A New Pioneer: Founder of Spreaker Still Dreaming
Francesco Baschieri has a dream: to do for audio what text has done for the Internet. That means creating an accessible, searchable database for as much content as any user can possibly think up—all available via listening device. It seems overwhelming that the amount of content each of us consumes each day could possibly be increased (and do we want it to?), but Baschieri’s vision provides the possibility of raw, real-time data that just might be the last frontier in user-generated content and maverick broadcasting.
It comes as no surprise then that the idea for Spreaker, founded in mid-2011 and incorporated in San Francisco, was inspired by the pre-70s wave of underground DJs who broadcast illegally during a time when radio frequencies were reserved for government use. Baschieri recalls listening to government officials break into a local radio station in his native Bologna to shut the station down, all of which was broadcast live until the very last minute.