Hey Friends and Soundbathers,
Tomorrow, March 1, we begin monthly episodes of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast…
And -dot-dot-dot… We almost didn’t make it.
Some of you noticed that our audio feeds were down for a couple days; thank you to those who reached out to me to let me know. Basically, we have/had a problem that anybody who ever starts a website wants, but doesn’t believe they’ll ever have: Too much traffic and too many users!
A dozen years ago when I started this thing and we started down this path together, I never imagined ‘too much traffic and/or too many users’ would become a thing, but in fact that has happened. It’s at this point that I have to thank everybody who’s donated over all these years. Basically, I squirreled away that money hoping that I’d never have to spend it on technical upgrades, but, well, I did… So, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times to all who have donated to the podcast through the years; literally, at this point, we wouldn’t not be up and running right now if it wasn’t for your kind, unsolicited generosity. The entire Ambient Soundbath community is indebted to you.
This isn’t a message to ask you for money. I’ve always accepted donations (and I’m glad I did), but I’ve never solicited them. Nor, do I plan to now.
However, we, as a community of listeners, are likely going to be coming to a critical juncture that I’m not interested in visiting or contemplating: Either throttling usage, i.e. cutting listeners off or forcing a ‘premium’ membership. I’m heartily opposed to both of these things, but the answer is either going to have to come from those considerations or from the community.
I can say this: If everybody who regularly listened to this podcast donated a dollar per year, throttling or premium would never need to be considered or contemplated.
I’ve always tried to be transparent about the goings on at the Ambient Soundbath and as we enter this new chapter I’ll let you know what’s happening. In the future, if you notice our audio feeds down again, please let me know. Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep the ship afloat, but as this thing grows so, too, does everything needed to keep it going, freely for all.
Thank you, friends,
Matt