Internet Radio Station Business Overview
Internet radio involves a streaming medium that presents listeners with a continuous "stream" of audio over which they have no control, much like traditional broadcast media; in this respect, it is distinct from "on-demand" file serving. Internet radio is also distinct from podcasting, which involves downloading rather than streaming. Some of the first Internet-only commercial radio stations emerged in 1995.NetRadio "was one of the Internet's original Webcasters," eventually "streaming more than 100 channels including both music and spoken material. At its height, NetRadio offered more than 125 online radio stations and attracted more than 50 million listens per month, but closed shop after the dot com bust because of funding problems .
While traditional AM/FM radio stations struggle to survive in today's highly competitive world of broadcasting, Internet radio stations continue to flourish. With technology that is both affordable and easy to obtain, today's net-savvy citizens are breaking down new barriers everyday and running either Internet radio stations or talk shows.
Starting an online radio show on your own can require costly materials such as microphones, headphones, a station website and server space. However, you can eliminate all of these costs and materials by creating your own online radio show for free by signing up with BlogTalkRadio.com or a comparable platform.
If you want more control and you want a more powerful platform you can use a service such as Live265. In a few steps you can be up and running with your own radio station. There are a lot of reasons for starting up a radio station, and a lot of choices.
How To Earn An Income With Your Internet Radio Station
7 reasons why you can make a lot of money with internet radio:
1. People listen to radio while they work, on the internet and at home. There a thousands of computers on every block and in every home across North America. People love to listen to the radio on the web at work or home while doing other things. One of the fastest growing businesses on the net is multi-media. It has the big broadcasters worried. It is starting to suck into their ad time and that is where you can make a lot of money.
2. If you have your own radio show, famous people seek you out! When you are a host of your own radio show, you can invite them by phone to be on your show. Steve Harrison has a publication RTIR (Radio and TV Interview Report) that you can get signed up for at his web site, and he will send you contact information on how to get famous guests and writers on your internet radio show.
3. People buy products from people who are famous and know famous people! Imagine you on your radio show on the internet taking a short commercial break. The music pans down and the wonderful commercial plugs your book, your service, your name, and your bank account grows. Because you can implement reason 2, you now have greater credibility to sell your products or services on your own radio show. This is how to brand yourself so that you can earn more money. You become your own brand to offer to stars that they will want to associate with because of Buzz (Talk about you in certain famous or powerful social circles). You get the Buzz working for you and your show becomes ‘Hot’ property!
4. Use Affiliates Ads to get companies to send you checks for your web site. Joining an affiliate program to put banner ads on your web site where your radio show is broadcast from, gives you money for clicks or when products sell. The link affiliate company tracks the click through from your web site by a code put into cookies, and you are mailed a check for your commission on the sales. You can join one of these organizations from my web site at InstructionsToMoney.Net and we have a program to add these to your radio page when you broadcast with RIBN.
5. Advertising. Now you can, as the politicians say, do the math yourself. So you have your own show on Internet radio. If you were on normal radio, it might cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. So by being on the internet, blogging, my-space, and through other PR techniques, you got a good amount of listeners.
Your show is one hour, but you are not talking for the whole hour, you are playing ads and news pieces in between talking segments. That is where more money comes in for you. You can sell your advertising time for a few dollars. One 60 second spot on one show nationally costs over $1400.00
So let’s say you decide to sell your ad time at RIBN (Radio Internet Broadcast Network) for $600.00 a minute. RIBN puts the ad in for you and you get it all produced with little effort on your part other that finding some advertisers and talking on your show. RIBN gives you 10 minutes for your own ad time on your show. Other companies have other offers and charge more for their show time on the net (One even tried to sell me at $5,200.00 a show). So to add up your 10 minutes at your price per spot the total is $6,000.00 a show! Now last time I checked there are 52 weeks in a year. 52 times $6,000.00 equals:
That’s $312,000.00 a year!
Now if you’re making that on one hour, couldn’t you double it on two? Why sure you could. Then your total would be $624,000.00 a year and you could do it from your home with a simple computer with only a few modifications.
