I see where FlareSOUND is going with this, and it’s the same with a few others as well.

The problem I see with subscriptions (there’s talk of it in this forum) to interent radio is, that like standard radio, I like to switch stations occasionally, and at around $60 a year, it becomes rather ridiculous for me to subscribe to more than one station. So in this particular case, I find subscriptions to be the wrong choice. I know these guys do it for free, and for the love of music, and that bandwidth costs money, but another side of the cube that I see is that charging a fee places some extra responsibilty on them to provide what subscribers want to hear. The subscribers now have a say, real or implied, as to what gets played. After all, I’m now paying to hear you. If I am disappointed with my service, it could well piss me off to the point where they’ll lose me a subscriber.

I like the idea of donations, and monthly or quarterly donation drives. I’ve said it before. NPR does it, so why can’t some of these interent radio stations. There also must be some sort of government grants out there that these guys can apply for. After all, they’re non-profit, provide a public service, and can actually document the number of people that use their site.

I also know that with donation based services, there is a downside for the provider. If they don’t make their monetary goals, they shoulder the responsibility of paying any fees out of pocket. Yet I also see donation based service as a good thing, since I can donate to more than one provider on an ongoing basis. The provider also doesn’t have the same obligation to the donator that they might have to a subscriber (yes I know it’s only a slightly different perspective). They won’t have to cater to an audience so to speak. Simply based on donations they can tell that they are doing a good job.

It’s so difficult to come to any conclusions about where services like this will wind up, or what the best way to generate money to keep these services available is. I think it all comes down to the people who use them, and therein lies what I see as a problem for nearly every fee based service. Who’s your audience, and can they pay for a subscription or make a donation? Either one usually requires the use of a credit card. so where does that leave services whose main audience is teens and twenty-somethings who don’t have credit cards?

Mom, Dad, i want to subscribe to this really cool internet radio station, but it costs $60 a year for the subscription. Please, can I?

or

Hi Mom, yeah everything’s great here on campus. Can you ask Dad to send me an extra $60 for this book I need. I know Mom, but I spent it on a subscription to this great online radio station.

*holds phone away from ear as mother screams*

I’m sorry mom, but the music helps me study.

yeah right.

I don’t know what we’re gonna do, but somebody better think of something fast.