The upside of premium: Going ad-free and more

What most people on the Internet take for granted is that running online services doesn’t come cheap. The hosting services have to be paid for in some way, and many online services and content are either offered free of charge or derive some form of income from a subscription to use their products and services.

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The former is usually more widely used by social networks, with the incoming network traffic and subsequent ad revenue being more than sufficient to keep things afloat, whereas the latter is usually the course taken by the extensions of real life businesses such as software developers.

 

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Others combine both business practices, offering their core services for free while giving a number of other benefits to premium subscribers. Due to the rising costs of bandwidth and the maintenance of websites, this system of offering more services to subscribers remains a good compromise. Many startup companies and other Web services go by this route as a business model, offering their basic functions free of charge for the casual user while enticing more engaged users, businesses and professionals in particular, with more features.

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For many businesses, this practice makes the best use of both worlds. Frequently, the most common benefit touted is the ability to surf without seeing intrusive advertisements, which is such an appealing offer in many circles that it has also been applied, to a limited degree, for not-for-profit setups like forums and Wikis, which reward donors with a certain period without advertising.  

Founded by technology executive Timothy Munro Roberts, the GoldenHeart Holdings company Station Digital offers both free and premium streaming services for music fans looking for new songs across multiple online radio stations. Visit this website for more information on the service.