I had an e-mail from RP politely reminding us about supporting them. I would hope most of us do indeed make a contribution, but was surprised to read ".... less than 10% of our listeners are regular supporters". That low number surprised me somewhat, but it seems that these days we all take it for granted that radio - internet or terrestrial - is free. So step up guys & gals, it's a great service & if like me you listen numbers of hours a week it's well worth whatever you feel appropriate.
Anyhow, here is the e-mail (tks Richard)
Greetings from Radio Paradise
We hope you're enjoying our music mix. Curating our song library and hand-crafting our playlist is a full time job for us. Keeping everything going at our end — and adding new features like lossless FLAC audio — is a very expensive undertaking, and we depend completely on your support to keep it going.
Currently, less than 10% of our listeners are regular supporters. If you're a member of that select group, thank you very much! We can't do what we do here without you.
If you're not a regular supporter, and can afford to do so, please take 60 seconds to keep RP alive and growing. Here's a link to do that right now:
https://radioparadise.com/support
If you are able to set up a regular monthly, quarterly or annual payment we would appreciate that very much. So would the artists we support with our royalty payments.
We’re still dealing with a 2016 ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board that increased the royalties we pay to performers and record labels by nearly 300%. That’s great news for the artists we play — and it really brings our need for support into focus. More info:
https://radioparadise.com/royalties
As always, we understand that contributing money is just not an option for some. That's fine. RP will remain freely available, and we hope that you'll continue to make RP a part of your life.
Your grateful hosts, Bill & Rebecca
Posted on: 13 July 2018 by ChrisH
I'm with you in this Gert. I'm a regular supporter and make an ad-hoc donation once a year roughly. I have enough direct debits going out of my account for household items, preferring to keep 'business' & 'pleasure' separately!
Back to the point though, it's a great station. I listen to a couple of others, but RP is my go to, whether streamed or as a local download for offline listening, happy to continue to support them.
Posted on: 13 July 2018 by Timmo1341
Like, it would seem, at least one or two other members, I have made 3 ‘ad hoc’ donations to RP via PayPal over the last 3 years since I discovered internet radio.
My point is, given RP is not a registered charity, just how much does it cost a year I wonder for the couple to deliver this service, how much do they pay themselves, and just how much income is generated by the 10% who regularly donate, as well as us ‘sporadics’? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge for one minute this couple making a decent living out of their labours, but for all we know they could be reaping truly significant sums! 5 million worldwide listeners would not surprise me, meaning approx 500,000 regularly contribute. If each gave just £1 per month we’re talking about six million a year income! If we reduced this by 90% you’re still looking at a pretty fair living.
I don’t begrudge a penny of what I donate, but would feel more comfortable when I read the begging letter were Bill & Rebecca to publish exactly what they receive by way of contributions at the moment.
Do I come across as being unreasonable, niggardly or mean spirited’?! I hope not, because that is certainly not my intention. I just like a little openness and transparency when donations are requested.
Posted on: 13 July 2018 by Timmo1341
................. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge for one minute this couple making a decent living out of their labours, but for all we know they could be reaping truly significant sums! 5 million worldwide listeners would not surprise me, meaning approx 500,000 regularly contribute. If each gave just £1 per month we’re talking about six million a year income! If we reduced this by 90% you’re still looking at a pretty fair living.
I don’t begrudge a penny of what I donate, but would feel more comfortable when I read the begging letter were Bill & Rebecca to publish exactly what they receive by way of contributions at the moment.
A churlish post IMO, this is a great 'radio' service & in many opinions the best there is. There is a lot more to running a radio station & it as a business than just collecting money, to say nothing of the considerable cost of & managing the royalty payments they are required to pass over to each & every artist's track they play for us.
I agree with most of what you say, and really don’t see why you have to turn it into a personal attack! If the churlish cap fits, feel free to wear it. Why are you opposed to transparency? None of the UK charities I and many others contribute to are allowed to get away with total non disclosure of their financial affairs, and I certainly wouldn’t donate were that the case. If you can’t see the quite obvious similarity between RP and them, then we’ll just have to agree to differ.
Posted on: 14 July 2018 by fatcat
but for all we know they could be reaping truly significant sums! 5 million worldwide listeners would not surprise me, meaning approx 500,000 regularly contribute. If each gave just £1 per month we’re talking about six million a year income! If we reduced this by 90% you’re still looking at a pretty fair living.
I don’t begrudge a penny of what I donate, but would feel more comfortable when I read the begging letter were Bill & Rebecca to publish exactly what they receive by way of contributions at the moment.
Do I come across as being unreasonable, niggardly or mean spirited’?! I hope not, because that is certainly not my intention. I just like a little openness and transparency when donations are requested.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the RP home page, there is a map of the world. Highlight each country and the current listener numbers are shown. At present, 6,600 in USA, 1,100 in UK and 1 in Mongolia, probably approx. 20k in total at the moment. I Doubt they have 5 million listeners.
Posted on: 14 July 2018 by mudwolf
I pay monthly just for the high quality and variety,also for not listening to radio advertisements that drive me nuts. Then I hear someone I have and go put that artist on. I also listen to KUSC for classical but my collection is certainly seeing less use as I get distracted by many senior moments.
Love my new Star, loading my cds goes in fits, starts and stops
Posted on: 16 July 2018 by J.N.
Another vote for the excellent RP which comes via my iMac at 320k. I pay for the service on an ad-hoc monthly basis. Well worth it for an eclectic selection of music which has opened my ears to several hitherto unknown artistes and albums. The listening-figures map is interesting.
No ad-breaks; phone-ins from people spouting irrelevant drivel, or verbal diarrhoea from 'presenters' to reduce what used to be referred to as needle-time. Superb. Keep up the good work Rebecca and Bill.
John.
Posted on: 16 July 2018 by Mercky
Another vote for the excellent RP which comes via my iMac at 320k. I pay for the service on an ad-hoc monthly basis. Well worth it for an eclectic selection of music which has opened my ears to several hitherto unknown artistes and albums. The listening-figures map is interesting.
No ad-breaks; phone-ins from people spouting irrelevant drivel, or verbal diarrhoea from 'presenters' to reduce what used to be referred to as needle-time. Superb. Keep up the good work Rebecca and Bill.
John.
Agreed, if I was stuck on a desert island with only RP to listen to I woulden't complain, I spent most of saturday listening to the FLAC feed via Airplay and it's marvelous. The only thing I have noticed is they seem to now play much longer sets of the same or similar genre of music whereas from memory, and I could be wrong, a few years back you used to get a real mix within any given hour which to me made it even more eclectic and interesting.
