Almost every day I tune in to Radio Paradise and stream their music feed continuously for up to 8 hours. They are, in my opinion, by far the best station out there on the interweb. Occasionally, I will stray from the path, search out alternatives. But, I always find myself returning to RP.
Radio Paradise is a listener supported station. That is, they don’t charge a regular subscription fee. Rather they rely on donations from their listeners. Many, like me, probably make sporadic donations. A few pounds here, a few there. I haven’t felt the call to make a regular payment to RP, even though I do subscribe to the likes of Tidal and Spotify.
So what’s the difference ? I guess the primary difference is that RP provides me with a random eclectic selection of music, no adverts and no inane DJ chatter. There are tracks on rotation, but not as regular as the stuff you hear on commercial radio or even the BBC.
Spotify and Tidal are rather like an enormous record collection through which I have to sift and make choices. There are customised/personalised playlists too. But you have to choose and I find I spend as much time sifting as I do actually listening.
There is room in my world for both types of music stream. However, the point of this post is
For 22 years, RP has been a 100% word-of-mouth venture. We believe the funds raised by the station should only go toward the smooth running, improvement, and general operation of the station. It’s a moral obligation to take the generous support you all give each year into making RP the best we can make it. Putting your hard-earned dollars into the hands of ad companies or other various traditional marketing channels is simply not something we’re interested in or willing to do.
Lucky for us, you do an amazing job helping us share the music far and wide. In essence, you are our marketing team. And what a team it is! We receive countless emails and comments about how you already do this on a regular basis. It shows and we are incredibly grateful for this fact. With that said, we want to enlist those who are so inspired to make one large concerted effort to spread the music this new year.
If RP is a part of your daily life, please consider the following…..
First, send an email and/or post on social media encouraging people to tune in. Make it five of your closest friends and family…or 10…or send it out in your company newsletter or with an organization you volunteer for, whatever inspires you. (We’d love to hear about it in our comment section!)
Secondly, if you use our app, go in and rate the app. As much as we don’t care about such things, the powers that be at Google and Apple put a lot of weight on such things. The more ratings and the higher they are the more likely someone is to find RP in the app stores.
RP’s goal for 2023 is to go from 3.3 million unique site visitors to 6.6 million. It’s a big goal but we’re up for the task. We love what we do and want to share it with many more people around the world come 2023.
Alanna at radioparadise.com
If you like music uninterrupted by inane chatter from DJs and their gangs/posses/teams or whatever the term is for a collection of white noise drones. If you like music uninterrupted by advertisements for breakfast cereal, instant coffee and the latest supermarket bargains. If you like music that isn’t tied to music industry or radio station charts.
Since I started typing this blog post, RP has played the following …
- Coming Home – k.d. lang
- Can’t Get It Out Of My Head – ELO
- Rocky World – Daniel Lanois
- Wild Eagle – Andrew White
- Sing, Theresa Says – Greg Laswell
- Satisfaction – Cat Power
- Held – Spoon
- Robbin’ My Honeycomb – Tony Joe White
- Lullaby – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- Stones – Sonic Youth
- Huron Beltane Fire Dance – Loreen McKennitt
- My Love – Florence + the Machine
Go on, give Radio Paradise a try. Your ears, heart and mind will thank you for it.
WrAnTz 