desktop computer.

Now, with the increased and better mobile/cell coverage we have today, a lot more people are streaming content on their phone - it could be even argued more than listening to traditional AM/FM radio.

That said, if I were in your position, I would think and act like traditional AM/FM radio for your internet station - that is "be local, not global".

Unless you have a huge marketing and SEO budget as mentioned in previous posts, you're a needle in a large haystack.

If you're in a small town/city, use that to your advantage. Brand yourself as that town's (internet) radio station. Email every not-for-profit group in town, mention you're the new radio station in town and we'll give them a free plug (interviews/public service announcements). Do a couple of "outside broadcasts" at school fetes or local markets. Walk around town wearing the station's polo. Drive around town with a station branded car (go the cheaper magnets version).

If there's a locally run/operated newspaper in town, get on friendly terms with them. Not only might they plug you, talk about creating an app together - their news and your radio feed.

Ideally, if you can pick your market, aim for those where larger networks are pumped in (over AM/FM) but have no local presence.
 
MrCrumpets said:
Now, with the increased and better mobile/cell coverage we have today, a lot more people are streaming content on their phone - it could be even argued more than listening to traditional AM/FM radio.
Click to expand...

The most recent information I've seen is that broadcast radio listening is higher in rural areas than urban areas. But the majority of the streaming being done is for unhosted music, not linear hosted radio. Audience for that is smaller than broadcast, because there's so much competition.

MrCrumpets said:
That said, if I were in your position, I would think and act like traditional AM/FM radio for your internet station - that is "be local, not global".
Click to expand...

It depends on your goal. If you want to reach people, be local. If you want to make money, be global. Because if you manage to get 10,000 people documented as listening, that's a drop in the bucket for advertisers. They can reach more people, even locally, with news or user-generated content than with a broadcast-style radio station. But if you appeal to a global market, you have a better chance of breaking even.
 
Ah, the truth is sinking in as the wisdom from so many answers combines.

The big challenge for the independent stream programmer is making people know you are out there. And you have hundreds -- no, make that thousands -- of competing streams which you are essentially lost somewhere in the middle of. Marketing is indeed not cheap; as @KilowattKat said, SEO isn't cheap, and with so many other streams out there, even marketing can't make you the choice for your target listeners.

It's no surprise that the lion's share of streaming comes from the major players, who can both aggregate various genres into a single app and promote, promote, promote. It's even more so for podcasts; if you listen to any podcast at iHeart, for example, I can guarantee that at least two of the commercial inserts promote other podcasts. Even if you could convince other streamers to include spots for your stream, you simply don't have the strength of numbers behind you.

And what @TheBigA posted while I was writing this is correct, not just from the question of advertiser interest but the question of someone finding you in the first place. Any independent stream is akin to the proverbial needle in a haystack.

And now we get to the part that most people who want to attract an audience for their stream will hate the most: Your niche programming, consisting of songs that are your personal favorites that "no one else plays" is not going to get you a loyal, returning audience. You're going to have to adopt a lot of the same programming techniques as terrestrial radio does. We get return listeners by consistently playing the songs that have been shown to be consensus favorites. Stray too far from that and there's always going to be other streams for the listener to switch to.

What BigA said about a global audience is right on the money, but that means you have to be as mass appeal as AM/FM is. Even SiriusXM's "niche" channels are heavy on the familiar favorites; you don't hear them play one low charting song after another.

Yes, you can do the local version of global, as @MrCrumpets suggests, and his advice for doing that rings true with me as a programmer. But you are still going to have to be "all things to all people" in terms of music, and I suspect that goes against the philosophy of those who want to start streams in the first place.

Get the programming right in terms of holding the audience once they find you, do whatever marketing you can afford, and then resist the temptation to get too creative.

But don't think the world is just waiting for someone to play them the B-side of the lowest charting hit by the Dave Clark Five. They're not. You have the same challenge as the rest of us, and that is creating something listeners will come back to over and over again.
 
K.M. Richards said:
What BigA said about a global audience is right on the money, but that means you have to be as mass appeal as AM/FM is.
Click to expand...

The other way to do it is to run a dozen internet stations, each one aimed at a different audience. There are no ownership limits in internet radio. No rules you have to follow. So create a bunch of stations but sell them as a group. That way, you might reach a sellable audience number. Maybe. The more stations, the more likely you'll reach the magic number. That's what the big boys do.
 
