I’ve been going back and forth for a while now on how to better present the catalog of ASIP releases. A few things encouraged me to start 9128.
Soundcloud has really slowed down over the years and as everyone knows it’s a struggling platform overall. I considered using Mixcloud’s new premium levels (with paywalls) to help provide new and exclusive music but now they’re starting to implement even more restrictions on listeners. I’ve used Mixlr to live stream exclusive sets which was actually really great, but it was such an effort to bring everyone into one place all the time to listen.
This often all came together OK when presenting ASIP music and mixes, but I recently found myself as a listener, wanting to have a resource where I didn’t have to choose. Just with those platforms above I’m going to three different places all the time, not even considering Bandcamp or streaming platforms. My world is becoming a little bit overwhelming when balancing how and what I listen to. I’m not complaining - there can never be too much music - but there’s a dedicated time when I sit down and play a record, and then there’s convenience time when I would just like to tune in to something I know I will like - a soundtrack for my daily life.
Many may suggest streaming platforms and playlists at this point. But I don’t want adverts, paywalls (if you don’t want adverts), playlists curated by anonymous ‘editors’, fake artists, and the desire to keep things updated all the time. And again, there’s still the choice of what playlist to choose and when.
So create a new channel? At first it didn’t necessarily make sense given the many options I just described, but it turns out it’s the characteristics of radio that I’ve been longing for as a listener. Putting aside want I wanted or what I felt was working as a label; as a music listener, I wanted something new.
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Easy to access. No logins, no paywalls. Available here on a normal website, on a dedicated URL or within other services or apps that might make things that bit more convenient.
Always on. I’ve been wanting music in the background, without having to worry about what’s playing or when it ends. It was awesome listening to the Warp/NTS broadcast last month and dipping in and out as time allowed. Hearing new music and NOT knowing what was playing-imagine that! I enjoyed that experience and always have. On top of all that, I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night and not wanting to scroll through my phone deciding on what to play, I just wanted to hit play, and go back to sleep.
Self-serving. We’ve all gone through a period of ‘loaning’ out how we communicate with listeners and now it’s swinging back around. The days of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Soundcloud etc are becoming frustrating to say the least, unless you’re paying. Mixcloud even as of this week. Time to create something we own again.
Selfishly, yes, I hope that the radio station brings more people back to our website, sign-ups for our emails and supports more artists directly on Bandcamp, spending less time in the cluttered world of social media and streaming playlists.
New ways of presenting music. 9128 will play music from our catalog and friends of ASIP - labels and artists. We’re excited to bring new listening experiences such as dedicated shows, album premieres, themed slots, artist and label showcases and more…
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So we’re here.
9128 has been created as a newly curated destination to showcase friends, artists and labels within the ambient and electronic music community - a collective of likeminded music.
Our goal is to have a 100% label and artist curated schedule and our regular programming will revolve around music from everyone involved, alongside scheduled shows from our Partners.
Programming will be fluid, often random, and curated to ensure a new listening experience with every visit.
Partner shows: We are partnering with friends and likeminded labels to create purposeful listening moments. Partners will have a time where you can tune in for the latest curation by said Partner, but that curation may be different from one show to the next and the slot may change from week to week. At launch, we have some great Partners involved, including Archives / Faint, Astral Industries, Auxiliary, Field Records, Hypnus, Past Inside The Present, Silent Season and The Thesis Project alongside many individual artists contributing their select releases and unreleased music. You can read more about the Partners here, and we will soon be adding details on all the individual artists involved.
Regular 9128 programing: Surrounding the Partner shows will be regular 9128 programing curated by ASIP. 9128 Programing will be less defined and will be a mix of all music from the ASIP Label and Partners involved. It will also include album premieres, label-specific mixes and unreleased/exclusive music. But, we' won’t be overly-promoting all this on social media - it will happen randomly, should you wish to tune in and find it.
Details:
We don’t have specific limitations on what music we play. We curate from a label / artist level. Generally the music featured on 9128 aligns to the ASIP aesthetic, and will include a spectrum of ambient, drone, field-recordings, experimental, soundtrack, modern classical, electronica/IDM and deep techno.
The music featured is played under permission or owned by said artists, Partners or ASIP.
The stream is currently offered at 320kbps.
We encourage you to connect to the stream using WiFi, especially on mobile, to avoid high data usage.
The stream has built-in security measures to stop and discourage “stream rippers”. Please respect the artists and music played for your enjoyment.
If you like what you hear, we encourage you to support the artists and Partners on Bandcamp, with links available on the Partners page.
The stream is available on the dedicated website, as an iOS app, as an Android app, and an Alexa skill.
If by Eno’s definition, ambient music was meant to be heard in the background, then we hope this is the best background music you could ask for.
Thanks for tuning in!
