If someone told you there was a platform that was a combination of social media and music streaming for college students and university communities, would your heart skip a beat just a little? Quadio is just that, and it’s about to launch everywhere in February. 

After about three months of being a campus representative for Quadio, I’ve experienced a great number of people asking me not only how to pronounce Quadio (kwaa-dee-oh), but to explain what exactly it is. Quadio self-identifies as “a brand new social music streaming platform for the next generation.” In simple terms, it is a music streaming platform that is tailor-made for college students and requires an .edu email to get on the platform. 

The company launched its beta-testing version of the application on Jan. 10 to myself and the other 200 plus campus representatives, as well as artists at over 3,000 American universities from across the country. After about a week on the platform, I was able to navigate the platform and discover many unique, intriguing features. 

Quadio runs similarly to any music streaming service but includes a social media and collaborative element in its ranks. Quadio repeatedly boasts the idea that as college students, someone could be in class with an amazing musician and never know that they could collaborate with them. At DU specifically, the Quadio page has seen significant growth in artists jumping on the early platform, including campus-favorite acts Jack Cote, Baby Dooley and Jackson Harkness. 

Quadio totes this discovery feature as one of their most impressive ideas. The app operates on a four-chart basis that filters down from national, regional, state and finally, to a university’s own chart system. When a student musician uploads a track, it will appear on the university’s discovery page. The app is a streaming democracy, giving students an equal chance to rise to the top of their university’s or even the national charts through accumulating likes, plays and comments.

 

Even after a few days on Quadio, I was able to discover numerous artists I had never heard of at DU, in Colorado and across the nation. 

Whether it be the grandiose EDM sound of DU’s own JAMESIK, the smooth bedroom pop of Weston Estate from UNC or the praise-worthy, funk-infused hip-hop of Cannon from Boston College, the talent on the platform has far surpassed my expectations. Quadio provides an avenue of exposure for these musicians to gain national fame, as they already are receiving. 

Though the platform could easily have the ability to become clouded with the notoriously average and laughable saturation of bad music seen on SoundCloud due to its easy, anyone-can-upload model, it is a platform taken seriously by serious college musicians that anyone could reach out to and collaborate with. 

Quadio is also the first-ever streaming service to have a “Community” tab, where musicians can tag themselves as “Looking For” someone or something that includes anything like a videographer, vocalist, producer, mixing engineer, rapper, agent, gigs or saxophonist. With an in-app messaging system, musicians on the platform can easily reach out to others on their campus and collaborate. 

 

In addition, Quadio has the option to upload “In Progress” tracks. This allows artists to put their unfinished songs to a discover board and tag them as “Looking For” anything missing, like a rapper or mixing engineer, in hopes to find collaborators. Quadio will also eventually have an in-app studio in which musicians can upload their tracks, invite people into a session and add onto the song all within the platform, allowing for students at different ends of the country to work together. 

With its innovative and never-done-before features, Quadio runs more like an experienced business than a meager start-up hoping to break out among the streaming world’s big brother Spotify, let alone other powerhouses like Apple Music and Soundcloud. A well-oiled machine, Quadio has made huge success even before its application has launched. A “road warrior” team has driven across the entire country, meeting one-on-one and recruiting college musicians. They have a full artist-relations, design and engineering teams. Campus representatives have weekly, individual meetings with Quadio headquarters. This is not your average two-year-old toddler company. 

When the application launches to the public, many other new features will be added. The competition feature will allow for big-time companies to run competitions on Quadio. This could mean anything from Nike asking the community to submit their best workout jam to be the soundtrack of their next commercial to a TV show looking for a college-musician feature in their next episode. 

An event calendar feature will also allow college musicians or student groups to upload their gigs and events to a community calendar, allowing for more cross-community support and collaboration. 

Needless to say, Quadio is a big deal and could very well change the landscape of collaboration and discovery among niche college communities. With its February launch quickly approaching, it’s up to colleges all around the nation to take the platform to its fullest potential.

Want to learn more about Quadio? DM me, @graceganz for more information or follow @quadiomedia on Instagram. If you would like to get access to the evolving Quadio beta before it launches and give your feedback, a limited amount of codes are available! DM our Instagram, @duclarion to get yours today.