Can a Donation Model Work for Streaming Music?

Digital music raked in $4 billion in revenue last year, with streaming giants Pandora and Spotify eating up the lion's share.

Other tech companies began to dabble in music, too, with Google, Twitter and Apple offering ways to become your personal DJ.

So far, the formula to turning a profit — or at least getting close to one — is a mix of audio sales, freemium models and in-app advertising. But a new startup is trying to test that model by asking for a handout rather than payment.

Radical.FM launched an iOS app on Tuesday with a library filled with 25 million songs. The service operates on a pay-as-you-want model — a bit of a head-scratcher, considering major rivals are still losing money. It claims to be ad-free, and it mostly is — but between every few songs, a short infomercial asking for listeners' donations. Read more...