Amid the Apple vs Spotify subscription podcasting battle, Twitter’s announcement of ticketed Spaces and with Reuters & CNN International both set to hide behind a paywall, Bauer Media has today announced premium subscription services for four of its national radio brands - Scala, Jazz FM, Kerrang! and Planet Rock.
Subscribers will enjoy an ad-free listening experience offering greater control and flexibility and be able to skip up to 6 tracks per hour.
The £3.99 per month package also includes access to 20 exclusive online radio stations across genres and music moods as well as more than 30 on-demand shows, documentaries, artist interview content and special programming.
LBC had a podcast subscription service where you could catch up on every show minus the ads and news (this was scrapped in 2018 when the Global Player app began hosting these free of charge).
The rock/metal station Primordial Radio uses this model, as does SiriusXM state-side.
When it comes to skipping tracks, the Capital XTRA app first introduced the function some five years ago with Capital following suit before being rolled out to all music stations on Global Player. Despite opting out of the live stream, you still get presenter links and ads.
Will this be a significant revenue stream? It’ll certainly raise expectations and test the water. A key benefit to Bauer is harvesting consumer data and using it for research as well as to personalise the user experience.
We’re already used to paying a premium for ad-free experiences and/or exclusive content elsewhere - and the four stations selected are particularly niche with passionate audiences which undoubtedly helps.
For the last 10 years Bauer’s Absolute Radio has given free account holders access to higher-quality audio with in-stream technology allowing users to hear fewer, but more targeted, ads (tailored to their age, gender and location) with "bonus songs".
No comments:
Post a Comment