Charging Subscriptions for Website and Streaming Content

<p>You and your team work hard to generate great content for your radio station website. You have listeners coming back day after day and you have the stats to show it. You may think to yourself, “Why don’t we lock down some or all of this content and charge a subscription for access to it?”</p> <p>When a website blocks access to its content and asks you to get a paid subscription, that’s called a paywall. Many online news publishers use paywalls including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/subscription" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, <a href="https://store.wsj.com/shop/us/us" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a>, and <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/insider" target="_blank">Entrepreneur.com</a>.</p> <p><strong>Website Content Subscriptions</strong></p> <p>While it is possible to make money by charging visitors to access the content on your website, the bad news is that it’s very difficult.</p> <p>Ask yourself these questions:</p> <p>- Is anyone else providing the same, or similar, content? Are they charging for it? No one is going to pay you for something they can get free elsewhere.</p> <p>- Are you already giving your content away? Charging for content you once provided for free is a great way to drive away fans.</p> <p>- How many current and potential visitors would pay for your content? &nbsp;Whatever number you think it is, it’s probably less.</p> <p>- How much will these visitors pay for your content? &nbsp;Whatever you think the number is, it’s probably less.</p> <p>- Is it likely that a current or future competitor could provide the same content for free?</p> <p><strong>Subscriptions for Streaming</strong></p> <p>To combat streaming providers like Pandora, Spotify, and others, some radio stations are looking to charge their listeners for audio streams that contain little or no commercials. There are some though that aim to charge listeners to hear their stream even with commercials.</p> <p>Ask yourself the same questions as before.</p> <p><strong>Online Content that Could Subscription