• SomaFM News
• News Archive
• Fundraising Update

SomaFM News & Events

Keep informed of SomaFM news and events by joining our mailing list.

SomaFM Network News

Special Cinco de Mayo Programming this Wednesday (May 5th) thru Friday. Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with some of our favorite Latino-driven music. 4-Mat-2021

Sonos Users: Here's how to get our streams without the ads that TuneIn inserts: adding custom radio URLs to Sonos. 1-May-2021

Check out our Specials channel for Surf Music; Tiki Exotica; Bossa Nova, Brazilian and Beyond; and 60s/70s Hipster Euro Pop. 5-Apr-2021

Ambient fans: SoundQuest Fest: An International Gathering of Sonic Innovators and Ambient Architects happens this weekend, live March 26-28, 2021! 22-Mar-2021

Happy Vernal Equinox! Time to celebrate spring and the end of a long winter. 20-Mar-2021

Happy Saint Patricks Day. Enjoy some Thistle Radio to get in the mood. 17-March-2021

Hopefully we have made your life over the last 12 months a little better. Thanks for supporting us through all this. 12-March-2021

Thanks to all our supporters in Feburary who helped us hit our fundraising goal a day early! 1-Mar-2020

Our Alexa skill now supports n5MD Radio, Synphaera Radio (say "sin-fair-uh") and 7" Soul now responds properly to "Alexa, tell SomaFM play Seven Inch Soul." 15-Feb-2021

Our specials channel is back to featuring Surf Report, Bossa Beyond, Tiki Time, and more, 4-Feb-2021

Thank you for listening to our Holiday channels. They will return next October. 1-Feb-2021

Today we launch the newest SomaFM channel, Synphaera Radio, featuring the artists of Synphaera Records, an independent record label focused on modern electronic ambient, minimal electronica & atmospheric space music for the new age. 29-Jan-2021

Issues with the scanner feed(s) and SF-1033 have been resolved. Thanks for your patience. 23-Jan-2021

Due to many, many requests, we have extended Department Store Christmas through the end of January. Bossa Beyond, The In Sound, Surf Report, DubX, Tiki Time will return in February. 16-Jan-2021

Due to popular requests, we will continue broadcasting Christmas Lounge, Christmas Rocks, and Jolly Soul through the end of January. 7-Jan-2020

A huge thanks to all of our supporters in 2020 who really came through for us and all our listeners. 3-Jan-2021

Holiday Channels schedule: Christmas Lounge, Christmas Rocks, Jolly Soul will run through January 15th. Xmas in Frisko becomes "All Auld Lang Syne, All the Time!" at 12:01 AM Jan 1 San Francisco time. Department Store Christmas will run until January 8th at which point our previous Specials programming will return. Thanks for listening! 27-Dec-2020

We hope you can enjoy this holiday season. We're here to help keep your spirits up, and thank you for being part of the SomaFM family. 23-Dec-2020

All systems are functioning properly. We have extra bandwidth available for the holiday channels in place. Thanks for listening! 5-Dec-2020

SomaFM is grateful for our wonderful listeners and supporters, we're glad you're here with us. 26-Nov-2020

We are aware of an issue with buzzing in the SF1033 audio, but it will take a few more days to fix due to restricted physical access to our datacenter. 23-Nov-2020

Boot Liquor issues have been resolved. Thanks for your patience. 9:30AM PT 6-Nov-2020

Because some people are celebrating Halloween tonight, we will *not* be interrupting our Doomed special with station IDs, begathons, etc. Just ALL scary music. 30-Oct-2020

A lot of people have asked, so we have (quietly) resumed our holiday/Christmas programming. 22-Oct-2020

Due to electrical outages at Ted's NY studio, 480 Minutes will not be broadcast on BAGeL Radio today. 9-Oct-2020

UK Sonos users, since TuneIn is blocking non-UK stations, you can install "myTuner Radio" which includes all SomaFM channels. 28-Sep-2020

We had a server outage this morning, which is now resolved. Sorry for the downtime. 19-Sep-2020

