
Turntable.fm raising $5-10 M. at $40 M. Valuation - bproper
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/07/07/turntable-fm-and-the-siren-song-of-the-start-up-pivot/
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jamiequint
Its not a pivot, its a completely different business with the same founders.

~~~
sachinag
Closest off the top of my head: Odeo > Obvious > Twitter. As in this case,
investors who didn't want to continue were offered the opportunity to get
their money back.

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nextparadigms
I'd like to see Google implement a similar feature for Google+ by integrating
it with Google Music. They could implement it in Hangout somehow.

~~~
ry0ohki
I was thinking Google Hangouts may be the thing that prevents Turntable.fm
from gaining more traction, you can essentially already "ghetto dj" in a
hangout by playing YouTube videos of music.

~~~
trimis
I don't see it that way. Turntable has its focus on turning people into DJs
and finding rooms (genres) of music suitable to your tastes. The DJ queue
system works well, and the feedback system too, as does finding a track to
play. I wouldn't last long if I had to sort through a YT results page.

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eli
Am I crazy for thinking that it's inevitable they get sued by the recording
industry?

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anateus
They're using MediaNet (<http://www.mndigital.com/>) as their primary
content/license provider, so they're likely fine esp if they comply with
takedown notices of user-uploaded content.

~~~
eli
Didn't it take months of license negotiations for Google to offer the ability
to store and stream music you _already own_ to your _own device_? Turntable
seems a fair bit more ambitious than that.

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esrauch
They seem just as ambitious as Grooveshark which seems to be doing fine.

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frankdenbow
Really interested to see who ends up funding their round. So many investors
have told me that they want nothing to do with the music industry (streaming
rights especially are not too attractive a proposition) and won't fund
anything. On the other hand, they don't want to be the ones to miss a gold
mine because they are stuck in thinking from 10 years ago about an evolving
industry. If Turntable can do one thing, I would hope it would be to help
foster a more creative community around music application creation. Having
that community have the blessing of the music industry themselves would be the
ultimate goal along with changing the licensing structure for developers
(David Isrealite of the NMPA talked about this here:
[http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/others/president-of-nmpa-
call...](http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/others/president-of-nmpa-calls-for-
blanket-licensing-1005238782.story)). The amazing innovation I have seen at 2
MusicHackday.org events lets me know that there is so much that will be done
with music in the future, if developers and entrepreneurs are given the
ability to pursue these dreams without fear of prosecution.

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richcollins
It's not a Pivot when you do something completely new.

~~~
bproper
Same team, same investors, same capital.

New code, new idea.

Uber-Pivot?

~~~
fraserharris
Restart, redo

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grantismo
I'll be interested in seeing how turntable.fm evolves. I love the idea, but if
I'm interested in background music, I find it can often be inconsistent. It'd
be cool if more rooms had a single DJ, so at least you knew what to expect.

~~~
hammock
Go to tha "Ambient Chillout & Trip-hop" station, that's all u ever need

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misterstartups
I expect they'll get more, but that was quick!

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bproper
They may end up raising more, but from what I hear, they are choosing VCs
based on who can secure them top engineering talent for critical positions,
not who cuts the biggest check.

That's the lay of the land in Silicon Alley right now. Tech talent is worth
its weight in gold.

~~~
rokhayakebe
_they are choosing VCs based on who can secure them top engineering talent for
critical positions_

I hear all this talk about top engineering talent. What is the difference
between these guys and the rest of the engineers in the valley? Most startups
do not do anything specially intelligent so what difference does it make?

Note:I am not being sarcastic. I am just curious.

~~~
earbitscom
This is the best explanation to your question that I know of.

[http://www.quora.com/LikeALittle-startup/Why-do-you-need-
gol...](http://www.quora.com/LikeALittle-startup/Why-do-you-need-gold-
medalist-programmers-in-your-team-to-build-something-like-LikeALittle)

~~~
rokhayakebe
Thanks. Great comments, but I doubt they answer the question.

~~~
earbitscom
The question was why do you need top engineering talent to build a website
whose technology is not that complex. The point is that building technology
that has to scale at the rate that Turntable (and LikeALittle) is growing is a
very serious challenge that you can't afford to screw up. It takes serious
tech chops, even if the app is not that complex.

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jakemcgraw
Needs: \- Pro interface (just a list of users, not all this animated nonsense)
\- Embeddable images in chat \- Sponsored rooms

~~~
orenmazor
so like IRC + shoutcast?

something about the way turntable presents things makes it a lot more fun.

edit: for perspective, think of it as farmville for music/dj nerds. my dj
friends are loving turntable for the 'test out a playlist on a group' factor.

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devinfoley
[http://www.businessinsider.com/turntablefm-rumored-to-be-
rai...](http://www.businessinsider.com/turntablefm-rumored-to-be-
raising-5-10-million-at-a-40-million-valuation-2011-7)

Confirmed: 7.5M at 37.5M valuation.

I'd be very interested in seeing how this played out for the investors in
StickyBits.

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3pt14159
Wow, I don't even know what Turntable _is_ from their website because I'm
Canadian.

~~~
jonknee
I'm from the US and don't know what it is because it uses Facebook login. Oh
well.

~~~
nirvdrum
I was in the same boat. Especially since they request the offline data access
permission. I finally relented by creating a crap Facebook account. I'd have
been happier just giving them my email address and setting up a login in a
more traditional manner.

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hammock
I am talking to one of the tt devs right now, he says it's just a rumor and
this article is bogus.

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lachenmayer
_100 days and $100,000 to get a company into beta, a working product that can
be released to users for feedback._

In this day and age, do you really need $100,000 to get a company into beta?
What are they spending all that money on, apart from a swanky office?

~~~
eli
Well, do you need to hire any design or development or bizdev or legal help?
Are the founders all willing to work without a paycheck and benefits for 100
days?

$100,000 isn't really very much money.

