We have a blast in using Ohdio.FM. With its cutting-edge features, we are blown away with the number of curated playlist and local songs that are on Ohdio.FM. To know more about Ohdio.FM, we decided to have a talk  with two of the founders of Ohdio.FM, Yoga Nandiwardhana and Ario Tamat, to know more about this radio-artist website, Indonesian music, and their ideas to introduce a qualified local music to the Indonesians.

Can you tell us the story behind Ohdio and who was the pioneer of this?

Yoga : Me and Ario. We’ve known each other for a long time. Ario once worked for a music label and we used to talk a lot about digital music. When Ario worked in Vietam, we realized that there was no music website for Indonesian music, meanwhile we could easily find a music website that contains of international artists, such as Spotify. It all started from a small talk and it led us to the ideas for making it happen. After everything seemed in the bag, we needed a programmer to run our concepts, because both of us were not savvy enough for the programming stuffs, so we asked one of our programmer friends to join the project. When all things were set, we decided to ask our friends, Citra, who happened to be very good in designing our ideas. So, the original member of Ohdio was four people. Not so long after we launched Ohdio, our programmer withdrew from the project. As the time goes by, we found a better projection for Indonesian music and it transformed to Ohdio.

So, Spotify basically inspired Ohdio?

Ario : Not really. The reason why we establish Ohdio is to give local music enthusiasts a good option to find a qualified local music. When we perused all of the details, we took some refferences from numerous music website. The story behind Ohdio is just not because we see there is Spotify, Last.Fm, or those music websites, but it inspired from my own experience in finding a good local music. When I worked in Vietnam, I had zero idea of Indonesians music.So, we come to a decision of how to get a good information of local music easily. And Indonesian music actually has one of the biggest market, despite of there are 240 millionIndonesians, there are also million of Indonesians who live abroad. These people must be having a hard time to discover good indonesian music. Even On i-Tunes, there are not so many indonesian music that we can find. And it doesn’t represent the need of Indonesians for finding a good indonesian music.

Yoga : that’s why we are trying to create a product which can provide Indonesians with a qualified indonesian music. We have a huge number of listener of Indonesian music, it is such a sad thing to know our people are not getting good references of Indonesian music, because the only medium where they can find it is just what are shown on tv.

Ario : Indonesia has a great amount of songs from the 50s to 2000s which people don’t really know. And it’s all because they don’t know where to find them. So, we are trying to make Ohdio as the place for them to discover Indonesian music.

We found it that Ohdio is using Indonesian for its language. Why not using English, to broaden the audience segment?

Yoga : Hmm, just like what Ario has said before. There are 240 million Indonesians, the number of Indonesians who use internet to listen to music are quite huge too. We already have a plan for Ohdio’s international listeners, but for now, we are focusing on our local listeners.

So, How do you approach the Indonesians to use Ohdio as their one stop entertainment for Indonesian music?

Ario : We believe Ohdio can go viral. There are so many new products with a massive campaign. They are all over the place, however once the hype is over, people don’t really care about it anymore. And we don’t want the same thing happens to Ohdio. So, it’s better to take little step than do a big leap, we need to make sure of everything. It may take some time, but once we have it, we’ll have loyal listeners.

Can you explain to us the process of updating the playlists on Ohdio? Because we saw that it has some segments for some specific time.

Yoga : yes, that is true. Everything has been designed to represent the activities and the mood of the listeners. For example, at 7 am to 12, we’ll have playlist to people who are currently working at their office, and in the afternoon, the playlist will be more laid back.

Speaking of playlist, I heard that the playlists are picked by Music journalist and music directors. How is the process to have them to contribute for Ohdio?

 Yoga : I personally approach them to create a playlist for us. We want to make the playlist on Ohdio to be curated. On 8track, everyone can make their own playlist, but not everyone can make a one hell of a good playlist. So we decided to have some music professionals to create the playlist for us.

How often does the playlist get to be updated?

Yoga : all the time! But we don’t have some strict period where we have to update them.Some playlists have their own listeners, if we find that the current songs have been the listeners’ favourite, we won’t update the playlist. For example, the songs in Ohdio Hits are the new entry songs, so we manage to keep it updated all the time.

Why use these people to create the playlist? Are you sure their picks will represent what the listeners would like to listen to?

Yoga : we always make sure that their playlists can represent the listeners.

