ON AIR
ＳＭＩＬＥ ＭＡＣＨＩＮＥ · music, visuals and things to play since 2016 ◆ ＮＯＷ ＯＮ ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ ＦＭ live 24/7 ◆ 2,076,869 tracks played since January 2017 ◆ 500,000 hours listened ◆ 235.24 TB streamed ◆ Best viewed at 800×600 with the volume up ◆ エステティックFM ・ 24時間 ・ スマイルマシン

On air since 2015 · test signal → today

The Smile Machine story

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

  1. 2014–16
  2. CH 01

    The idea Late 2014

    Smile Machine starts as an idea

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

  3. CH 02

    Test signal Early 2015

    First test streams on Facebook Live

    The very first streams go out as tests on Facebook Live, from a home studio in Ottawa.

  4. CH 03

    Simulcast Spring 2015

    Live on YouTube & Facebook

    The stream goes out on YouTube and Facebook at the same time, from an old gaming desktop on personal accounts, wearing the very first Smile Machine logos. The Facebook side kept going long enough to become one of the longest-running live events on Facebook.

  5. CH 04

    Hardware 2015–16

    The first stream server

    The first dedicated Smile Machine stream server gets built. It ran a live VLC visualizer, keyed out the background and laid it over a rotation of scenic videos. Gorgeous, and hungry: it chewed through CPU and GPU around the clock, and the power bills showed it.

  6. CH 05

    Domain October 29, 2016

    smilemachine.ca is registered

    The domain gets bought, months before there’s anything to put on it. Call it optimism.

  7. CH 06

    Launch October 30, 2016

    The official YouTube channel goes live

    Smile Machine Music opens its official YouTube page with the first 24/7 Smile Machine stream: lofi hip hop and chillout, streamed around the clock from a computer that never got switched off.

  8. CH 07

    Community December 2016

    Patreon launches

    A Patreon page goes up so listeners can chip in monthly to keep the stream running.

  9. 2017
  10. CH 08

    New station Spring 2017

    Chilled Vibes Radio

    The lofi hip hop station launches on YouTube, 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.

  11. CH 09

    Online April 27, 2017

    smilemachine.ca goes live

    The first website launches, six months after the domain was bought. One place to find the YouTube stream, the Facebook stream and the last tracks played.

  12. CH 10

    Advert April 2017

    Big Man Tyrone

    “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.

  13. CH 11

    New station Summer 2017

    24/7 Vaporwave Radio

    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.

  14. CH 12

    Short-lived Fall 2017

    Electric Jungle Radio

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

  15. CH 13

    Short-lived Fall 2017

    Night Lounge Radio

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

  16. CH 14

    Rebrand October 2017

    Vaporwave Radio becomes AESTHETIC FM

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

  17. 2019–21
  18. CH 15

    Redesign 2019

    smilemachine.ca, take two

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

  19. CH 16

    Team Late 2019

    Ex Machina joins the machine

    Ex Machina comes on board late in 2019, and by April 8, 2020 the first proper strategy meeting is on the calendar. She took a stream and a handful of ideas and helped shape them into a brand, from how it looked to what played on it. A real pioneer of Smile Machine. None of what came after would have been possible without her.

  20. CH 17

    Signed off April 2020

    Chilled Vibes Radio signs off

    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.

  21. CH 18

    Community July 2020

    The first patron

    Three and a half years after the Patreon page went up, the first supporter signs on. The biggest supporters get a personal thank-you card from the smile computer.

  22. CH 19

    Merch September 2020

    The first shirt

    The first Smile Machine merch drops: the AESTHETICS FM tee, printed to order and given its very own vaporwave ad. Wear the station.

  23. CH 20

    Short-lived Late 2020

    Vaporwave Radio, audio only

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

  24. CH 21

    Shadowban July 2021

    The cancellation attempt

    Smile Machine gets shadowbanned on YouTube. Overnight the stream stops showing up in search and recommendations, and nearly all of its traffic drifts over to a competing vaporwave stream. Coincidence? We’ll never know. The ban hung on for at least a year, and it very nearly finished us off.

  25. CH 22

    Record August 2021

    The longest broadcast ends

    A microburst storm knocked the power out in Ottawa. The stream went into the car on a laptop, running off a phone hotspot, and drove off looking for somewhere dry with signal. It held on for a while, then the connection dropped, and an AESTHETIC FM broadcast that had run for 12,940 hours, almost a year and a half without a break, was over.

  26. CH 23

    Farewell Late 2021

    Goodbye, Ex Machina

    Late in 2021, Ex Machina stepped away. We’d come to see the creative road ahead differently, and it was a hard one to lose. So much of what you see here still carries her fingerprints, and she is deeply missed. We wish her the very best in everything she does next.

  27. 2022
  28. CH 24

    Moving day Early 2022

    The stream moves to Vancouver

    After seven years in the Ottawa studio, the machine gets unplugged, packed up and carried across the country. AESTHETIC FM comes back on air from Vancouver, where it’s been broadcasting ever since. More rain, same vibes.

  29. 2026
  30. CH 25

    Rebrand Fall 2026

    Smile Machine Interactive Arts

    Ten years in, Smile Machine Music grows up into Smile Machine Interactive Arts. Still the music, now with games, apps, design and digital art under the same smiling cog.

  31. CH 26

    Launch Fall 2026

    The new smilemachine.ca

    A whole new interactive site. Live stats from the stream, the vaporwave family tree, a radio that follows you around, and SmileOS 98 running on the old stream machine. Every button works.

  32. CH 27

    New game October 9, 2026

    AESTHETIC FM Raincity Rewind

    Work starts on our first game on October 9, 2026. A storm scatters the station’s tapes across Vancouver and across time, and Smiley goes after them through fifteen rainy stops, with an original soundtrack and Delorca, a time-travelling orca, holding the portals open. Free in your browser, or install it on your phone.

  33. 2027
  34. CH 28

    Coming soon 2027

    The full merch line

    More than one shirt. A proper Smile Machine and AESTHETIC FM collection is on the way.

  35. CH 29

    Coming soon 2027

    New games and apps

    More to play, and a few things to use. Raincity Rewind was just the first one.

  36. CH 30

    Coming soon 20??

    Something is coming through

    There’s something on a frequency we don’t broadcast on. We’re not ready to say what it is. Keep the station on.

  37. To be continued…