"Maybe" being the operative word for "don't get your hopes up too high".
 
I started my online station early last year. I've always enjoyed listening to "local" radio and when the last one sold out in our town, that was the push I needed to start it. I agree with some of the above comments, there are to many other choices doing the same thing as you to try to make it at a national level in my opinion. I focus on our area locally, and the advertisers I have are all local small businesses but one. Not sure how easy it would be to try and sell to advertisers nationally.
 
ac175 said:
Not sure how easy it would be to try and sell to advertisers nationally.
Click to expand...

I suspect you would have to align yourself with the major players for that to happen, and it sounds to me that you are doing fine with the "serve the locals" model.

I think you are on the right track.
 
ac175 said:
Not sure how easy it would be to try and sell to advertisers nationally.
Click to expand...
You wouldn't. What possible benefit would Progressive or Chevrolet gain by advertising on a webstream with 10 or 20 concurrent listeners?

That's the biggest problem with hobbyist streams. They have no audience in the beginning, so they don't have money to market themselves or hire staff, then the owner gets tired of subsidizing it and closes it down. You might be able to get decent advertiser support with enough listeners, but few streams have the funding to support large listenership.

When someone buys a traditional radio station, they mostly realize they have an asset that requires investment, and the budget accordingly when they buy.
 
Yes anybody doing an online station for the money is barking up the wrong tree. Although the same can probably be said for anyone doing terrestrial radio as well. I at last break even with the advertisers and sponsors I have. I'm also blessed enough I can spare some extra cash every month to fund it, if need be. You have to have a passion for the music or content you play. And the nice comments and folks thanking you for playing music they don't hear on the radio anymore may be the only "payment" you really receive.
 
ac175 said:
Yes anybody doing an online station for the money is barking up the wrong tree. Although the same can probably be said for anyone doing terrestrial radio as well.
Click to expand...

I can only say that the stations I program for my clients are making money on local ad sales, because they know how to market it. And that's also where mass appeal formats hold on when niche formats don't: If a local advertiser likes a local station and the account executive turns up at his store one day with a sales pitch, that business owner is likely to buy simply because he knows and likes the station and wants to reach others with the same opinion of the music, etc. ... on the presumption that like-minded people will be good customers for him.

If you do an online station for your local, hometown audience it is entirely possible that you can find a few local businesses with the same mindset and at least get enough ad revenue from them to cover your costs. That's not doing too bad in this day and age.
 
I would say if you are in a smaller community and will identify with that community in your streaming content, you could possibly make enough to make enough money to sustain and put aside a few dollars for emergencies.

The first thing is don't get stuck on radio. Sell mentions on air with a supporter's page where the client entices the visitor to their website. Sell social media posts all as a low priced package using one of those type in and save self-created websites. I'm thinking about $20 or $30 a month. Go after the cottage business or those started at home. You're not after the big boy but the smaller of the businesses around.

Texas Public Radio and KCME in Colorado do Business Memberships getting you an on air mention and listing in the sponsor page. Lots of folks love this for some reason. I think KCME charges $120 a year but it seems the rates are now missing. I especially like KCME's Business Directory. Here's links:
support.tpr.org

KPAC 88.3 San Antonio

support.tpr.org support.tpr.org

The above means no spots to write and client writes what goes on business directory and always allow them a picture.

There's no reason a bunch of small businesses couldn't kick in $20 a month on an automatic bank draft for the online publicity as long as you are providing a service local people will listen to.
 
ac175 said:
I started my online station early last year. I've always enjoyed listening to "local" radio and when the last one sold out in our town, that was the push I needed to start it. I agree with some of the above comments, there are to many other choices doing the same thing as you to try to make it at a national level in my opinion. I focus on our area locally, and the advertisers I have are all local small businesses but one. Not sure how easy it would be to try and sell to advertisers nationally.
Click to expand...
This is key, you need a USP. I'm not going to make the effort to go online and tune into a totally unknown station playing a generic could-be-anywhere CHR or AC format that I can get more easily by tuning into an established broadcast station with a known brand, marketing etc.

What gets me tuned into online stations is when they give me something unique. Sometimes, that's localness in a market where most stations have lost it, or where there's never been a local station but new technology makes it viable. Sometimes it's a unique music format I can't get locally.
 


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