SomaFM

SomaFM

Broadcast area	Internet
First air date	2000
Format	Indie
Language(s)	English
Owner	Rusty Hodge
Website	SomaFM.com

SomaFM is a listener-supported, commercial-free^[1] Internet-only streaming group of radio stations, which started broadcasting out of founder Rusty Hodge's basement garage in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. SomaFM broadcasts electronic music, indie rock and lounge music, among other genres.

SomaFM began as a micro-power radio station broadcast at the Burning Man festival in 1999. The response to the project was sufficiently positive that Rusty Hodge launched it as a full-time internet radio station in February 2000. Taking its name from the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco and Soma, "perfect pleasure drug" from Brave New World, and marketed entirely by word of mouth, SomaFM's twelve channels reached a peak listenership of 10,000 concurrent listeners by 2002. SomaFM reports nearly 6 million "listener hours" every month.^[2]

List of stations

SomaFM initially offered nine channels of music, which has now grown to over thirty, plus three seasonal channels. The most popular channel is Groove Salad, with well over 4000 average concurrent listeners in 2010. Most channels play genres that are rarely heard on commercial radio or are "not being done right" according to Hodge.^[3]

Awards and credits

DJ Elise Nordling, Music Director and DJ of SomaFM's "Indie Pop Rocks!" station, was awarded the San Francisco Bay Guardian's "Best DJ of the Bay" award in 2005, 2007, and 2009. In 2007, they wrote, in part: "DJ Elise is renowned for her impeccable taste, encompassing everything from bleeding-edge unsigned bands to classic small-label favorites... Because of this pioneer's curatorship, Indie Pop Rocks! has become required listening on a global scale."^[4]

The San Francisco Bay Guardian also awarded SomaFM a "Best of the Bay" award in 2005 for "Best Way to Avoid the Top 40."

Track history

SomaFM makes a two hour track history list for each station available on the station's subpage on the website. Longer station history listings are available through per station Twitter accounts accessible through a link near the bottom of each stream's song history page.

Conflict with SoundExchange

In May 2002, the DMCA CARP 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. Hodge estimated that the station could have been forced to pay over $1,000 USD 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.

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.^[5]

Subsequently, Congress passed the Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002 (SWSA) on November 15, 2002,^[6] which enabled small webcasters to negotiate a lower rate with SoundExchange.^[7] SomaFM resumed broadcasting in late November 2002 under this new royalty structure.

On June 26, 2007, SomaFM participated in the "Internet Radio Day of Silence"^{[8] [9]} in protest of the Copyright Royalty Board's recent decision to raise royalty fees for internet radio stations.

As of December 2008, SomaFM has not yet settled with SoundExchange.^[10]

References

External links

• SomaFM website
• Coomey, Chris (2004-06-30). "Move over, pirate radio — from a Bernal Heights garage, Internet station SomaFM plays tunes for the whole wide world, and it's all perfectly legal". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2013-08-08. 
• Mieszkowski, Katharine (2002-03-26). "Web radio's last stand". Technology and Business (Salon.com). Retrieved 2013-08-08. 
• marx (2002-06-21). "RIAA kills US-based Internet radio". Kuro5hin. Retrieved 2013-08-08.