What do you get when you take Pandora’s music streaming concept and replace it with just videogame music? You get 8-bit FM! 8-bit FM is a streaming videogame music station that plays everything from videogame soundtracks, remixes, Nerdcore and Chiptunes.
Music is streamed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As I write this, the Yo’ster’s Island theme from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars came on followed by the Aquatic Ambiance theme from Donkey Kong Country. Those two playing back-to-back totally just made my weekend.
Head on over to 8-bit FM, press play and jam out.
For Immediate Release: 8-Bit FM streaming radio launches. The new
station’s format features video game soundtracks & remixes, nerdcore
hip-hop, and a heavy rotation of the emerging “chiptune” genre.New York, NY – April 23, 2009 – Mnemosyne LLC, makers of Tentacle Grape
soda, launch a new brand in their stable of “geek chic” properties —
8-Bit FM. The streaming radio channel, plays a mix of video game
soundtracks & remixes, nerdcore hip-hop, and a heavy rotation of the
emerging genre known as “chiptunes”; songs composed and played on retro
video game hardware like original Nintendo Gameboys.With the recent success of the touring orchestral experience “Video Games
Live” and the low-tech / high energy explosion of New York’s BlipFest,
Mnemosyne saw the time was right to launch a central destination for
chiptunes and nerdcore.“We felt it was high time chiptunes were available on Internet radio”,
says Julia Hiroko Howe, Founder of Mnemosyne. “For over 10 years, talented
artists worldwide have been repurposing their old gaming hardware into
bona fide sound gear.”lineup includes musicians like the nerdcore mainstay
MC Frontalot along with exotic featured artists such as The OneUps, an
Arkansas-based jazz band which arranges popular game tracks for live
performance.Mnemosyne believes in the streaming radio format as a way for listeners to
discover new artists in a genre dominated by downloads and searches.Mnemosyne Partner, Dekker Dreyer says, “With 8-Bit FM we wanted to make a
station that broke some ground while bringing together a community of
like-minded listeners. It’s not so much about airplay format as it is
about lifestyle. With streaming radio we’re able to broadcast to a
specific audience and turn them on to new artists and sounds that they
might not have found without a lot of searching. That’s what’s so cool
about streaming.”Beyond the 24 / 7 music stream, 8-Bit FM also offers an open calendar for
artists and promoters to list their upcoming events and a “shout-out”
feature powered by Twitter.“Chiptunes may have originated with gamers, but they appeal to non-gamers,
like experimental sound artists and tech-heads. The station has
demonstrated a strong viral component as fans request their favorite
artists and compete for the top 20. This year, the art form is truly
poised to make more than a blip, we predict it’ll be quite a phenomenon!”8-Bit FM is available at www.8bitfm.com via a browser-based flash player
and Windows Media, WinAMP, and iTunes compatible streams. Live requests
are open 24 hours a day.
