MyRadio is trying to get into 10,000 stores by the end of the year. The internet radio company offers custom music for retail outlets, actually paying the outlet for the right to provide music, in exchange for the right to sell local advertising on the service.
It also sells advertising on its website, and has just added new clients including AT&T, CompUSA and 1-800-PetMeds to that venue.
MyRadio calls its strategy “Block Level Marketing,” and says its focusing on spiffing up strip malls and downtown areas. “We hope to expand these relationships to our In-Store Radio Network and to our Internet Radio business,” said MyRadio’s Robert Bell. “We are currently pursuing several relationships that would put our In-Store Network in more than 10,000 locations in 2010.”
The company says many of its business customers are franchise owners associated with national chains such as Burger King, Subway and The UPS Store. The stores get a custom music package of their own choosing and MyRadio gets a venue for its local advertising sales. It says, “MyRadio does not charge the business owner a fee, but instead pays qualified businesses for allowing us the privilege of providing music while selling ads to neighboring businesses.”
RBR-TVBR observation: Just what we need – another local advertising mouth to feed. Maybe radio stations will want to head this company off at the pass and get their own program stream going over the store’s intercom – and within range of Arbitron PPM detectors in markets getting that service.