 Ario : why we have these people to create the playlitst, because we are not only giving the listeners what songs that can represent them, but also we want to give them a qualified playlist, it help the listeners to enrich their knowledge of local music. We put some classic indonesians songs in every playlist as long as those musics can represent the theme that the playlist has. So people will know that we have Indonesian all time favourite which can work well in certain moments.

Ohdio is aiming on Indonesian music discovery, so you manage to get all the new songs to be on the playlist or you do some selection before putting them on?

Ario : The songs on Ohdio are classified by the playlist’s theme. Ohdio is a medium to express your feelings and your special moments. And we use music playlists as its language.

In 2012, ohdio was Ohd.io and now it has changed into Ohdio.FM. What makes the differences of it? Is it pretty much just a rebranding for its image?

Yoga : Yeah, we want to make Ohdio to be more memorable. And it’s just not transforming the image, but we also add some new features.

Ario : when we launched the first Ohdio, it didn’t really speak the visions that we have, so by changing it we hope Ohdio can be more fun and much easier to be understood and used. Instead of having some long explanation of Ohdio, we have described the current tag line with “Mendengarkan musik itu gampang (Listening to music is easy)” and Ohdio does make it easy.

Let’s talk about Ohdio on Smartphones. You already have it for Windows Phone, when is the version of iOs and Android will be released?

Yoga : Coming soon! It’s under process.

Ario : ( showing the interface of the upcoming version of Ohdio for smartphones)

Is it possible for a new band to have their songs to be put on Ohdio? Who knows some of their work can represent the themes that Ohdio’s playlist has.

Yoga : Totally, they can straightly send their work to our e-mail. And we’ll have it processed, either the songs are suitable for our playlists or not.

Ario : yeah, we need to be selective for the songs. Because we have to keep the idealism of having a good quality music on ohdio.

Have you ever experienced that vacant mood where not one song can fill the void but you just cant choose a soundtrack for suiting your day or going through a break up? We have the answer in our palm : Ohdio.fm.

Ohdio.fm is a radio-like online service that provides selected & curated playlists of Indonesian music. By bringing ‘Dengerin musik itu gampang’ (Listening to music is easy) as the tagline, Ohdio.fm is your one-stop solution for an intimate musical forecast. It provides precise playlists for all types of genres, moods, and even activities. When you visit the website, you’ll be welcomed with some suggestive question, ‘Mau dengerin apa?’ (What would you like to listen?), inviting the users to experience a personal atmosphere in the playlist.

After knowing what you would like to listen to, you can easily type the artist and then you’ll be brought to their complete playlist. Finally, you know the rest, sing along to the songs! If you don’t know what to listen to, don’t sweat it, Ohdio.fm also gives various customized playlist that are specific enough yet can be favoured by most people.

 Unlike most Indonesian music playlist website that leans on being static and predictable, Ohdio.fm has a more dynamic edge, adapting to your mood and current activity. It’s fascinating how specific the playlists that are offered in the website, Ohdio.fm basically has the playlist for any errands, even ones you didn’t think of. For example, they have playlist for ‘Menunggu Dijemput Pacar’, contains of songs that will make waiting more fun. Frankly, we didn’t know waiting for your girlfriend/boyfriend to pick you has its own soundtrack,  don’t you it’s super cool?. Or another playlist that will surprise you away, ‘Mungkin Sama Dengan Namamu’, contains of songs that might have your name as their tittle. Not only giving some fun playlists, Ohdio.fm also lets you to explore more of Indonesian music from specific areas in Indonesia. And to confirm, all of the songs on Ohdio.fm are Indonesians, therefore it will enrich your knowledge of local music in a different and most exciting way that you could ever think of.

The playlists on Ohdio.fm are compiled by people who are savoir faire in music. They are music journalists, bloggers, and music editors. So, we can assure you that the playlists are being thoughtfully compiled!

To have a blast of Ohdio.fm’s features, you can access their website on http://ohdio.fm from your desktop. And if you want to access it through your smart devices, you can log on right away to the mobile format of its web. The good news is Ohdio.fm will soon be available as Android and iOS apps, for Windows Phone users, you can cheer your way since Ohdio.fm already has an  official third-party app for Windows Phone!

From today’s hit to a nostalgic 90s, new undiscovered songs to radio mainstreams, and even from the cool-kids songs to guilty ‘dangdut’ pleasure, Ohdio.fm has it all in one neat package. We have had our fun of using Ohdio.fm, now it’s your time to jump in the wagon, because ‘dengerin musik itu gampang!’. (Alcander Alonzo/Tami Sabran)

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