Involve your listeners in the development of your radio station!

Are you familiar with the term crowdfunding? In simple terms, crowdfunding (the financial child of crowdsourcing) involves presenting your project to the online community on a platform dedicated to inviting people to support your project. 

The donators could be your listeners or even complete strangers, who after having read your profile have been completely captivated by the concept of your radio station. There are a number of projects that are based on this idea and succeed in collecting impressive funds. 

What platform should you choose?

There are a number of platforms that currently exist to help finance your project. From Kickstarter to Crowdfunder or even Indie Go Go, these platforms invite you to suggest a specific financial sum to kick start your project. However the idea of long term funding doesn’t come with the package.

For this week’s article, we’ve been on the look out for the ideal platform for our Radio King community. We decided on Tipeee, this crowdfunding platform based on the philosophy of “tipping”  allows supporters to make regular donations to content creators, starting from as little a euro. In our eyes, it’s one of the best ways of making your radio station more sustainable.

How does it work?

On Tipeee each creator has their own page. On this page, you present your project, your ambitions and the type of content that you propose to offer your listeners. In order to become a Tipeur (sponsor) for a project, your listener simply needs to indicate the sum that they wish to put forward towards your project.

If we’re talking about a radio producer on our platform, you might want to sponsor them for 2€ a month.

Example : If 50 listeners wish to participate in your project with a budget of 2€/month per person, that’s already 92€/month (-8% commission taken by the platform) or around $104/month.

How can I convince my listeners to help me?

With Tipeee and other crowdfunding platforms, you also have the possibility of offering rewards based on the amount donated. In other words, when a “creator” creates their page on the platform, they can also come up with a list of exclusive and original rewards for the Tipeurs (sponsors) who support them.

Down below are a couple of reward examples to help acknowledge and thank your listeners :

• $2/month : « Your name clearly marked on our radio website in the “sponsors” section »
• $4/month : « Your name clearly marked on our radio website in the “sponsors” section + A monthly live dedication on air »
• $8/month: « Your name clearly marked on our radio website in the “sponsors” section + A monthly live dedication on air + Access to private radio podcasts »
• $15/month : « Your name clearly marked on our radio website in the “sponsors” section + A monthly live dedication on air + Access to private radio podcasts + a T-shirt with the name of our radio station »
• $25/month : « Your name clearly marked on our radio website in the “sponsors” section + A monthly live dedication on air + Access to private radio podcasts + a T-shirt with the name of our radio station + Monthly participation in one of our programs »

Finally, why use this type of platform?

• You get paid to do what you love doing.
• You can assess your project’s reliability.
• You add value to the quality of your radio and on top of that, the audience that your radio generates.
• You create a unique link with your listeners.
• You make the most of this type of platform to get noticed by more of the online community.

This type of platform also allows you– if you get really lucky – to sustain your radio’s finances through your listeners while freeing you from the burden of certain advertisers. Finally, the financial involvement of your listeners will undoubtedly bring together and win the loyalty of your community!