Can Turntable.fm Survive Its Popularity?

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/turntable-fm/

by mamatta • 15 years ago

23 14 15 years ago

I have been using this service for the last two days along with a number of other coworkers at the game studio I work at. We all find it to be a wonderful service. I can't help but notice how turntable is succeeding so well in the "social music" realm (at least initially) while myspace has failed going after what would seem to be a similar demographic. It is obviously to early to tell what the outcome will be for turntable, but if I were calling the shots at myspace, I would take heed.

pavel_lishin• 15 years ago

Myspace seems to be aiming to be the go-to place to learn about bands, hear their music, check out their tours, etc. Turntable is a place where I can batter my friends with awful music until they force a skip. Not really a whole lot of overlap there.

Unless Myspace has changed a lot - I have no idea because it's always been a huge pain to use, and I haven't been back in months.

pstack2• 15 years ago

Agreed on the social aspect. My response to anything relating to "social music" has always been "I listen to music for me - I don't want social anything. I don't care what you're listening to and I don't care if you think what I'm listening to is cool. I have zero social interest in music".

And then they figured out a clever new/old way for music to be social in a very natural, obvious, useful way.

seanharper• 15 years ago

I agree, turntable is really fun in a way that pandora is not, and the music selection is better (pandora keeps playing repeats for me and blending songs from one channel into the other channels).

I think it will be a hit.

However, I was logged in last night at 11pm CT. There was plenty to listen to, plenty of rooms to hang out in, but if you counted up the number of users in each room and summed them, it was clear that not that many people were actually online listening. I wonder if that indicates the app is not that sticky.

vectorpush• 15 years ago

The site is a lot of fun, but I suspect there is a major novelty effect in play here. Once the excitement of being a DJ wanes, many individuals will prefer sites that grant them more granular control of their playlist, especially once copyright restrictions and intrusive advertising comes into play. The turntable guys are definitely on to something great here, but how long can it last?

pstack2• 15 years ago

I hate Facebook, so I resisted joining the TurnTable.fm beta. I've had a FB account for years, but I don't use it. Just squatting my name. I certainly refuse to tie my account to anything else. However, I made an exception with this site, to try it out.

Man, was I surprised. It's everything I despise. It's hip. It's about music. It's about popularity. It's social. It's cute. It's flash-based. And yet, damn it, I am having so much fun with it. Even in rooms built around specific web communities that therefore cause music to run anywhere from techno to hip-hop, to 80s music, to Smell Yo Dick to . . . yes . . . tracks from Steve Martin's banjo performances.

I've participated in multi-hour long "songs with a space theme" mixes. I've participated in 90s night. I've participated in bouts of idiocy where we just try to drive a room full of people (and ourselves) nuts playing the most obnoxious songs.

And it's just a damn good time. The best part is that even if someone plays something I don't care for, at least I know it's something a human being who likes the song chose as opposed to the automation of every radio station on earth.

Over time, I hope they improve how you build your playlist. Maybe given you the option to have multiple lists and a better way to search and organize them. Maybe improve the chat function. Make the interface better (it's just so tiny and limited, right now). Maybe move to HTML5 or something other than Flash. Add some hotkeys, instead of mouse-only.

Over time, there will be just a handful of very targeted rooms and then lots of tiny rooms build around communities that have less musical coherence. I think it's bound to get better over time. If not, the next person to come along will surely improve upon it. Either way, it's clever and it's kind of hard to imagine nobody did this before now.

Oh . . . and I'm sure they'll be bought by Facebook, anyway. Great way to keep eyeballs on your controlled content.

avolcano• 15 years ago

As far as I can tell, viewing the site in Chrome 12, the only Flash used is in the music player (which makes sense, since Firefox and a few other browsers don't have HTML5 audio MP3 support). The rest is all HTML5.

yesimahuman• 15 years ago

Turntable is like Pandora with the music taste of a human. I get new music that is not only good, but unique and varied. People love sharing music with others, and Turntable lets them do that in full glory. I love it, and it has replaced Pandora for me. Go to turntable, receive a good song, put it in my Mog.com queue for infinite listening, repeat.

bbgm• 15 years ago

Turntable.fm is definitely interesting, but I know enough people, including myself, for whom music is intensely personal. I can see this being great in certain situations (parties, late night college study sessions), but I like listening to music alone.

dominostars• 15 years ago

I'm a little confused what your point is. Turntable may not appeal to you, but it obviously appeals to other people.

technoslut• 15 years ago

I agree with you to a certain point but depends on the song though. I'm always looking for a way to

The only things that bother me about Turntable is the avatar approach is childish and the beep every time someone posts a comment screws up the flow of the song.

guelo• 15 years ago

Weird I thought they had killed USA access the other day but I just tried it and got in.

Anyway, there's no way this service will survive, it's too fun and useful for the RIAA

treo• 15 years ago

> We're very sorry, but while we would love to let you in and rock out with us, we need to currently restrict turntable access to only the United States due to licensing constraints

It looks like they have killed everything but USA access.

mattblalock• 15 years ago

I used the service for about a week before being booted... in the US. Suddenly, I don't have a Facebook friend on the "inside" or something...

It's really fun but not working 99% of the time. Right idea, poor implementation. Guess the "social listening" sector is still wide open.

Can Turntable.fm Survive Its Popularity?

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