What’s the best way to get through your daily commute or make that long day at the office go by a little quicker?
For many of you, it might be tuning in to your favorite radio station and listening to music or radio talk shows.
It’s no secret the media landscape has changed in recent years. The way we watch TV and movies has changed.
Newspapers are going out of business, and streaming services are putting pressure on cable companies and networks.
But people still listen to the radio.
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In fact, almost 245 million people listen to the radio each month!
And 84% of people still listen to AM/FM radio in their car.
Don’t forget about the almost 34 million people who have SiriusXM satellite radio.
So, how would you like to get paid to listen to the radio while sitting in your cubicle at work or completing your “Honey Do” list?
If that sounds like music to your ears, you’re in luck!
Table of Contents
How to Make Money Listening to Radio
Here are some of the best ways to get paid for listening to the radio!
1. Join the Nielsen Computer & Mobile Panel (Earn $50/yr)
Nielsen Market Research is a company well known for its surveys and insights into people’s behavior—including listening to the radio.
They gather this information by creating panels to understand how people think and behave.
One of their methods involves tracking how people use their computers or mobile devices.
By registering and downloading the Nielsen app, you can earn rewards just for using your device as you normally would.
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In fact, you can earn $50 a year simply for using the app.
Not a bad deal, right?
2. SliceThePie.com
Do you consider yourself a music critic?
Have you ever wanted to tell a band or artist how amazing their music is—or that their newest song is the worst thing in the history of mankind?
Well, it turns out, you can do just that—and get paid for it.
SliceThePie.com allows you to offer your opinion on a variety of topics, including music.
Your opinion goes directly to the artist or record label.
It only takes a minute or two to register, and you can begin giving your reviews right away.
It may take some time to accumulate money, as reviews are generally in the range of $0.02–$0.20.
3. HitPredictor
HitPredictor.com is similar to SliceThePie.com in that it allows you to give feedback on songs.
After you register, you earn points per review, and once you accumulate enough points, you can cash them in for prizes, such as Amazon gift cards.
The cool part of HitPredictor is that you get to listen to songs before they’re released to the public.
So, in a way, you have some influence over what people may hear on the radio!
An interesting note: HitPredictor is part of the media company iHeartMedia.
4. RadioEarn.com
RadioEarn.com is a site that pays you to listen to music via your computer.
Register to create an account, log in, and select the radio link you want to listen to.
You’ll earn points for every 15 minutes you listen, and those points will be converted into cash at the end of the following month.
You can receive your payout via bank transfer, Amazon gift card, or Bitcoin.
You will hear commercials from time to time (that’s how they afford their payouts).
Interesting facts: according to their website, they have over 56,000 members and over 1,300 stations from all over the world.
So, it’s an opportunity to earn some cash and maybe listen to music from all over the globe!
5. Music X-Ray
Update: Sadly, their Get Paid To Listen (Fan Match) feature is no longer available.
MusicXRay.com is similar to SliceThePie.com and HitPredictor.com in that you listen to and then review music.
To get started, go to the website, watch a short video on how the process works, answer a few questions about yourself and your music preferences.
They say they prefer to use one of the Facebook music apps to track your music preferences.
But if you don’t want to do that, you can just provide the names of some of your favorite artists or singers.
Once you do this, you’ll start getting music suggestions in your email.
Then, all you have to do is give your opinion on the song they send you.
The pay rate is $0.10 per review, and you can cash out once you reach $20.
6. Welocalize.com
Update: It seems the company has changed some things. They no longer have any information about this gig, and I’ve been reading some negative reviews that have surfaced lately. So, I would not sign up!
Do you enjoy singing along to the songs playing on the radio?
Can you figure out the lyrics of every song you hear?
If so, that’s a skill most people don’t have.
Why not get paid for it?
That’s exactly what you can do with Welocalize.com.
Watch an instructional video, then register.
After that, you’ll receive an invitation to transcribe, download their app, and start transcribing!
You’ll earn $4 per song you transcribe.
If you transcribe one song a day, that’s an extra $28 per week.
Not a bad deal!
7. PlaylistPush.com
Are you one of the 248 million Spotify users out there?
If so, are you looking for new artists to add to your playlists?
And wouldn’t it be nice if you could get paid to do so?
It’s not too good to be true, because that is exactly what PlaylistPush.com does.
PlaylistPush pays you to listen to and review songs, and if you like them, they ask you to add them to one of your playlists.
To qualify as a curator, you need to own a playlist with real followers on Spotify, YouTube Music, or Apple Music.
