If you’re on the hunt for alternatives to Airtime Pro, then look no further! Airtime Pro and Radio Cult are both excellent providers. They each simplify the technical processes of operating an online radio station, allowing you as stations to focus on what's important: providing music and other content you and your listeners want to hear.
What’s the difference between Airtime Pro and Radio Cult?
Short answer: Radio Cult is specifically built for independent and community radio, with a particular focus on stations who predominantly play mixes.
Radio Cult and Airtime Pro do have some overlaps but really shine in different use cases. Airtime Pro was built over 10 years ago when online radio was mainly about maintaining and playing playlists. Radio Cult is a modern platform, with ongoing development, that is built specifically for the current state of online radio.
Many radio stations play a range of content - from pre-records, to playlists, to live sets and everything in between. You need a tool that is fit for purpose.
So if you’re a modern station looking for a tool that is a delight to use, has dedicated mix support and is more affordable then you’re in the right place.
7 reasons why stations use Radio Cult over Airtime Pro
We’ve compiled seven points of difference between Radio Cult and Airtime Pro, which we (and hopefully you) consider make Radio Cult a better alternative to Airtime Pro for your station.
Reasons to choose Radio Cult over Airtime Pro
1. A mix-focussed and modern platform
As listeners' habits change, so must stations. Its commonplace now for online stations to stream live sets and pre-recorded mixes.
Radio Cult has been designed with this in mind. We offer a modern UI to easily upload, schedule and archive mixes. Though Airtime Pro does also provide all of the above, it wasn’t designed with this particular focus in mind. It’s UI is dated and lacks the intuitive design to facilitate this process regardless of the user’s technical knowhow.
2. Cloud storage
In this day and age, we fully appreciate stations need the right amount of cloud storage. A pre-recorded mix can be hundreds of megabytes and this is further compounded when a high quality bitrate (such as 320kbps) is used for the audio file. That's why Radio Cult offers so much cloud storage.
Airtime Pro’s Plus plan is priced at $64.95 USD and offers 30GB of storage. Whilst our comparable plan (Hobby) is $55 USD and we offer 50GB of storage. That’s nearly twice as much cloud storage while being easier on your wallet.
3. Affordability
Operating a station can be expensive - you know it and we know it as well. That's why we’ve strived to keep our costs low while still providing you with the best tools available. We believe our pricing when compared to Airtime Pro reflects this.
For example, Airtime Pro’s Plus plan is priced at $64.95 USD and offers 30GB of storage. Whilst our comparable plan (Hobby) is $55 USD and we offer 50GB of storage. That’s nearly twice as much cloud storage while being easier on your wallet.
Another way we save money is by avoiding feature-gating as much as possible. For example, Radio Cult allows you to stream in 320kbps quality on our Hobby plan ($55 USD) and up. Airtime Pro only allows 196kbps stream quality, even on their highest plan ($99.95 USD a month).
You can see how running your station on Radio Cult is a lot cheaper. Especially as your station grows.
4. Integrations
Web radio is a live experience, once a mix has been played you can’t hear it again at your own discretion without additional tools. The most popular archival tools in the industry are Soundcloud and Mixcloud.
Radio Cult integrates with both Soundcloud and Mixcloud. Airtime Pro only integrates with Soundcloud. So no matter your listeners' archival platform of choice, Radio Cult has got you covered.
Our integrations can save you a lot of time. You should be able to focus on the important things - not uploading media to different tools.
5. Mobile
Gone are the days where web radio could only listened on computers. Most listeners now have the means to enjoy web radio using the device in their back pockets. We know it's important to you as stations to allow your listeners to lock in through as many mediums as possible, especially through their mobile phones.
Radio Cult offers our aggregator mobile app (which is available on both iOS and Android) on all of our plans at no additional cost. Airtime Pro has no such app, nor does it provide a dedicated app like some other providers.
6. Chat rooms
Community radio as the name suggests is all about engagement with your community of listeners. Not only do you want to know that your audio content is resonating with your listeners, you also want to provide a place where you listeners can engage with each other and a chat room provides just that.
Radio Cult provides a chat room for you on all of our plans, which is accessible on our aforementioned app as well as an embeddable component on your own website. Airtime Pro offers no chat functionality of any sort.
7. Station management
Running an online station is time consuming and resource intensive. We know that managing all your artists and residents can be a lot. So you need processes in place to ensure that when a show goes live, everything is in place so it goes off without a hitch.
Radio Cult offers dedicated station management functionality, allowing you to store all of your artists and presenters data in one place. A central repository to track everything about your artists and make sure you have everything from them to make certain your station runs seamlessly.
You can even use this data to power your own site, so your listeners know everything they need to about your artists. And when you need to update an artist’s information, you only need to update it in one location. Airtime Pro provides no comparable station management functionality.
Please note: If Airtime Pro gets an update and this article becomes outdated, please email us and we will update it.