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Jamm FM.com is an Internet
based broadcasting community with offices located Alexandria,
Louisiana (USA) and Sydney, New South Wales (Australia). The
website was developed to provide listeners with an alternative
medium to commercial radio. With the popularity of music over
the Internet rising each year, Jamm FM.com provides advantages
over corporate or commercial radio, because we have the
opportunity to provide our listeners with a flexible play
lists and personalized radio stations where you're able to
choose what you want to hear each day.
Based off the popularity the
station received in 2003, Jamm FM.com is developing eight new
stations in 2004. Our stations will be under the preferences
of R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, Rock, Alternative, Soul, Gospel,
Jazz, and Blues. Jamm FM.com will provide our listeners the
opportunity to choose how we're developing these stations too.
They currently have
listeners tuning in to Jamm FM.com in United States, Canada,
Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan,
Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan, Italy, Czech
Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Spain, Poland, Brazil, South
Africa, Singapore, Latvia, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica,
People's Republic of China, Kenya, Malaysi, Ukraine, Costa
Rica, United Arab Emirates, Republic of Korea, Yugoslavia,
Peru, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, Austria, Turks and Ciacos
Islands, Mali, Virgin Islands (British), New Zealand,
Zimbabwe, Romania, Nigeria, Denmark, Portugal, Cyprus, Puerto
Rico, Philippines, Hungary, Argentina, Turkey, Croatia/Hrvatska,
Norway, Kuwait, Vietnam, Bahamas, Aruba, Israel, Bermuda
We recently caught up with Greg Smith - New
Business Development Manager and Creator of Jamm FM.
Q. What motivated you to start
JammFM.com?
A - Starting up an Internet radio station was something
we had been talking about for over two years so in
October 2003 we launched JammFM as a pilot station to
see what type of and the amount of listeners we would
attract.
Q. What is your target market and why.
A- Our target market are
people who follow urban music and are currently accessing
music websites. Because our whole marketing strategy is
advertising over the Internet we will have a better chance of
reaching these people because they are already online.
Q. What obstacles have you
encountered prior to launching the station and are there any
obstacles you still face and what steps are you taking to
overcome them?
A- Costs are
always a major obstacle, especially when you're dealing with
the music industry and all of their hidden fees prompted by
poor record sales caused by peer-to-peer music download sites.
We pay our license and
royalties every month to ASCAP, BMI, Soundexchange and Sesac.
But, where license charges are pretty much static, the
royalty rates keep increasing because of the amount of
listeners we are acquiring on the station. That number is
growing each day. The only way to cover these charges is
to build revenue generating devices online or to try and find
advertisers and that's not always so easy.
Q. As CEO could you please give background on yourself and how
you evolved to where you are now?
A- I am the the
innovator of Jamm FM and I designed and implemented the entire
Jamm FM infrastructure. I currently provide the music
play lists for all of our umbrella stations. Over the years, I
have worked in TV for Black Starz as a production assistant
before traveling and moving to a web programming role.
Q. To step into any entrepreneurial
opportunity there are sometimes mitigating circumstances that
propel you in that direction. If that occurred please share
what they were.
A- Well, I've always been a
creative guy and not someone who enjoys working for someone
else. But for now, working 9 to 5 does pay the bills and the
station is my hobby. But there will become a time when
this will become full time. So, in that case, I'm a person
who's always looking to be creative and to work within my own
company.
Q. How long was the
process of planning before launching the site?
A- The process was initially
1 1/2 years of discussion about it and then from there was
6 months of development and budgeting.
Q. Your website stated you have
three radio stations and are expanding! Please advise what
your short term goals within the next 1-2 years are and your
long term goal within the next 3-5 years.
A- On the short term goal, we
want to have 8 radio stations live on the website by the end
of 2004. This means that we want to attract other markets who
listen to Top 40, Gospel, Jazz, Blues, Alternative and Rock.
On a long term basis, we would like to eventually move this
into a studio and have each station broadcasting live online
from different locations around the world based off the region
where each station is mostly popular.
This is the future of digital
music. We're not really wrapped up on having a commercial
station because I believe with everyone online downloading,
you're going to need some music device that promotes to the
market online.
Q. For anyone interested in starting a similar site or seeking
advice what advice would you give?
A- Be prepared to put in a
lot of hours getting your site prepared and also to be
prepared to update it regularly. Be prepared to have a
budget to cover your broadcasting cost. Just because it's
online, it's not free! Be prepared to developed some
marketing plan that is going to attract listeners to your
station. You can be online broadcasting but with a small
listener base, you're not making an impact or providing a
product that's rewarding to you.
Q. If given the chance is
there anything you would have done different?
A- I would have started off a
little slower. I think I was so prepared to go live and
attract the listeners that I didn't know just how to manage
the entire site. And my staff, I didn't give them ample
enough time to understand their role in this process.
Q . Any closing remarks?
A- Thanks Moementum Magazine
for this interview and the continuous relationship with Jamm
FM Online "The Newest Music Addiction".
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