Internet startup question

[Hearitloudradio]

I'm Thinking of starting an internet only radio station.... Probably talk with a little bit of music thrown in. Where do i start? What is a reasonable estimate of how much it costs per listener? How many people are REALLY listening to independent sites (not aol radio, or yahoo) If i go with something like shoutcast or live365, how many listeners would i be able to handle? I want to start a station, and market the crap out of it, and make it HUGE (not a max of 50 listeners), but are the costs far too great???? can anyone help?

 

[vsa]

Hearitloudradio wrote: "Where do i start?"

Go to: Shoutcast.com . The number of listeners currently tuned-in is listed next to each station's MP3 or AAC+ Shoutcast-served stream.

Also, go to: KurtHanson.com .

Then, use Google. It's a great search engine.

 

[RadioMan203]

It also depends on what you want to do. If you want to do a stream and have the music royalties paid for at the same time (to be DMCA compliant) you can use a service like Live365. Otherwise you'll have to get your own stream provider and pay royalties either using a service like LoudCity or SWCast or, if you have the pockets, pay the royalties directly to ASCAP/BMI/SESAC and SoundExchange. It's not cheap being legal, which is why I decided to use Live365. If I can work on other avenues of funding I may break away and do it on my own, but I want to be legal.

 

[Hearitloudradio]

thanks guys.
i see on shoutcast some people's max listeners is 30,000 while others are much lower. what determines the amount of max listeners?

 

[vsa]

Max listeners = server(s) bandwidth capacity. Pay more attention to the lower of the two figures - the actual number listening - during daytime business hours. That's Internet radio's prime time. Listening levels are lower during holiday periods.

Talk is a very expensive format to do. You can eliminate music copyright/songwriter fees by not playing any music.