Most web hosting companies operate to make a profit. You rarely find a web host anymore that operates as a hobby, at least not one with a lot of clients. Every new service that is being considered needs to add to the bottom line of the company. Shoutcast hosting is a hosting service that is increasing in popularity, but is it worth offering?

Benefits of offering shoutcast hosting

Value added service to current clients

The great thing about offering a new service when you already have a customer base is that those customer are a great source of revenue for the new service. Look through your existing customers – can this shoutcast server offer value to them? Is there a need for it for your existing clients? It is a great value added service for both existing and new clients.

Bundling options available

Many shoutcast hosts do not do web hosting and those that do often don’t do it well. If someone is looking for shoutcast hosting, odds are they also have a website to host. This provides a great opportunity to bundle services in order to maximize revenue.

Disadvantages of offering shoutcast services

New technical skill set to acquire

Although similar to web hosting, the technical knowledge needed to setup and support shoutcast hosting is a little different and will take a time and money investment in order to teach your staff what is necessary to offer technical support for the service.

Increased server costs

Shoutcast stations should not be hosted on the same server as your web hosting clients for performance reasons. This means that you will need to provision additional servers to house the new clients which equals up front costs. In addition to server costs, you will need to license a shoutcast control panel for clients to manage their services.

If you are considering adding shoutcast to your list of services, make sure you look at the pros and cons before finally making a decision – it might not be as lucrative as you first thought.