Once you register, you’ll begin getting music to review.
You’ll be paid via PayPal, and the payout date is every Friday.
And the payout is pretty nice; you can earn up to $12 per song!
Also, you don’t have to hit a certain dollar amount in order to redeem your money.
You can cash out at any time!
This is probably one of the most lucrative deals you can find!
8. Cash4Minutes
Cash4Minutes.com allows you to use your phone, whether cell or landline, to call into and listen to radio stations.
Register and complete your profile, then add all the phone numbers you will be using.
Pick from the list of available stations, and start listening.
You’ll need to accumulate a minimum of 20 units before being able to claim your earnings.
And you’ll be paid via Amazon voucher, Bitcoin, a charitable donation, or bank transfer.
9. Current Cash Rewards app (now known as Mode Mobile: Make Money On Earn App)
Current Cash Rewards is an app that allows users to enjoy a streaming music experience without a subscription to a streaming service.
The user can access their favorite music from their lock screen and earn points just for listening to their favorite music.
Earn enough points, and you can redeem them for cash via PayPal.
Or, you can redeem them for gift cards to Uber, Starbucks, Amazon, Walmart, Target, and others.
You can also earn additional points by completing surveys, sharing your opinion, completing tasks, etc.
According to the Google Play website, you can earn up to $600 a year by using the app.
10. Fix Music Rewards app
Update: The Fix app is no longer available.
Fix was a music rewards app on the Google Play website that rewarded users for listening to music or even buying concert tickets.
But there’s not much more of a description than that.
And the average review was only three stars.
11. InboxDollars
You may be more familiar with InboxDollars.com as a survey site or a platform where you get paid for watching videos.
But that’s not all.
Just turn on the radio feature, and you’re good to go.
They’re even offering a $5 sign-up bonus for new members.
12. UniqueRewards
Update: Based on numerous negative reviews from users about the lack of payment, we no longer recommend UniqueRewards.
UniqueRewards.com is similar to InboxDollars.com in that it’s another “get paid to” website.
This means you’ll earn money for completing surveys, watching videos, and more.
But it’s also a paid radio site.
Register, log in, then start listening to one of their stations.
Every 30 minutes or so, you need to check in to make sure you’re actually listening.
You won’t get rich doing this—you’ll earn about $0.03 per 30 minutes, and the minimum payout is $20, which you’ll receive either by PayPal or check.
13. Earn 4000 SB points
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on Swagbucks.com.
You never know what kind of deals they’re offering on a given day.
For example, have you been thinking about getting Sirius/XM satellite radio?
If so, and you have a Swagbucks account, you’re in luck!
If you sign up for Sirius/XM through Swagbucks, you’ll earn 4000 Swagbucks!
That’s enough Swagbucks to get a $25 PayPal cash reward and three $5 Amazon gift cards!
What a deal!
14. Get $15 SiriusXM cashback with Rakuten
Swagbucks is not the only place to look for discounts or rewards.
Don’t forget about Rakuten.com.
If you’re interested in SiriusXM, you can get $15 cashback when you subscribe through Rakuten.
That way, you’ve basically received two months of the service for free!
15. Earnably
Earnably is one of the newest rewards sites that is becoming popular very quickly. Not only does this website pay you for listening to radio, but it also rewards you for watching videos, taking surveys, and completing offers.
It works like any other rewards site, but it also has a great feature in that you can earn bonuses and higher payouts as you become a more advanced user.
They have a $2 minimum cashout requirement and pay via PayPal or gift cards.
16. FusionCash
FusionCash has been around for a long time. It pays you to complete offers, fill out surveys, shop, and, of course, listen to Internet radio.
Once you have $25, you can cash out.
By the way, they pay you $5 just for signing up!
What Happened to Radio Loyalty & Research.FM?
This post was originally focused on reviewing RadioLoyalty since it was the biggest site that paid you for listening to radio. Unfortunately, the website has since shut down.
Research.FM is also gone. There is a note on their website stating that they are no longer sending out surveys. If you were a member and have an outstanding points balance, you can click the link on the homepage to claim them. It also states the rewards claiming system is being shut down on June 1, 2020, after which rewards can no longer be claimed.
So, we updated the post with newer sites like Radio Loyalty that actually work. We left the review of RL here (the section between the horizontal lines below) for archival reasons.
RadioLoyalty Review
RadioLoyalty is basically an online rewards program, much like Swagbucks, where users earn points for tuning in to one of the thousands of online radio stations that participate in RadioLoyalty’s program.
