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Interview :-
” liquid.radio – World’s 1st Democratic Radio Founders : Daniela Reinking & David Hawkins”
-by Pratyush Jaiswal

Interview :- ” liquid.radio – World’s 1st Democratic Radio Founders : Daniela Reinking & David Hawkins” -by Pratyush Jaiswal liquid.radio – World's 1st Democratic Radio











Q.1 Introduce our readers briefly to yourself, your team and your venture. How should the world know you?

Hello from Berlin. Thank you so much for getting in touch. Let's start by pointing out that we are humbled and impressed that the word of the first ever democratic radio has spread to India and we love to share our experience with entrepreneurs and get connected.









David Hawkins is the very brightest of CTOs. Born in Chicago, Illinois in the United States, he's spent the past 14 years setting up IT Departments all over Europe having worked for LeMonde, Electronic Arts, and Pathe, With over 20 years’ worth of experience, his advice and experience both as a businessman and technology expert are invaluable, as is his gift of connecting with people on a personal level.







Coming from a journalism background Daniela Reinking was working for many years as a reporter and editor, when she quit her job and moved to Berlin on the quest for a new challenge. She had a satire show and this lead her to the field of media criticism: Journalists cannot be neutral; they are always influenced by governmental or corporate limitations and or even by choosing one topic to report about and neglecting another. Media is never free. Daniela Reinking questions what the industry defines as their norms. It was her vision of letting the listener’s choose the entire broadcasting, the democratic way that led to the birth of liquid.radio.





https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2036808210/the-worlds-1st-democratic-radio





Q.2 What has been your inspiration and motive behind starting such a radio? What kindled you to venture out into this field?

We felt there was something missing from the mainstream media. Traditional radio stations have lost touch with their listeners and online radio has become nothing but online mp3 players.

Streaming services like Spotify or Pandora on the other hand were meant to free the listener from the choice of journalists, but in long term it does not lead to free choice, it turns into the opposite. It pigeonholes you as a listener into a tight, predetermined user demographic and limits artist's exposure when they are locked into a personal playlist and don't get media coverage.

Before liquid.radio there was no longer any connection to the bands or the listeners. It was just music without any kind of context. Democratic Radio solves these two key problems.







Q.3 What type of hurdles came into your way initially and how did you deal with that?

It's hard getting investments nowadays when your business isn't primarily a technology business (and our radio station isn't considered technology). We are a social innovation. So that's a hurdle we struggled with. Our solution was that, if we couldn't attract investors right away, we would instead focus on attracting new users. Our reasoning was that if we got enough users then eventually the investors would have to come to us. Think of Wonga in the beginning or Facebook, a fast growing user base is definitely a proof of marketability.







Q.4 How diverse and vast is this venture currently and what more is going to come up?

We aren't at liberty to discuss our unreleased plans or our investors at this point, generally speaking right now we want to focus on perfecting our main business of music, news, reports, and advertising on a more international level. Once we've built up a core audience around those features we'll expand into related fields.







Q.5 How do you think your venture can bring about dynamic changes in the current trends? What makes it different?

Democratic radio takes an existing service from a once popular format (radio) and combines it with a need that hasn't been matched yet in media: Free choice. To us, "free choice" means giving our users the powers to interact with our company in such a way that it has a directly visible effect on the way we do business: The full program. For the companies we partner with it allows them to test their goods and services against a reasonable facsimile of real market conditions while paying a rate that's in line with what the service is worth to them. This gives us the ability to operate without charging our listeners for the service.







Q.6 How is the listener benefited from this?

We consider our users to be music and media voters, not listeners in the common sense. By voting news, reports or advertising they collect feedback points they can then exchange for vouchers, download and gift cards. More than that we offer them a direct connection to the musicians they are fans of and the products they are customers of. What they do at liquid.radio will have an effect on the future of both.







Q.7 Tell us about your advertisements and campaigns?

Part of the beauty of liquid.radio is the fact that, up until now, we've grown to over 20,000 users without any money spent on advertising. We publicize and update our site through traditional social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc...) But it's been the musicians and our fans that have come to us, in large numbers, and from all over the world. Recently we've been producing a video so that we could launch a crowdfunding campaign to test our business model on the market.







Q.8 How can your venture influence the Indian community? How should an Indian or an overseas listener look up to the 'democratic radio’?

We want to get your mind thinking. Don't accept anything as given or normal, you can make your own choice, if you don't limit your mind. We already have a large number of Indian users and bands. We have metal from Guwahati and electronic music from New Delhi and we want you to tell us what drives you and to network with international listeners. Part of our appeal is that anyone who's voted can make it onto the air Think of a social network of listener choice.







Q.9 How do you plan to deal with your regional listeners?

We want to connect Berlin users with the international media and music scene. In example, Germany has been pretty strong connected to the English music scene for a long time, listeners from Czech Republic, Denmark or Costa Rica might be driven by other songs and topics than the German ones, Indian users may even add a completely new point of view We don't think it as a cultural gap, we think it as a free mutual benefit. Bands might find support acts overseas, startups even might find business collaborations.






Q.10 What are your future plans, about extending this venture overseas and about your funding processes?
We are analyzing our options overseas and getting in touch with potential companies, as we experience Germany as very slow in adapting to the newest market trends. Especially when it comes to media, the German music licensing fees Gema and GVL are ineffective and old-fashioned, They restrict the growth of independent media on the one hand, the ones who should benefit from these services, don't get much either. Our funding process at this point clearly focuses on moving away and thus getting our user base to the next level.







Q.11 Is there anything which I might have missed out and which you would like our readers to know?

Democratic radio means: You vote, we broadcast! We want to know your opinion about our venture, we want to know the Indian Startup scene better, and we want to know which possibilities we might have to connect with companies and groups in India. We might take interns this autumn and we are also enlarging our business partner network. Get in touch with us at [email protected]. If you have an approach we didn't even think of: Wonderful, that's what choice is all about.







Q.12 Is there any message you would like to convey to the young entrepreneurs and start-ups from your experience?

Absolutely, first, the idea is just one percent of the business. You should not worry about someone stealing your idea; you should ask yourself, if you have the power to develop it, especially when it comes to IT. Don't try to do everything on your own, effectively team up with other skills. Second, you have to learn to love challenges and see that there is no way to fail: You either get a compliment or you get a piece of criticism. Both of which ultimately lead to progress.

You will have setbacks, the more the better, because effort is the path to mastery and your trial today, might lead to another solution tomorrow. A key fact: Get connected: Watch how others started, ask them for recommendations, ask them to introduce you to companies and persons that might help you to the next level, find out about lessons they have already learned. A strong network is a value that cannot be overstated. And most of all: Want it. If you can't think about anything else anymore and if you feel, this venture absolutely has to be done by you and this passion continues over years, you might be on the right way. Make your choice.