for radio, that is ads or subscriptions, but radio revenue has been down like the rest of traditional media. for clubs, that is the multiple rounds of overpriced drinks, and maybe a cover.
Spotify's monthly cost is comparable to about two or three mixed drinks, maybe one in an expensive city like New York or Miami. People blanche at paying any higher; remember how people reacted to Tidal being comparatively expensive?
that doesn't contradict the assumption that it's a viable business. Search engines and social media services make money from ads but I don't think it would be fair to say that search engines or social media services are not viable business.
yes and DJs can be seen as discovery facilitators as per grandparent's comment, so it is fair to say that this is a viable business, which is based on content discovery - or maybe I misunderstood what you're saying?
> radio stations are typically national and have the record labels pitching new content to them
leaving aside the fact that you just described a very narrow subset of all commercial radios - how does this make radios not related to content discovery?
Do you mean not a viable VC-funded business, or not viable at all? From context, I think you mean the former. But there are plenty of "traditional" businesses (e.g. clubs and radios) that make a living through discovery.
Maybe the problem is VC funding then? Maybe one day we will hear of some bootstrapped strartup coming out of IndieHackers?