How Can I Make Money Off This Type Of Site?

[GGB]

Hi all,

I'm debating on launching a site which will offer music to listen to depending on the users mood. It will have downloadable mixtapes as per mood and have a song of the day.

I am very passionate about music, but I can't see how I can make money off this site, which is a must due to my current lack of financial freedom. Other than the small amount ads could bring in, is there any other options?

[swim]

Id say not really to be honest. Again, please prove me wrong by making money of such a site, cause that would be awesome.

But i think most websites.. anyway money from advertising is still money right. At least its a very viable and proven business model. And any sites where people have to pay to join, just limits your audience. I think those are my best thoughts on the issue

[andrew]

Maybe some relevant audio ads in between a song or two? You can just build a huge user-base and the opportunities will come.

[CoolBee]

I think there is already a site doing that - but I can't remember where it is - obviously it wouldn't work for me! I have about 88GB of music from dead metal (so death it's dead ) to jazz to gregorian chant, so just tend to browse that when I want to listen to something for a particular music.
If I want something I haven't got, I'll either go to youtube or grooveshark.
Most of the people I know are similarly placed.

I would say if you want to create such a site because it would give you pleasure to do so, then do so! But I can't see you making much money.

[wido1982]

Every site can make money as long as you have visitors, but it will involve a lot of testing different methods:
- adsense, chitika ads,...
- affiliate banners
- selling adspace
- selling related products
- affiliate links to the artists on amazon
- a paid members area with exclusive content
- email list (a must have, no matter what website you have)
-...

Build the site, get some traffic and start testing! Even if there's someone else doing this already. You don't have to be the first one to be successful. Look at google :-) they're doing pretty well and they weren't the first either. Imagine if they would have said: no, someone else is already doing it. Let's just get a job

[codefreeze]

To be honest I think you are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking "how can I make money?", ask this "How can I create a site so amazingly cool I will blow my users socks off?".

If you can do that the making money part will be easy (probably some kind of advertising or affiliate sales).

I'm not saying I know how to do that, but that *is* the way you need to be thinking if you are to have any chance of making it work (for profit).

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by GGB

Hi all,

I'm debating on launching a site which will offer music to listen to depending on the users mood. It will have downloadable mixtapes as per mood and have a song of the day.

I think you have to pay a licensing fee or something in order to play music that someone else owns.

Pandora.com pays for every song it plays.. it just makes up the difference with advertising revenue.

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I think you have to pay a licensing fee or something in order to play music that someone else owns.

Pandora.com pays for every song it plays.. it just makes up the difference with advertising revenue.

Pandora has an incredibly hard time being profitable. They just recorded their first profitable quarter at the end of 2009, and haven't had a profitable year yet.

Even with an enormous user base, you'll need more than just advertising to make this site profitable.

[aiyori]

My friend,

You need to sell YOUR OWN music to make the site profitable. By selling or promoting other people's music, it's actually like working for those people. The only difference is that they don't pay you a salary as a promoter or salesman.

If you can't write songs, then I suggest not making such a website. I would suggest Steve Pavlina not to make this website if he did not have the ability to write articles in English. If your site provides content, then you as the webmaster should be able to provide at least a part of the content. If your site provides a platform such as Youtube, then you can rely on other people to provide the content for you.

[Nemosyne]

Make it a local bands website. It can be all about 'little' names instead of big ones. I could see that being extremely successful. Make sure to tag each of the names of the local bands, and send them an email. Most will forward that email to their fans too. Good luck!

[James81]

My current approach is not "how can I make money of this site?" (although I AM thinking about ways to make money from my site)

My current approach is more "how can I attract a large userbase of faithful readers?"

I'll worry about monetizing it more when I get enough people on there for it to be worthwhile to monetize it.

[Mystic Pegasus]

Be aware that Adsense (and possibly others) have some very strict policies about sites that use copyright material for which they do not own the copyright or have specific permission/rights to use.