RIBN will do practically every thing for you from mixing your show and also setting up archive in mp3 podcast format. RIBN is for doing the work for you. It saves you time to be able to talk with companies about advertising on your radio show so it is well worth the small investment for you to have RIBN doing it.
RIBN is the first network of it’s kind that provides media content for free to their hosts and reporters. With RIBN I don’t need any special equipment to get what I need done and they produce my content to some degree. They also allow music programming with a small annual fee for royalties for the music companies. ASCAP and BMI will allow you to play any other their song writer’s music for just a few hundred dollars a year in a license fee.
Now when you first get started, you may not be able to sell time at that price. You will need time to get known and build a listening audience, so lets say you sell your 10 minutes on your radio show for $100.00 each. That is still $1,000.00 a show and you would be making $52,000.00 a year! That is awesome if you ask me.
6. Free news content to add to your radio internet broadcast. RIBN has resources such as Media Link, PR Web, and other providers that have free news or story segments that you can add to your show. Information about IRA’s or real estate are just one click away on the internet to be added to your show. You can read the segments over the phone and have the audio put on your show, or some come in audio web ready formats already. You can obtain more information from RIBN when you sign up for a show with them.
This is good content professionally done so you sound like the big networks and it is free because advertisers get their branding put into the news story with media link and they have already paid for the story to be produced.
This makes it easy for you to have a professional show by using the resources on the web to make you sound like Fox News, ABC, or NBC with out having to hire the big staff to get the piece performed. They allow companies to use this as long as they are a news agency. Working with RIBN makes it easier because they are an internet news agency.
Your show on RIBN is syndicated and you are given every resource to get a quality broadcast up and running in as little time as possible. You can produce a show any way you like with RIBN with only tow exceptions:
Follow all FCC rules and NO FOWL, HATEFUL, OR LUDE LANGUAGE. RIBN is a network that is family friendly so you get more listeners and can sell your ad time to more companies.
7.Ways you can say things that will make you more money. Did you know that the ad agencies on Madison Avenue have psychologists that teach people how to say things in commercials that make them sell? The old ad for Chevrolet that said: “See the USA in YOUR brand new Chevrolet” was designed to make you think of the car as YOURS! You can observe and hear the same things on infomercials on late night TV. The man with the British accent says: "Isn’t that great, Wow, that so amazing, wouldn’t you agree?”These are what sales professionals call closing statements. Phrases of words that get people to buy their products or services. You can use these phrases in your presentation on your radio show to get people to buy your products also. The phrases I use are:
Isn’t it
Wasn’t it
Couldn’t it
Shouldn’t it
Isn’t that true
Don’t you think that’s true?
Wouldn’t you agree?
By having your commercials on a radio show and talking about your products to thousands of listeners on internet radio, using these phrases, you could sell a lot of products, wouldn’t you agree?
Of course you would because the natural response to this question is yes. That is the psychology of using these sentences to make a person want what you have on the radio.
With practice, you will learn to paint ideas and pictures in the minds of your listeners so that they will naturally go to your web site or call your ORDER LINE number. With this knowledge you can also create commercials for your advertisers and increase your marketability by knowing how to produce more customers responding to your advertiser’s spots on your radio show.
One other key phrase you’ll learn to use is a ‘Which’ Question. Now which would you prefer, a one time payment of 9 hundred and 69 dollars or three easy payments of 5 sixty 5?
Notice that by using a ‘which’ question you do not have the options to say no. You only have a choice to pick between two purchase choices.
Can you see how powerful that can be? You can create small marketing seminars on your radio show to close a person to buy your books and products with out ever giving them the choice not to buy!
Ways to network with other authors and earn even more money.
By having your own radio show with RIBN you can meet authors, business persons, and writers who are on the same path to wealth as you. Some of them will be open to associations and partnerships of mutual benefit that will help you make more money. Once you have proven yourself as faithful allies and have them on your radio show, you can establish friendships so that you can network your interests and perhaps invest in businesses or real estate together. One of the greatest sales trainers in the world with books, courses, and a company that trains people to be successful, Zig Ziglar puts it this way:
“You can get anything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want”
Streaming or Podcasting: Which Should You Use?
