diff --git a/scottypy/app.py b/scottypy/app.py
index 971d235..6a7d677 100644
--- a/scottypy/app.py
+++ b/scottypy/app.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 
+import asyncio
 import json
 import logging
 import os
@@ -102,7 +103,7 @@ def link(beam_id_or_tag: str, url: str, storage_base: str, dest: str) -> None:
         for beam in scotty.get_beams_by_tag(tag):
             _link_beam(storage_base, beam, os.path.join(dest, str(beam.id)))
     else:
-        beam = scotty.get_beam(beam_id_or_tag)
+        beam = asyncio.run(scotty.get_beam(beam_id_or_tag))
         if dest is None:
             dest = beam_id_or_tag
 
@@ -132,21 +133,23 @@ def _list(beam: "Beam") -> None:
         for beam in scotty.get_beams_by_tag(tag):
             _list(beam)
     else:
-        _list(scotty.get_beam(beam_id_or_tag))
+        _list(asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(scotty.get_beam(beam_id_or_tag)))
 
 
-def _download_beam(beam: "Beam", dest: str, overwrite: bool, filter: str) -> None:
+async def _download_beam(beam: "Beam", dest: str, overwrite: bool, filter: str) -> None:
     if not os.path.isdir(dest):
         os.makedirs(dest)
 
     click.echo("Downloading beam {} to directory {}".format(beam.id, dest))
 
+    tasks = []
     for file_ in beam.get_files(filter_=filter):
         click.echo("Downloading {}".format(file_.file_name))
         try:
-            file_.download(dest, overwrite=overwrite)
+            tasks.append(file_.download(dest, overwrite=overwrite))
         except NotOverwriting as e:
             click.echo("{} already exists. Use --overwrite to overwrite".format(e.file))
+    await asyncio.gather(*tasks)
 
     _write_beam_info(beam, dest)
 
@@ -176,18 +179,27 @@ def down(
     To download an entire tag specify t:[tag_name] as an argument, replacing [tag_name] with the name of the tag"""
     scotty = Scotty(url)
 
+    beams = []
     if beam_id_or_tag.startswith("t:"):
         tag = beam_id_or_tag[2:]
-        if dest is None:
-            dest = tag
+        dest = dest or tag
 
         for beam in scotty.get_beams_by_tag(tag):
-            _download_beam(beam, os.path.join(dest, str(beam.id)), overwrite, filter)
+            beams.append(
+                _download_beam(
+                    beam, os.path.join(dest, str(beam.id)), overwrite, filter
+                )
+            )
+
     else:
-        beam = scotty.get_beam(beam_id_or_tag)
-        if dest is None:
-            dest = beam_id_or_tag
-        _download_beam(beam, dest, overwrite, filter)
+        beam = await scotty.get_beam(beam_id_or_tag)
+        dest = dest or beam_id_or_tag
+        beams.append(
+            _download_beam(beam, os.path.join(dest, str(beam.id)), overwrite, filter)
+        )
+
+    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+    loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*beams))
 
 
 @main.group()
@@ -317,5 +329,5 @@ def set_comment(beam_id: int, url: str, comment: str) -> None:
     """Set a comment for the specified beam"""
     scotty = Scotty(url)
 
-    beam = scotty.get_beam(beam_id)
+    beam = asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(scotty.get_beam(beam_id))
     beam.set_comment(comment)
diff --git a/scottypy/exc.py b/scottypy/exc.py
index 86fdc77..19b0603 100644
--- a/scottypy/exc.py
+++ b/scottypy/exc.py
@@ -7,3 +7,12 @@ class NotOverwriting(Exception):
     def __init__(self, file_: str):
         super(NotOverwriting, self).__init__()
         self.file = file_
+
+
+class HTTPError(Exception):
+    def __init__(self, *, url, code, text):
+        super().__init__(
+            "Server responded {code} when accessing {url}:\n{text}".format(
+                code=code, url=url, text=text
+            )
+        )
diff --git a/scottypy/file.py b/scottypy/file.py
index f5f56fa..9fb8974 100644
--- a/scottypy/file.py
+++ b/scottypy/file.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 
 import dateutil.parser
 
+import aiohttp
+
 from .exc import NotOverwriting
 from .types import JSON
 from .utils import fix_path_sep_for_current_platform, raise_for_status
@@ -66,15 +68,18 @@ def from_json(cls, session: "Session", json_node: JSON) -> "File":
             mtime,
         )
 
-    def stream_to(self, fileobj: "typing.BinaryIO") -> None:
-        """Fetch the file content from the server and write it to fileobj"""
-        response = self._session.get(self.url, stream=True)
-        raise_for_status(response)
+    async def fetch(self, session, url):
+        return await session.get(url)
 
-        for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=_CHUNK_SIZE):
-            fileobj.write(chunk)
+    async def stream_to(self, fileobj: "typing.BinaryIO") -> None:
+        """Fetch the file content from the server and write it to fileobj"""
+        async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
+            response = await self.fetch(session, self.url)
+            response.raise_for_status()
+            async for chunk in response.content.iter_chunked(_CHUNK_SIZE):
+                fileobj.write(chunk)
 
