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 (so-called "pirate stations"). 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. This is for two primary reasons. First, we couldn't afford it anyway since we have no revenue, particularly since the recording industry seems dead-set on pricing themselves completely out of the net radio market. But even more importantly, we do not participate in the Performance Rights Organization (PRO) system because we feel it is corrupt and has little to do with benefiting artists. Rather, we believe that PROs are structured to primarily benefit only a small number of very large corporations, and ordinary ambient artists are left almost completely out in the cold. For these reasons, and several other smaller ones, StillStream has limited itself to playing only music that can be streamed freely and without any license fees.

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

There is a lot of controversy in the media about whether radio airplay has any inherent promotional value. Our position is that for ambient music, radio airplay is of tremendous marketing value, perhaps even more so than for other genres. Certainly ambient artists at ALL levels seem to agree with us, as StillStream has had remarkable support from almost every single artist from whom we asked permission (and we asked some rather famous artists indeed). In short, promotional value is what StillStream is all about, and we think it is a win-win for artists, labels, fans, and even the recording industry at large.

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 signs our online waiver form and is not a member of a PRO.
• Non Creative Commons music by artists who are PRO members simply cannot be played on StillStream.

You might wonder why we explicitly disallow PRO members from receiving airplay. This is not just to try to motivate artists to abandon the PRO system (although we think that is an excellent idea for ambient artists). The true reason is that, without exception, PROs worldwide do not allow their artists to waive the PRO licensing fees, even when the artist really wants to! Worse still, in some countries the PRO license fee cannot be waived even if the artist is not a member of a PRO at all (fortunately StillStream is not based in such a country). This is a large part of the reason why we feel the PRO system is corrupt and skewed against the individual ambient artist.

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:

• 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 ...
• Scott Turner - an ambient artist better known as Not Your Average Hippy, Scott was one of the first folks who dove in headfirst to help support StillStream. His efforts included hosting Organbient Radio, a weekly live program formerly carried on Friday nights, as well as scouting and auditioning incoming music for our library.
• Allen Goodman - another musician and host of Ambitar Radio, Allen has helped StillStream tremendously through his scouting and auditioning efforts, as well as all of his help in maintaining and updating our web site.
• Stephen Philips - a well known ambient musician, music label owner, and the host of Kite Radio, Stephen has discovered a ton of new music for our library and has helped promote StillStream for many years.
• Gordon Macmillan - another ambient musician, Gordon is the host of Mysterious Semblance and one of the most talented music scouts in our crew. Gordon has discovered a ton of great new music for our library and has also been a StillStream volunteer for several years.
• Mike Metlay - 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.
• 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.
• Ian Clay - for the original inspiration. Thanks man.

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 ...