There are more choices today for creating and distributing your own Radio program than any time in history!
That’s really amazing when you think of it. What used to only be only possible through AM and FM radio stations (aside from amateur radio) can now be done through the Internet via streaming or Podcasting. What's more: for practically nothing, you can reach a global audience!
Anyone with a small budget can create their own Internet Radio station to air his or her own programs. Or, you can spend practically no money and Podcast. Podcasting has quickly become cost efficient and in some cases, free. Plus: it’s now easier than ever to create your own Podcast and you don't need to learn any coding.
The Main Difference - Delivery
The main difference between streaming audio and Podcasting is the distribution method and the content load.
Generally, a streaming station can carry more than one program continuously, should you choose. That means you can webcast you all day and all night. All someone needs to do is have a software player to tune in.
Streaming means you're serving up the audio and wherever it is in your programming schedule is where the listener will start listening when he/she tunes in.
Podcasting is different. Podcasts are usually smaller, self-contained programs which are pre-recorded by you and uploaded to a location (server) where they reside until a listener decides to retrieve the audio program. The listener decides which program to listen to and when.
If you air your Radio program on your own Internet radio station, you should keep in mind that the stream will most likely be available 24-hours-a-day. You might want to continuously loop your program and as you add more, just fill in the schedule. Or, you might want to offer space on your station to others who are creating similar programs. And remember: when using a provider like Live365.com (Buy Direct) to host a stream, you can create pre-recorded shows (or programming segments) or do live broadcasts. There’s a lot of flexibility for very little cost.
If the thought of being the “Program Director” of an Internet radio station as well as a “talent” creating a program seems a little much, then consider starting out offering your show as a Podcast.
Podcasting Can be a Simpler Solution
Podcasts are very flexible. You can create any length show, as often or as seldom as you like. Then, you can upload it into your blog or Podcast provider and let listeners retrieve it and listen as they like.
Once you create a show it will be available as long as you wish. Using Podcasts, you can quickly build a library of shows to offer listeners.
Podcasts are generally recorded ahead of time, allowing you to fuss and mix everything just right. Although all you need is an inexpensive microphone and your computer to create a simple Podcast, some enthusiasts create elaborate sound studios in their home or office to build very professional shows. This is a personal preference. I advise people to start out slow and small and see how you like it. Then, as you grow so can your tools.
There are many resources for both creating programs on streaming Internet Radio stations or as Podcasts.
If you already have decided that you want to stream an Internet station from your own server and you're looking for Windows or MAC sofware solutions, see the Server Software for Streaming Audio and Internet Radio Broadcasting section within the Radio.about.com website.
But, for easy and economical Internet Radio streaming options which require no technical knowledge, familiarize yourself with Live365.com
Tools And Equipment
Tools For Recording
So, you’ve decided on what kind of Radio shows you want to record and maybe even which way to deliver them: streaming or Podcasting. Now, the task is to actually create these shows.
Your needs can be very simple to more complex depending on the type of program you’re going to distribute. For instance: if you’re going to create a Podcast where only you will be speaking, you could - at the very least- “get away” with using an inexpensive headset microphone and free software.
If you want to increase the quality of your broadcast, there are many types of microphones which range in quality and price. For affordable voice recording, I recommend a unidirectional, dynamic-type microphone. Radio Shack sells inexpensive ones and you’ll also find a good selection of higher quality mikes at most music stores.
If you want to create a radio show which features your voice, music, and maybe even other “in-studio” guests or guests on the telephone, you’re going to most likely find a “mixer” a very needed tool in this process.
Audio Mixers
There are two varieties of mixers: hardware and software. What I’m referring to at the moment is a hardware mixer which will physically take the audio output from, say, your microphone, a guest microphone, your CD player (cassette, etc.), or possibly a guest on the telephone and “funnel” or “mix” it all down into one output of audio which you can then input into your computer for digital recording.
