Costs/ Fees

[Clayton Douglas]

in general (brief) terms--- what are the costs/fees for operating an internet"radio" station? I mean about how much does it cost? music/royalty fees? streaming fees? equipment/ programming fees? and I suppose advertising is the only way to support it ?

 

[palalwanabe]

Good place to start is, contact live365.com, thay have different plans. The different plans address many scenario's. Try them and ask.

Pal Al wannabe

 

[radioboy]

Clayton,

The costs can vary depending on how much you want to put into it.

For example, a "personal" station on Live365 cannot sell instream ads. You can only sell ads on your website, use affiliate links, request donations, etc..but not on the stream itself. These stations cost in the neighborhood of $30-40 a month and are basically "hobbyist" stations. Not to say they are not professional in most cases, but they are classed as "personal."

Pro stations on Live365 start at $107 a month. That is for the intro package. If you go over a set amount of listener hours, those extra hours equal extra money. They can launch players from their websites, run ads,
do on air promotions and such.

I have had a station on Live365 since July 2001. It has survived primarily on donations, but overall, it does not make money. With the royalty mess going on, I have not felt like trying to build a business that could crimble any day. If there is ever a satisfactory outcome, I will definitely consider upgrading.

Because I also have 2 studios and a sister Part 15 AM, I would guess I have about $10k in everything.
The Part 15 runs some ads; the internet station carries only Live365 network ads.

 

[DHMRadio]

For the station i am PD of (Fly 104.9) for the past 6 months we just got the bill in for ($2,400.31) which is not bad from covering 6 months, BUT that is only SESAC. That doesnt count ASCAP, BMI, SoundExchange. ???

 

[radiorob2.0]

We pay a Content Delivery Provider for the stream. There is also Digital Rights Management encryption which now looks like it might be an option at this point. Many major companies are ending DRM since it doesn't do much to prevent piracy (We’re planning to drop DRM on our stream ). Of course, there is ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and Sound Exchange fees per stream. ASCAP and BMI are a yearly expense, SESAC is twice a year based on Aggregate Tuning Hours, while Sound Exchange is yearly along with a monthly fee depending on ATH and if the status of your stream (commercial and non-commercial). If you're just starting up then you won't have to worry about retro fees. Your mileage may vary.