AWDIO _ PLAY THE WORLD

Awdio is the manic brainchild of Frenchmen Vittorio Strigari and designer Ora-Ito come to fruition. Now a free membership service, Awdio asks you to come and ‘play the world’, enabling users to listen to real time DJ sets across the world, as they happen from the comfort of your own home. Clash music last reported that Shoreditch’s T-bar and Brixton’s Dogstar had signed up to the 100-venue strong service; now Awdio move into the future with new venues on the horizon, more interactivity between users and artists and a global vision of networked live music.

Hello. Please introduce yourself and your role at Awdio. How did you form the company?
My name is Vittorio and I founded the company two years ago with a friend. I studied graphic design but decided to quit for music. I had this crazy idea of listening to clubs all over the world in real time. I wanted to listen to clubs and see what was going on in places like Asia. It was from scratch, so I took it to my Vitto and he instantly supported me. I spent 6 months travelling the world, meeting with club owners and sourcing, and we also met producers, labels and artists. But we’re not just about your Pacha’s and superclubs, we wanted the cool bars and pokey underground clubs; all the places that effect our experience of music.

What is the ethos of the company?
For us the clubs and venues are tomorrow’s fresh labels. They have been producing, developing and helping many talents and artists. They’ve never really been acknowledged in this way, as a brand. They contribute in such a large way, and they don’t have their own media set ups to promote themselves and give platforms to artists. We are giving a voice for the underground, so they can bring to light their nights but also with the introduction of players so we can host music as well.


Digital technology has been critical in the evolution of modern musical experience, but also for communication hasn’t it?
There are many different music scenes going on right now, so we offer a new way to be able to listen in on these scenes and cultures without having to buy a plane ticket. What we are doing is giving a voice to the underground and bringing to life their musical programs and their shows; we are connecting the musical community on a level that can be maintained through digital technology.


Are the sets in high quality?
It is compressed MP3 format in good quality, 120kps per second for streaming. Sometimes we go to 150 and 160 but what with the internet and its constant evolution, we will be looking to further improve on this soon.

What is the plan for 2009?
We want to collect 350 clubs and sources by the end of this year to the existing list. We also want to sign up festivals, and we’re going to make a Myspace where signed up clubs and artists can manage their own dates and space. In April we going to give the artists the opportunity to manage and interact with their community. We are going fully interactive, so I guess we are going ‘Web 2.0’. We will also be going to Africa, South America, Jamaica. Not just for electronic music but other things like jazz and reggae. We are going truly global.

Listen up and get connected at www.awdio.com