TuneIn has removed SomaFM and other non-UK stations from their directory listings for UK listeners. This was entirely their decision. We have not blocked our streams, and you can still listen using our apps, our web player, and on Sonos by adding a custom radio URL; and on Alexa/Echo by installing our Alexa Skill. 10-Sep-2020

Thank you for all your support this August. Not only did we meet our goal, but we had some extra to add to the "emergency fund" for the future! 1-Sep-2020

iOS and Android apps have been updated this week. 19-Aug-2020

Purple Glow shirts are back in stock in all sizes. We will have more inventory of "Nightclub Black" SomaFM shirts as well of Suburbs of Goa and Groove Salad shirts in all sizes arriving in 2 weeks. 13-Aug-2020

The sets from SomaFM's DEF CON DJs will be playing in rotation on SomaFM Live for the next few weeks. We had a great time and hope we can all be together in real life next year. 10-Aug-2020

Live from Def Con Safe Mode 2020 on Def Con Radio Thurs-Sunday this week. 6-Aug-2020

Our recent iOS app update disables Chromecast by default for privacy reasons (and to keep us from having to explain that our app isn't tracking your location; that's a Chromecast thing). You can enable Chromecast in the settings (gear menu) screen. 30-Jul-2020

Thank you so much for all your support in meeting our July budget! It's nice to not have to do a desperate end of the month "beg-a-thon". 30-Jul-2020

Join us for a Drone Zone album premiere: this Friday at Noon Pacific, 3pm ET, 1900 GMT: Steve Roach: "A Soul Ascends."

Thank you so much for all your support in June. We hit our budget goal before the end of the month. Thank you for all the support! 1-Jul-2020

Drone Zone Album Premiere Wednesday July 1st at Noon Pacific, 3pm ET, 1900 GMT: Sam Rosenthal (USA) and Jarguna (Italy) merge with the sunset on their first electronic/ambient collaboration, "Sunwashed Evening Fire". 27-Jun-2020

If you can't afford to donate, that doesn't change how we feel about you! One of the founding principles of SomaFM is access for all. We have never wanted to be an exclusive subscription service. 25-May-2020

This Friday, May 29th at Noon Pacific (3p ET, 1900 GMT): The World Premier of Nectar Meditation - a new collaboration by Steve Roach and Serena Gabriel will occur on Drone Zone. 26-May-2020

The classic Nightclub Black Tshirts in all sizes are back in stock in our merch store. Get one with your $50 donation (plus postage). 15-May-2020

We continue to get merch orders shipped once a week (usually Thursday or Friday). Thanks for your patience during the lockdown. 5-May-2020

The SomaFM office is still closed but your DJs and music directors will continue to work from home and keep the music flowing! 4-May-2020

We've increased our bandwidth capacity and now can serve 2.5 gigs/second of streaming audio. 30-Apr-2020

Rusty has been going in (alone) to the studio, and shipping out merchandise/premium orders. We're not as backlogged as we were afraid we'd be and we'll continue to fulfil orders once a week when possible. 20-Apr-2020

Thank you everyone for all your support and being there with us. We're glad we can be there with you too! 9-Apr-2020

Many people have asked that we bring back the Holiday channels, as an escape right now. So we did. 24-Mar-2020

Apologies for our 10 hour web outage today (and 4 hour stream outage). Everything is working, and the equipment that was ultimately responsible for the problem was replaced. Sorry if we added to your stress. 25-Mar-2020

Due to COVID-19 health orders in San Francsico, all store orders will be delayed until at least April 7th. SomaFM office is closed (your DJs and music directors will continue to work from home and keep the music flowing) 16-Mar-2020

Heavyweight Reggae DJ Dion will be spinning rare vinyl live at Barebottle Brewing Company, (1525 Cortland) in San Francisco, this Sunday, February 23, 2020 from 2-6pm [Facebook Event Page] 20-Feb-2020

(More old news in the news archives.)

(Amazon makes us say all that stupid stuff)

SomaFM is commercial-free radio supported entirely by you! With a $50 donation, you get a SomaFM tshirt!

If you can't afford $50, your support of any amount helps keep us on the air, or use our simple automatic monthly program: