 | |
| Industry | Internet radio |
|---|---|
| Founded | February 2000 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA |
Key people | Rusty Hodge, Founder |
| Website | SomaFM.com |
SomaFM is an independent Internet-only streaming multi-channel radio station, supported entirely with donations from listeners. [1]
SomaFM takes its name from Soma, the "perfect pleasure drug" from Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World , and the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, known colloquially as SoMa. [2]
SomaFM originally started broadcasting out of founder Rusty Hodge's basement garage in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, as a micropower radio station broadcast at the Burning Man festival in 1999. [1] [3] [4] The response to the project was sufficiently positive that Rusty Hodge launched it as a full-time internet radio station in February 2000.
In May 2002, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel rate ruling came into effect, requiring internet broadcasters to pay a per song per listener royalty to SoundExchange for the performance of the sound recording, retroactively through October 1998. [4] Hodge estimated that the channel could have been forced to pay over US$1,000 per day to continue operations. The royalty was later reduced by half, but that rate still would require payments by SomaFM that exceeded their revenues. [5]
In June 2002, SomaFM ceased broadcasting. Hodge was one of several webcasters who testified before the U.S. Congress in 2002 in the hopes of reducing the royalty rate. [6] [7] [1] Subsequently, Congress passed the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002 (SWSA) on November 15, 2002, [8] which enabled small webcasters to negotiate a lower rate with SoundExchange. [9] SomaFM resumed broadcasting in late November 2002 under this new royalty structure.
In 2005, SomaFM partnered with Orban to begin streaming to 3GPP-compatible mobile devices, [10] becoming one of the first internet broadcasters to support mobile streaming on 3G/EDGE networks. [11] In June 2007, SomaFM participated in the "Internet Radio Day of Silence" in protest of the Copyright Royalty Board's decision at the time to raise royalty fees for internet radio stations. [12] [13]
In January 2013, SomaFM partnered with Aha by Harman International to make its content available via Aha apps in supported automobile dashboards. [14] In 2014, SomaFM partnered with Qualcomm to include Allplay (part of the AllJoyn open source software framework) for wireless speakers in their mobile apps. [15] Throughout its history, SomaFM, as well as its playlist curators, have been recognized with various awards and other honors. [16] [17] [18]
| Channel | Genre/theme | Year added |
|---|---|---|
| Drone Zone | Drone | 2000 |
| Groove Salad | Downtempo/chillout | |
| Secret Agent | Lounge/jazz with a 1960s spy theme | |
| Indie Pop Rocks! | Indie pop/indie rock. | 2002 |
| cliqhop idm | Intelligent dance music | |
| Beat Blender | House/downtempo/chillout | |
| Boot Liquor | Americana | 2003 |
| The Trip | Classic trance/progressive trance. Formerly known as Tag's Trip. | 2004 |
| Xmas in Frisko [a] | Eclectic Christmas-themed music | 2005 |
| Space Station Soma | Ambient space music | 2006 |
| Illinois Street Lounge | Lounge music [19] | |
| Doomed [a] | Industrial/dark ambient | |
| Sonic Universe | Avant-garde jazz | 2008 |
| Lush | Female-driven vocal downtempo | |
| Digitalis | Self-produced indie rock and electronic music | |
| Suburbs of Goa | Desi/Arabic-influenced worldbeat | |
| Underground 80s | Early 80s British synthpop and new wave. Formerly known as Nu Musik. | |
| Christmas Lounge [a] | Christmas-themed lounge music | |
| Mission Control | Ambient music mixed with the sounds of NASA's mission broadcasts and live shuttle coverage | 2009 |
| PopTron | Electropop/dance-rock | |
| Covers | Cover songs | |
| Black Rock FM [a] | The broadcast for 102.3FM in Black Rock City for the Burning Man Festival | 2010 |
| South by Soma [a] | Music by artists from the SXSW Festival | 2012 |
| SF 10–33 | Ambient music mixed with the sounds of San Francisco public safety radio traffic | |
| Dub Step Beyond | Dubstep and other bass-driven electronic music | |
| Folk Forward | Indie folk, alternate folk | |
| Christmas Rocks! [a] | Christmas themed indie/alternative rock | |
| DEF CON Radio | Music from DEF CON's chill room, provided by SomaFM | 2013 |
| Iceland Airwaves [a] | Music by artists from the Iceland Airwaves festival | |
| Deep Space One | Deep ambient electronic, experimental, and space music | |
| Seven Inch Soul | Classic soul music | 2014 |
| Left Coast 70s | Mellow album-oriented rock from the 1970s | 2015 |
| Fluid | Instrumental hip hop/future soul/liquid trap | |
| ThistleRadio | Celtic music, was previously broadcast as The Thistle & Shamrock on NPR | |
| Metal Detector | Heavy metal | |
| Jolly Ol' Soul [a] | Christmas-themed soul music | |
| SomaFM Live | Live music [b] [20] [21] | 2015 |
| Groove Salad Classic | Early 2000s downtempo/chillout [22] | 2019 |
| Department Store Christmas [a] | Christmas-themed beautiful music | |
| Heavyweight Reggae | Reggae, dub, ska, and rocksteady [23] | 2020 |
| Vaporwaves | Vaporwave [24] | |
| n5MD Radio | Music from the music label n5MD | |
| Synphaera | Modern electronic ambient and space music | 2021 |
| The In-Sound | 1960s & 1970s Euro-Pop | 2023 |
| Tiki Time | Exotica | |
| Bossa Beyond | Bossa Nova & Samba | |
| Chillits | Recordings of musical performances from Chillits | 2024 |