The list of participating stations includes a variety of music and talk/news stations of different genres—from Pop, Rock, and Religious, to Sports, Public Safety, News, and everything in between.
There are also other ways to rack up some points, including taking surveys and watching videos.
The points you earn can be redeemed for merchandise (mostly electronics) and prepaid debit cards.
RadioLoyalty Apps
The good news is that they also have apps for both Android and iPhone. So, you can listen and earn points from anywhere, at any time, on your mobile devices.
- RadioLoyalty
app for iPhone. - RadioLoyalty
app for Android.
And yes, the apps are free.
How It Works
Becoming a member is totally free, and you can do so by visiting RadioLoyalty.com.
The good news for our international readers is that the site accepts members from any country, unless your country is one of those that prohibit such services, which I don’t think there are many.
As soon as you sign up, your account gets credited with 250 bonus points.
There are a few ways to earn points here. The most obvious one is listening to or watching your favorite broadcast(s). You can also take surveys, rate songs, respond to special offers, and so on.
The site also rewards you for searching via their search bar.
Redeeming Your Points
This is where the site differs from most other online loyalty programs.
To cash in your points, you have to either call them at 1-805-308-9152, option 3, Monday – Friday, 8 am-5 pm PST, or email them.
A $25 debit card would cost you 294,000 points.
What I don’t like about their cash-out system is that you must also pay for the cost of shipping and handling using your points.
The second issue is that the RadioLoyalty Store (where you exchange your points for prizes) has a rather limited number of prizes. There are less than 20 items, most of which are electronic products, with the exception of the RadioLoyalty Mug and the $25 and $50 prepaid debit cards.
The site does say that they add new prizes regularly, but the frequency of which they have been adding prizes in the past leaves much to be desired.
The third, not-so-pleasing fact is that your points expire after 365 days. So, you’d better use your points to get something before they expire.
I never understood why some sites set an expiration date for points. Maybe I am trying to save up to get a bigger prize. I mean, I have earned the points. Why should I lose them because of a stupid point expiration rule?
Rock On and Cash In!
Many of us have the radio on as background noise or as a way to make the day more pleasant.
Now, you have a way to make a little extra cash doing something you already do without even thinking about it!
Obviously, you’re not going to make a lot of money, but if you are a radio junkie (for NPR fans, unfortunately, I couldn’t find any site that pays you to listen to National Public Radio), you may as well get paid for listening.
The tips listed above give you many ways to cash in on your love of music and radio.
Now go turn on that radio and tune in to some extra cash!
Nadine Zachary (@deenie61)
I heard the stories at RadioLoyalty, but I thought it would never happen to me. I didn’t listen all that much even though it was on several sites I already belong to. For the few points involved it was hard to work on other things while watching the time so I could jump back over to RadioLoyalty to enter my captchas so I might get credit. I say might because they didn’t always seem to credit for all of my listening time. Last summer, on one site they were offering double points for a month so I made an effort to listen a bit more. I had good intentions but still didn’t remember it much more often than before. But my listening time did increase some, which they deemed as fraud and banned me. I wrote to explain why I was listening a little more than usual, but apparently they did not care. I’d ready about people getting banned for fraud they didn’t commit but of course it would never happen to me for listening maybe twice a week LOL. never say never!
Satrap
Sorry about your experience Nadine.
While I do understand your frustration, I think sites like RadioLoyalty are so strict with their rules because they have to protect themselves from spammers. After all, they are running a business. And sadly, sometimes, legit users like you, do get caught by their spam web.
stevie404
USED ONLY IF YOU ENJOY AGGRAVTION & FAST, SLICK TALKING!! Radio Loyalty is expiring rewards points as you earn them!! They claim to expire oldest UNUSED points first but in reality they are treating points previously used on gift cards ordered as unused & subject to expiration. So when they expire points from 365 days ago, it takes the points that you just earned yesterday & expires them!!!! They’ve been informed of the problem almost 2 months ago. YET IT STILL PERSISTS!
DON’T TRY TO CONTACT THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ANSWERING THE PHONES OR RETURNING E-MAILS????
On 5/12/2015 I earned & ordered a $25 Visa gift card but have yet to receive it. They are not answering e-mails on this matter either!
Is anyone else experiencing problems with Radio Loyalty?
Satrap
I am sorry about your experience. I haven’t seen much negative feedback from their users. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Were you able to get a hold of them?
Johowd
Radioearn seam to be good but they had a fire a few weeks ago, but can’t seam to find any info on when they will be back, just the video on the main page
Saeed
Johowd, I just (5/7/2021) checked the site is back up and working.