The Brilliant Turntable.Fm – Making Online Music Social

Technology June 6, 2011 7 Comments

I want to share a service with you now that is super early adopter and only being used by a small amount of people (you need to be a friend with somebody on Facebook who is on there to get in) but that could change the way we all listen to music. The second you start using this service you’ll fall in love with it and see the endless possibilities that it offers. Turntable.fm is essentially a community where you can DJ either alone or with up to 4 other friends. You take turns playing songs, people can come to your “room” to listen to your tunes and there is chat and other interesting features built in to make it incredibly social. You can choose to play any of the songs from their own vast database or you can upload your own tunes. Music brings us together in the real world and some services like Spotify have had deep Facebook connect integration but this has to be the best social music site I have ever seen and it has absolutely massive potential!

Music In Rooms

The first thing you will have to do is either create your own room or go and listen to a room. You can have up to 5 DJs in a room and the idea being that these could be 5 friends or 5 people you work with. This is especially practical for offices and other places where people have to take turns playing what they think is the best music because now you get one song each before it skips to the next person.

Taste Makers

I’m not especially good at finding new music myself and I always feel like other people have way better taste than me. With Turntable.fm that is not a problem because you can simply wander in and out of different rooms listening to the music that others are playing. As those people are all competing with each other for more points you can be sure the music you hear is going to be good. The little icons down at the front of the screen represent all the people who are in the room listening to the “set”

Constant Feedback Loop

The real beauty of the site is that there is always pressure to play good music. Not only are you up against your fellow DJs if you are on the decks but the crowd can also come and go depending on the tunes you are pumping out. There is also a satisfaction meter that moves from lame to awesome depending on what people think about your songs. The pressure is always on.

Rewards

The beauty of the whole site is that you encouraged to play the best music you possibly can because doing so will get you votes from your friends and people who stop by your room to listen. The more points you get the better the avatar you can unlock with the big fella down below needs over 3000 points to get. It’s a smart way of establishing who the taste makers are and the chances are if somebody has a big pimped out avatar their music is worth listening to.

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