Using a hardware mixer allows you to visibly set your sound levels on-the-fly and individually for each audio source. This is how many traditional radio studios and recording studios do it.
Hardware mixers can be found in a very wide choice of prices. At home for my recording needs, I use a Radio Shack 4-Channel Stereo Sound Mixer which features an input for 1 microphone and 4 additional audio inputs. It will also cross-fade between left and right, fade any or all channels at once, mix in mono or stereo and even provide a rudimentary treble and bass control.
My particular unit cost around $60 but at the time of this writing Radio Shack has a newer, streamlined model for $39.00. This is very low end but the signal-to-noise ratio, which is a measure of signal strength relative to background noise, is surprisingly acceptable as is the amount of hum (stray magnetic fields that produce audible noise). Radio Shack also carries a 4 channel/3-Band Equalizer Sound Mixer for about $149.
In addition to a microphone and a mixer, I also use an Alesis 3630 compressor unit to boost the performance of my microphone. Compressors add body and fullness to spoken word and most radio stations and many recording studios use similar equipment on their mikes. This is definitely a luxury but these units are not that pricey. This particular unit is around $100 dollars. You can compare prices here.
This is my setup or “rig” but you can create whatever you’re comfortable with. My little home studio costs a total of about $210 when you add it all up which is really dirt cheap. But, I can also do wonderful audio enhancements because I use a recording application called Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro) which is basically a recording studio in-a-box.
With this software I can fix audio, amplify it, equalize it, add reverb, mix it, change the pitch, add a host of effects, filter out noise and much more. Adobe Audition is also a software mixer and I can create multi-tracked projects - one track at a time - and then mix it all down exactly as I want it.
Besides the hardware/mixer route, there are other software-based solutions for recording and mixing sound including WebPod Studio and iPodcast Producer.
More Accessories
If you’re going to be recording guests on the telephone, you might want to check out Teletool 2000. It lets you record telephone conversations or voice messages directly to your PC. Compare prices by clicking here.
And finally: save on long distance calls when talking with guests by signing up for a free account at Skype. Skype is a little piece of software that lets you make free calls over the Internet. It’s free and easy to download (Download Direct) http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
Original Material, Music Royalties & Getting Guests
If you’re going to do a radio show that features music created by someone else, you will be responsible for paying royalties for the right to webcast that music.
Streaming Rates: There’s No Free Lunch
There are different rates for commercial webcasters, broadcast simulcasters (an AM or FM for instance), small commercial webcasters/simulcasters, non-commercial webcasters/simulcasters and even non-commercial educational entities. Rates vary but nobody gets a free ride. You can see the various rates here.
When you stream a radio station through Live365.com (Buy Direct), one of the real nice aspects of using that service is your monthly fee also includes the royalties you owe for whatever music you play. Boy, does that take the hassle and worry out of things!
Podcasting Rates: What Rates?
When it comes to Podcasting, as of this writing, things are a bit gray.
By contrast to webcasting, a podcast may include a reproduction of a sound recording. Podcasting is an interactive activity. It results in the transmission of a sound recording which is fixed and is accessible on demand by the user. The reproduction requires clearances or licenses - for the sound recording, and for the musical work.
Although the performance rights societies offer licenses to cover the musical works in a podcast, no uniform or industry-wide licensing scheme has developed yet to cover the sound recording.
So, technically somebody is owed something for music or other copyrighted aural works offered within Podcasts but this arena is not yet being policed as stringently as webcasting is. I think the music companies are trying to figure out how exactly to do that.
Meanwhile, there are no doubt thousands of Podcasters using copyrighted music in their programs and not paying fees. I suspect that will change sometime in the future.
Original Programming
For those Podcasters who make available original programming featuring interviews or audio they originate themselves or who own copyrights to any music they distribute, they need not worry about the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group which represents the recording industry.
You can Webcast or Podcast any material you own the rights to. You can also allow someone the same rights by granting them permission.
Of course, if you have a talk show, you won’t have to deal with the royalty issue since more likely than not, everything you say will be original.
