Radiofreecash at first seems like a great deal. You sign up with them with the usual information on yourself and interest and you activate their online "radio" bar, listening to music while you're surfing and getting paid. What could be better than getting paid for listening to music for free? Nothing, unless that's all you want to do, listen to free music and don't expect to get paid. This is another of those programs that promise to pay you money or other incentives for leaving their ad bar running while you surf the net but never pay. Well, I can't say never because they say that they will pay but haven't and probably won't.

The whole process is quite easy. You register with your information on interests, etc. and you activate their online "Radio bar". On the main page, you just log in and enter your password. On the top, select and click the "Launch Radio Bar" from the menu options. A sizeable 2.5 inch high bar opens up through an additional pop up window, thus javascript is required. On the left of the bar there are buttons labeled choose channel (to choose the channel or station), and my radiofreecash button. Next to that is the adjustable volume button with a mute button should you desire to mute your radio. On the top right corner there are three buttons: live support (for live tech support), radiobar guide, and end (to end the listening session). Underneath those buttons there are four preset channels that you can set just like a radio. To the right of that is the earning status area showing the elapsed (earned ) time. There is also a scrolling text line that describes the currently playing artist and album info. There are two tabbed areas named song and banner that shows the ads and song info. If you click on the song tab, on its right are more buttons: buy the cd, add to favorites, and artist info.

The Radiofreecash has about 200 genres ranging from college radio to reggae to jazz and oldies music. While listening to the radio, there will be audio commercials inserted between the songs at undetermined, various times throughout the hour. They usually last a minute or so. Many times, the radio would not come back on after the commercials. All I get is dead silence. And yes, then I realise that the radio program has crashed again, meaning more lost earned time. I close the program via ctrl-alt-delete since I can't end it via the bar and then re-launch the radio. In the future, there will be audio prompts to require the listener to click a button to confirm that they are actively listening to the radio.

Right now, Radiofreecash is currently in what's called a "pre-launch beta test period". You don't get paid any money for listening but if you listen to 20 hours of music per month, you are eligible for a free CD (via a $15 value gift certificate). The free CD gift certificate is provided from Amazon.com. When, (and who knows when that will be, if ever,) the "pay to listen program" launches, Radiofreecash will pay 20 cents per hour for a maximum of 100 hours. There are four levels of referrals, 1st level referrals are paid at 8 cents per hour, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th are at 4 cents per hour. You can only get the maximum equivalent hour credits from your referrals for up to the amount that you have listened. For example, if you listened to 20 hours in a month and your referrals listened to 40 hours, you can only get 20 hours credit from your referral.

Radiofreecash's radio program was buggy to say the least. It has crashed on me numerous times and one fact that frustrated me was that when the program crashes, the time I have listened up to the crash does not get registered with Radiofreecash. I have lost many credited time due to this buggy software (but I found out that it really doesn't matter since they're not paying anyways). So, I ended up periodically ending my session to have my credited time registered and launch it up again. Frustrating enough but I was hoping to get a free CD. During one month, I actually accumulated enough hours to be eligible for a free CD but due to the radio program crashing, it did not register my credited time and thus I was out by minutes. I even emailed them regarding this in hopes that they will look into the credited time but they didn't address it at all in their reply. Apparently now, they do credit for lost time.

All this still sounds okay but all these "promises" are nothing more than that, promises and after wasting a few months on this (I originally started listening in March), I've dumped it but didn't cancel my account in case they ever do give me something for my hassles. I recently received an email from Radiofreecash regarding their free CD payout:

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Dear RadioFreeCash Member:

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this message and particularly for your ongoing loyalty to RFC. As a valued member of the RFC community, I would like to provide you with a brief and honest update on the status of our company. I also want to apologize personally for not yet fulfilling our commitments to you.

As you are probably well aware, the market for internet-focused companies continues to be very difficult. Like the great majority of startup and established firms, RadioFreeCash has faced challenges along several fronts that have delayed our ability to fully launch our services and deliver on our outstanding member commitments.

Our goal has always been to share our advertising revenue with our
members. Unfortunately, the market for banner advertising has fallen dramatically since our launch. More importantly, the market for audio advertising has not developed as quickly as we anticipated (although we have allowed charity organizations to run public service announcements free of charge). Consequently, we have not yet generated significant revenues, and this has directly forced us to move more slowly with both our planned technology improvements as well as our CD fulfillments. Like you, we are extremely disappointed at our inability to fulfill our promises in the time that we had initially planned and promised.

However, we are absolutely committed to making this work and we continue to make progress--despite the obstacles we have faced. We have enlisted the number one radio advertising sales firm, Katz Interactive, to assist us in building demand for internet audio advertising.

While we do not see the audio advertising market making substantial strides in what's left of 2000, we are very, very excited at its potential for 2001 and thereafter.

We have also finalized a deal with Amazon to deliver our free CD gift certificates once we have generated sufficient revenue to pay for them. And we are evaluating potential modifications to the incentive structure that will enable us to begin compensating you for your time as soon as possible.

We can only ask that you continue with the patience you have shown since our launch-we are more resolute now than ever before that the value proposition we will eventually deliver will be worth the wait. Your continued interest will help us build the audio ad market, generate revenues, and most importantly, to make good on our promises to you. In the meantime, please continue to enjoy the great free music and free CD incentives.

Thank you again.

Chip Stevens
CEO
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So, as you can figure, until they get the enough revenues from the advertising, they won't be able to give me anything for my effort. The company was founded since September 1999 and over a year later they are still unable to obtain enough advertising revenue! Thus, I have decided to not recommend such a scam of a program. As with most pay for surf, etc programs, as long as they are in a "beta" or test or pre-launch period, they do not have to pay you anything, but yet they get the revenue from the advertising. I would seriously reconsider spending too much time and effort on any pay for programs that promise anything, especially when they are in a beta period. They may never get out of the beta period. They may fold and all the effort and money you've accumulated amount to nothing. Until I'm proven otherwise, Radiofreecash is another one of these scam programs. If you want to listen to internet radio, check out other sites that aren't so buggy and crash as often.

Thanks for taking the time to read and rate my review.



Recommended: No