MAKING MONEY WITH INTERNET RADIO

[radiojomo]

Boys, let's talk about something that I haven't seen on this board in a while.
I just signed on to help a friend with a new internet radio project. Now I've done many internet radio projects before, but we always ended up losing TOO MUCH MONEY. Mainly because we were growing TOO fast and didn't have any clear monetization strategies.
So how do you guys do it? Any strategies you guys want to share?
All tips and tricks are appreciated. Thank you!

[TheX-KXRX]

Well you are correct about most Internet Station owners thinking that they can fire up a station and over night have a huge audience and begin selling airtime to the local chevy dealer and turn a profit just like that.....

Reality is the smart station owner first develops a quality playlist and looks for unique content that can set his station apart, then he works hard to get the word out and build an audience... Once there is a large dedicated following that is the time you can ease into selling some air time and seeking advertisers.

I have worked three years building my network of stations and the majority of the cost came directly out of my pocket and it has been anything but easy but I hung in there and now we have people coming to us wanting to be involved with RDSN advertising or doing special promotional events and things.

We have also created some great unique programming which we are syndicating to other stations.

Put in the work first and the rest will follow....

[radiojomo]

Thanks for chiming in TheX. Obviously, I've been at this many times and I've been on this board for quite some time and I remember when you launched KXRX. Very happy to see that you've done a good job with it and are enjoying success.
I have been a part of stations that had a solid listening base (for example, one would regularly attain 300 listeners at its peak). People would often like the Facebook page, follow the Twitter page, send emails about how they were liking the playlist, etc.
But when it came to donations (which this station tried to save itself with) or supporting our sponsors, this support was non-existent . Now, I really don't want to make this comment, but it seems that one of the biggest problems for small, independent internet broadcasters is who the listeners think we are. Some listeners think we're a huge company running around with a bunch of money. Some listeners think we're making millions of dollars off the broadcast. When the reality is, most of us can't even break even when it comes to the station.
When I shut down my last radio station, many of my listeners tried to save it through a Facebook page and tried to start up a petition to keep it running. I simply gave them a simple response when I saw the page. Just give me the money, and I'll do it. They asked how much, I gave them the rough estimate, at least $100 a month.
I got no response.
Listeners think we can just put a bunch of ads on the station and make a bunch of money. But it's not as easy as that sounds. First, you have to have the proper licenses in your stream. Then, you have to go out and sell your radio station with a cume of a few thousand listeners to a bunch of businesses that would rather advertise in the yellow pages than your internet station. You sell the ad at a drastically reduced price. Then, you have to produce a radio ad if they don't have one and possibly alienate your audience through putting these ads in the stream.
So the question that I want to ask all of you broadcasters out there is:
Is this what you're doing? Or are you trying to break barriers and do something different to make money with online radio?

[TheX-KXRX]

There is an old saying "It takes money to make money" and unfortunately for most internet broadcasters that holds very true. It is a double edge sword and a razor thin blade you walk when you are a small station starting out.

On one hand you want to appear as the underdog, the regular Joe to your listeners and hope they will support you and if its donations, subscriptions, or just loyal listening habits that they will identify with you and be there to support you.

What endears you to listeners is usually polar opposite of what real honest to goodness advertisers want. They want to do business with professionals in every form from your web presence, on-air programming, to sales executives behind the scenes. Most will run the other way if they catch a whiff of a hobbyist type station.

I don't claim to have all of the answers and I might not be overflowing my pockets with cash, but I have created a professional looking, sounding, and working network of stations and it has opened up doors and opportunities I never imagined I would have.

Last year we sponsored two stops on the Monster Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and were the only media allowed to broadcast lice from within the venue backstage. We also sponsored a Metal festival called Slaughter By The Water outside of S.F.... We were the only media that was allowed to broadcast live from the Red Carpet at the L.A. Music Awards.... This year we have already been to SXSW down in Texas and interviewed a ton of artists. We will be broadcasting live from Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle...

And we have had some amazing sponsors come on board for promotions, Epiphone Guitars, UbiSoft Games, Monster Energy Drink and many others....

At some point you have to decide how far you want this venture to go, is it a hobby that you want to pay for itself, or are you in it to do something larger?

If its the latter then you either have to have the money to make the money, or you have to appear to have the money to give you the opportunity to make some money and get in the game and that is what we did.

It's like poker, you don't have to have the Royal Flush to beat your opponents, but you do have to make them think you do....

[DIRTYSOUTHRADIO]

my stations been on the air now 11 years ive spent over 125.000 or more on the station our playlist is unique we are  the number 1 dirty south rap station we have won 7 awards from the southern entertainment award show 1 award for web site the year  5 awards for internet radio station of the year they change the category this past year where all radio station where in the same category fm station & internet station and i still one this year for ( radio station of the year ) i can gain the votes to win but cant get people to donate make no sense to me but thats the way it is

how i make money i charge for banner adds i charge artist to have there music played on the station i break even every month just doing that ive been doing that since i stated wish i was making bank but im not people ask me why i do it im hoping one days its going to pay off

[NightAire]

I'm impressed with what your station has won, DirtySouth, but I do wish you would buy a punctuation mark and / or a capital letter.   

[DIRTYSOUTHRADIO]

sorry about that writeing is not really my fortay

[deltas69]

Or spelling........lol  but kadoo's to your station     

[Tom Wells]

Since 1993 I've been on the air  on 1620 and developing more and more as automation, etc became affordable.

I run many advertisements beecause I see the commercials as (sometimes) necessary breaks between elements.
Non of them are "paid for", they're the best, most fun commercials ever, fun to hear or great jingle music, etc.

I thought about streaming but cannot afford another internet service feed. 
The existing service is only 768/384 kbps udown/up.

Another service at to acccomodate the up data is not affordable, then yet MORE for streamng?

And then evern MORE to pay royalties?

And then I couldn't run the "fake" commercials I love and have "endorsed" by adopting them.

It keeps sounding less and less like a station I want to be involved with.

With AM pt 15, for me, there are tens of thousands within the half mile or so radius, so it's worth it.
The local neighborhood has dozens of businesses that could gain from advertising, but somehow the whole
broadcast would be different if it got tied nto the idea of making money.

For me it almost has to be an unpaid-for environment for me to do my best.
It's an integrity thing for me.
Not that anyone else should not making be money in radio or streaming, I'm fine there.
 

I will keep using the good ol' airwaves until the internet behaves a LOT more like them.

Now, if someone hears the on-air product and streams that up, I'm OK with that.
If someone hears the on-air product and wants to put it on a commercial signal, I'll
figure out how to make the formatics work with living breathing advertisements. 

[Godsmoney360]

I would like to say that I havent been at it as long as DSR but I have a formula that I am perfecting. You can check it at http://www.wsuionline.com allowing indie artist to submit and market their content on my station is my formula. We are a Urban Soul Variety station. We engage our listeners by allowing them to control the programming of course you have to register. We also have apps for all the smart phones where we also give access to program our playlist from as well...its a good formula and its working. [EDIT*] We are also licensed so they know their spins count! You can also get to the site from this address as well http://www.onlineinternetradio.com

[EDIT*-advertising prohibited within the discussion per the site's terms of service]