Advertising

[Radiofan101]

Have any internet broadcasters been able to make money yet?

I'm looking for more information about how to sell advertisements through internet radio. Is it common? How do you that?

[radiojomo]

Pandora is probably one of the companies that have made the most out of radio advertising, but with all those listening hours logged in, who knows how much their costs are.

Traditionally internet radio is EXTREMELY hard to sell, especially if you only run a small station, sure, you can sign up with TargetSpot but you'd have to pay for the AndoMedia ad insertion/reporting system that costs around $200-$300 a month plus all your other costs. If you're one of the top stations on ShoutCAST, you could easily make thousands of dollars a month (but risk losing a larger listener base due to these commercials) and can easily waive off the software monthly price. For smaller stations, paying for royalties, your audience will effect the price TargetSpot values your airtime, making this price basically a burden. It would pay off more to just sell your advertising to local businesses for $25 a piece of the website and $100 a month for airtime. It might be tricky but the more you build up your audience, the more you'll have a chance to sell airtime at a premium 

[Radiofan101]

Radiojomo, you said the key was building an audience. How do you build an audience with internet radio?

[streamer]

Licensing costs also go up if you take paid ads. If you're US based, SESAC want a rather nice piece of the pie if you take ads. Last time I ran the numbers, the other PRO's were palatable(ish) but SESAC alone killed any idea stone dead  Even if you're with Loudcity, that agreement precludes in-stream ads and you have to take out your own SESAC license for such an activity.

[gunterm]

Ando goes as low as $99 per station to license AdInjector, but I don't know if that will guarantee you ads.  We'd be willing to pay that per station to get some spots.  People operating on the free version of basic stats monitoring get nothing but the lower-paying bulk-buy AdWire spots.

[radiojomo]

Ando goes as low as $99 per station to license AdInjector, but I don't know if that will guarantee you ads.  We'd be willing to pay that per station to get some spots.  People operating on the free version of basic stats monitoring get nothing but the lower-paying bulk-buy AdWire spots.

Working with an ad agency compatible with Ando, such as TargetSpot can help you get some ads on your station based on your audience. Not sure if they're still interested in mom and pop online radio stations (especially after signing radio giants such as CBS for their ad services) but it's worth a shot!