-    def download(self, directory: str = ".", overwrite: bool = False) -> None:
+    async def download(self, directory: str = ".", overwrite: bool = False) -> None:
         """Download the file to the specified directory, retaining its name"""
         subdir, file_ = os.path.split(fix_path_sep_for_current_platform(self.file_name))
         subdir = os.path.join(directory, subdir)
@@ -90,7 +95,7 @@ def download(self, directory: str = ".", overwrite: bool = False) -> None:
             raise NotOverwriting(file_)
 
         with open(file_, "wb") as f:
-            self.stream_to(f)
+            await self.stream_to(f)
 
         if self.mtime is not None:
             mtime = _to_epoch(self.mtime)
diff --git a/scottypy/scotty.py b/scottypy/scotty.py
index 55ee33c..fa27bd6 100644
--- a/scottypy/scotty.py
+++ b/scottypy/scotty.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import abc
+import asyncio
 import errno
 import json
 import logging
@@ -18,11 +19,14 @@
 from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
 from requests.packages.urllib3.util.retry import Retry
 
+import aiohttp
+from aiohttp import ClientSession
+
 from .beam import Beam
 from .exc import PathNotExists
 from .file import File
 from .types import JSON
-from .utils import raise_for_status
+from .utils import execute_http, raise_for_status
 
 _SLEEP_TIME = 10
 _NUM_OF_RETRIES = (60 // _SLEEP_TIME) * 15
@@ -146,8 +150,6 @@ def __init__(self, url: str, retry_times: int = 3, backoff_factor: int = 2):
     def prefetch_combadge(
         self, combadge_version: str = _DEFAULT_COMBADGE_VERSION
     ) -> None:
-        """Prefetch the combadge to a temporary file. Future beams will use that combadge
-        instead of having to re-download it."""
         self._get_combadge(combadge_version=combadge_version)
 
     def remove_combadge(self) -> None:
@@ -354,7 +356,7 @@ def remove_tag(self, beam_id: int, tag: str) -> None:
         )
         raise_for_status(response)
 
-    def get_beam(self, beam_id: typing.Union[str, int]) -> "Beam":
+    async def get_beam(self, beam_id: typing.Union[str, int]) -> "Beam":
         """Retrieve details about the specified beam.
 
         :param int beam_id: Beam ID or tag
@@ -397,14 +399,20 @@ def get_beams_by_tag(self, tag: str) -> typing.List[Beam]:
         :param str tag: The name of the tag.
         :return: a list of :class:`.Beam` objects.
         """
-
         response = self._session.get(
             "{0}/beams?tag={1}".format(self._url, tag), timeout=_TIMEOUT
         )
-        raise_for_status(response)
+        response.raise_for_status()
+
+        beams_id_list = (b["id"] for b in response.json()["beams"])
+        beams = []
+        for beam_id in beams_id_list:
+            beams.append(self.get_beam(beam_id))
+
+        loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+        beams_result = loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(*beams))
 
-        ids = (b["id"] for b in response.json()["beams"])
-        return [self.get_beam(id_) for id_ in ids]
+        return beams_result
 
     def sanity_check(self) -> None:
         """Check if this instance of Scotty is functioning. Raise an exception if something's wrong"""
diff --git a/scottypy/utils.py b/scottypy/utils.py
index 60033ed..dbf3ff1 100644
--- a/scottypy/utils.py
+++ b/scottypy/utils.py
@@ -1,7 +1,19 @@
+import asyncio
+import logging
 import os
+from typing import Any, Dict, Optional
 
 import requests
 
+import aiohttp
+import yarl
+from aiohttp import ClientSession
+from tenacity import retry, stop_after_attempt, stop_after_delay
+
+from .exc import HTTPError
+
+logger = logging.getLogger("scotty")  # type: logging.Logger
+
 
 def raise_for_status(response: requests.Response) -> None:
     if 400 <= response.status_code < 500:
@@ -27,3 +39,39 @@ def raise_for_status(response: requests.Response) -> None:
 
 def fix_path_sep_for_current_platform(file_name: str) -> str:
     return file_name.replace("\\", os.path.sep).replace("/", os.path.sep)
+
+
+class AsyncRequestHelper:
+    def __init__(self):
+        self._loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+        self._session = aiohttp.ClientSession(
+            loop=self._loop,
+            timeout=aiohttp.ClientTimeout(total=30),
+            headers={"Accept-Encoding": "gzip", "Content-Type": "application/json"},
+        )
+
+    @retry(stop=(stop_after_delay(5) | stop_after_attempt(3)))
+    async def execute_http(
+        self,
+        url: yarl.URL,
+        *,
+        data: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
+        params: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
+    ) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+        method = "GET" if data is None else "POST"
+        logger.info("Async Calling {} {}", method, url)
+        async with self._session.request(
+            method, url, params=params, json=data
+        ) as response:
+            if response.status != 200:
+                raise HTTPError(
+                    url=url, code=response.status, text=await response.text()
+                )
+            return await response.json()
+
+    def __del__(self):
+        self._loop.run_until_complete(self._session.close())
+
+
+_async_request_helper = AsyncRequestHelper()
+execute_http = _async_request_helper.execute_http
diff --git a/tests/requirements.txt b/tests/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5beb5d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+slash
+scotty
+aiohttp
+asyncio
+tenacity
\ No newline at end of file