About StillStream

Summary

StillStream is an ambient, non-commercial, zero-revenue independent net radio station based in the United States. Our mission is to make ambient artists successful. We play strictly by the rules when it comes to music licensing. There are numerous people to whom we are grateful for generous support. We have been broadcasting since 2005 and hope to keep broadcasting for many years to come.

Our Story

The original idea for StillStream came from Ian Clay of Parasme Records, who felt that the ambient genre needed more radio airplay options for artists. He also felt that the world needed a dedicated net radio station that would both promote the ambient genre as well as bring together ambient artists and fans into a single supportive community. Inspired by this idea, an indie musician and erstwhile web site developer named Darrell Burgan set about to create:

• An independent, non-commercial net radio station that ran no ads or other obnoxious content
• A station that would play quality ambient music by artists at any level of fame or commercial success.
• A place where fans could meet their favorite artists, and where artists could actually meet the people who dig their music.
• A station that focused on live music performances and live radio programs as much as possible.
• A community of artists and fans who would attend live broadcasts, both by listening and by participating in live chat.
• A vehicle for expanding the fan base for the ambient genre as a whole.
• A station that could be sustainably kept on the air despite having absolutely no revenue, without sending the owner to the poor house.

After several weeks of work, StillStream first began broadcasting on March 1, 2005 and has been on the air non-stop ever since. During this time, we grew from having just a couple of listeners on an occasional basis to being a full fledged radio station with many listeners from all over the globe tuned in at all hours of the day and night. Our library grew from having just a few dozen artists to being one of the largest repositories of quality independent ambient music on the net. We even got to the #1 spot on Google for the search phrase "ambient radio".

With no false modesty, we think it is now safe to say that StillStream is one of the finest ambient net radio stations around. Though we are by no means the only great ambient net radio station (see our links page for a few more), we are the only ambient net radio station that we know of that focuses on live music and live programs. We are very proud of StillStream and look forward to many years of continued service to the ambient community. We hope our listeners find StillStream to be as fulfilling as we do.

Our Mission

We measure StillStream's success as follows:

• Are we providing significant promotional value to ambient artists?
• Are we expanding the ambient music listener base in general?
• Are we creating excitement amongst ambient music fans?
• Are we introducing listeners to new artists and releases that they might not otherwise hear?
• Are we giving ambient artists a much-needed venue in which to perform live for their fans?
• Are we helping to keep ambient music as a genre "on the map"?

If we can answer yes to all of these questions, then we feel we are living up to our goals. If not, well then it means we need to continue to improve our service, something we are constantly striving to do.

It is important to note that our mission does NOT include making money, making a profit, or even covering our own costs. We are intentionally and unapologetically non-commercial because this gives us the freedom to work towards our goals without any external entanglements.

The Licensing Thing

When it comes to licensing music, it is our belief that net radio stations come in just two flavors: those that play by the rules, and those that do not. StillStream plays strictly by the rules, and in fact goes to extreme lengths to ensure we are doing so. We strongly support the rights of ambient artists, including their right to choose how to market their music, and how much (if anything) to charge for their music.

But let's be clear: StillStream does not pay royalties of any kind for airplay. Put simply, as a non-commercial station with no revenue stream, it is simply out of our reach cost-wise.

How can we do this legally? Simple. We just ask the artist's permission!

After much research and a couple of different models for documenting permission (including a short experiment paying license fees via LoudCity), StillStream has settled upon a simple set of rules:

• Music released under Creative Commons is automatically free for StillStream to use, owing to our non-commercial status.
• Non Creative Commons music can also be played on StillStream, but only if the artist/rightsholder signs our online waiver form.

We totally respect artists who choose not to grant us a royalty waiver. We believe very strongly that artists should have the choice of how to bring their music to the marketplace and to their audiences, and can understand if an artist would rather not sign such an agreement. After all, we are all artists ourselves! If you do choose to grant us a royalty waiver, however, we sincerely thank you and promise to do everything we can to make it worth your effort.

Important People

Well, quite honestly, we really don't have a proper staff. However, there are a large number of folks who have donated their time and energy to help keep StillStream successful:

• Ian Clay - for the original inspiration. Thanks man.
• Our Hosts - it goes without saying that StillStream simply could not exist without the tireless efforts of our team of hosts who bring you the live programs, week in and week out. These folks work their tails off to bring you live ambient music at no benefit to themselves, and there is no way we could possibly repay them for what they do. We salute them!
• Allen Goodman - another musician and host of Ambitar Radio, Allen has helped StillStream tremendously both through his show, as well as all of his help in maintaining our repository mirror and in running the podcast program.
• Mike Metlay - host of Spiral, for donating a computer to StillStream to aid in live streaming (thanks so much) as well as opening up Different Skies to the StillStream audience.
• Stephen Philips - host of Kite Radio, Stephen has been a major scout of new music for the station, as well as host of the longest running program we have.
• The artists of the Organbient Compilation - these are a group of ambient artists who wanted to support StillStream, and so donated more than 18 hours of original ambient music to Blue Water Records to be sold solely as a benefit for StillStream.
• Mike Carss - an ambient artist better known as Altus, who donated a superb ambient album to Blue Water Records, also to be sold as a benefit for StillStream.
• Scott Ruof - a dedicated StillStream listener who has scouted a ton of new music for the StillStream library, and has provided much support to the station in other ways, as well.
• Darrell Burgan - the owner and founder of StillStream, Darrell has invested more hours into the development and maintenance of this site than he cares to think about. You think running a radio station is easy? Talk to Darrell ...

We want to give these folks the props they deserve. Thank you so much for supporting StillStream and for helping us to make the ambient world a better place. It quite literally could not be done without you.

We also would like to thank all the ambient artists for so generously supporting StillStream. We sincerely hope that our efforts to support your music have been more than worth it to you.

Finally we would like to thank our listeners. Without you, there would be no point ...