

Can Turntable.fm Survive Its Popularity?  - mamatta
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/turntable-fm/

======
vectorpush
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?

~~~
pstack
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
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.

------
sdoowpilihp
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.

~~~
seanharper
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.

------
guelo
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
> 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.

------
yesimahuman
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.

------
mattblalock
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.

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

