Smile Machine’s 24/7 station live now

Smile Machine Music presents AESTHETIC FM

Vaporwave · synthwave · retro · ambient. Hand-picked, independent and on air around the clock.

What’s playing Play the game

AESTHETIC FM · live from the machine

Now playing on AESTHETIC FM

ただいま放送中

C:\SMILE\NOWPLAY.EXE

Tuning in…

AESTHETIC FM

Smile Machine Music

Earlier on the station

Loading the last few tracks…

The live track list lives on Last.fm, where every song we’ve played since 2017 is logged.

Last.fmsmilemachine

TUNE_IN.EXE

The radio pops up in the corner and keeps playing while you look around the site.

Requests and shout-outs go in the YouTube live chat. Someone’s usually around.

Live 24/7YouTube

SYSMON.EXE · live from YouTube

Watching right now— LIVE

On air without a break—since —

Subscribers—

Stream views—

Likes on the stream—

Channel views, all time—

Videos on the channel—

Refreshes every minuteYouTube Data API

2,076,869tracks played since Jan 2017
500,000hours listened
235.24terabytes streamed since 2017
—on air this run, without a break
12,940 hlongest unbroken broadcast
1,000+ hof music in the library

Track count and uptime are live. Listening hours and data are running estimates.

Welcome to Smile Machine · since 2016

Do it for the music

A methodically curated library of sounds that will inspire your mind, ignite your emotions and put a smile on your face.

Smile Machine is your source for the music you want from the artists you have yet to discover. We’re here to share great music and help promote amazing musicians, and we love playing artist-submitted tracks live on air.

It’s a zero-profit passion project, run out of pocket by a small group of friends. Over the years the machine has run lofi, EDM and late-night lounge stations. Today it runs AESTHETIC FM.

Pixel art of a sports car parked by a neon city at night

A warm eighties living room with a big TV

A neon wireframe sunset over a purple grid

An old IBM PC with a green-screen monitor

Pixel art apartment block glowing at night

A wood-panelled den full of old TVs and stereo gear

Two friends gaming at a desk by the window at night

Pixel art bedroom with a palm tree outside the window

A cluttered sunny room with a stereo and plants

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

— Plato

01
Stations
Hand-picked radio, live around the clock. AESTHETIC FM is on air now, and Chilled Vibes, Electric Jungle and Night Lounge came before it.
Read the story →
02
Artists
Independent and rising musicians are the whole point. Send us your music and it can end up in rotation.
Submit your music →
03
Listeners
Over two million tracks played since 2017, kept on air by donations, Patreon and people who leave the stream running.
Support the machine →

Ten years on air · 2016 → today

The Smile Machine story

スマイルマシンの歴史

Ten years of stations that came and went, a few big moments, and the stream that’s still on air.

2016
CH 01

Launch Fall 2016

Smile Machine Music launches

スマイルマシン誕生

It starts with a simple goal: find great music from independent and rising artists, and share it with anyone who’ll listen.
CH 02

First broadcast 2016

Smile Machine Radio goes live

初めての生放送

The first live broadcast. A hand-picked playlist streamed around the clock from a computer that never got switched off.
CH 03

New station 2016

Chilled Vibes Radio

チルな雰囲気

The lofi hip hop station, with jazzy beats to work, relax and study to. For years it was the most-played thing on the machine, with Vanilla, Shag, Handbook and Flamingosis in heavy rotation.
2017
CH 04

Simulcast Spring 2017

Live on YouTube & Facebook

同時放送

The stream goes out on YouTube and Facebook at the same time, with a live subscriber counter on screen. That spring it read 428.
CH 05

Online Spring 2017

smilemachine.ca

ウェブサイト

The station gets a home on the web: one place to find the YouTube stream, the Facebook stream and the last tracks played.
CH 06

Advert April 2017

Big Man Tyrone

コマーシャル

“HEY!!! WHAT’S THAT SOUND?!? IT’S SMILE MACHINE MUSIC… WE STREAM LIVE 24/7… FOR 100 YEARS!!!” Smile Machine’s ad, delivered dead serious, then a long laugh, then deadpan.
CH 07

New station Summer 2017

24/7 Vaporwave Radio

ヴェイパーウェイヴ

A second full-time stream for vaporwave, future funk and mallsoft. It started out as the sister station and ended up as the main event.
CH 08

Short-lived Fall 2017

Electric Jungle Radio

エレクトリック・ジャングル

An EDM sister station for the high-energy side of the library. It burned bright and didn’t last long.
CH 09

Short-lived Fall 2017

Night Lounge Radio

ナイトラウンジ

Slow, smoky music for after midnight. Another sister station that came and went.
CH 10

Rebrand October 2017

Vaporwave Radio becomes AESTHETIC FM

エステティックFM

Vaporwave Radio evolves into AESTHETIC FM. Same 24/7 stream, with a new name and a whole new identity.
2019–21
CH 11

Redesign 2019

smilemachine.ca, take two

リニューアル

The website is rebuilt with Listen Live, Donate and Patreon up top, a form for artists to send in their music, and a running count of hours listened.
CH 12

Signed off April 2020

Chilled Vibes Radio signs off

さようなら

As the artists in rotation got bigger, copyright claims on the live stream piled up until the lofi station couldn’t stay on air. Its last month in the station’s play history was April 2020.
CH 13

Community 2020

Patreon opens

パトレオン

Listeners can chip in monthly to keep the stream running. The biggest supporters get a personal thank-you card from the smile computer.
CH 14

Short-lived Late 2020

Vaporwave Radio, audio only

オーディオのみ

An audio-only feed for listening without the video, running alongside the main stream. Not enough people tuned in, and it was switched off.
CH 15

Record August 2021

The longest broadcast ends

最長放送

A microburst storm knocked the power out and ended an AESTHETIC FM broadcast that had run for 12,940 hours, almost a year and a half without a break.
2026
CH 16

Now 2026

The new smilemachine.ca

新しいサイト

A new site, a game set in Vancouver, live stats from the stream, and AESTHETIC FM still on air. Ten years and counting.
To be continued…