Turntable.fm
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| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Created by | Billy Chasen Seth Goldstein |
| Website | turntable |
| Registration | Required email confirmation or Facebook or Twitter account |
| Launched | May 2011 |
| Current status | Closed (on December 02, 2013) |
Turntable.fm was a social media website that allowed users to interactively share music. The website was co-founded by Billy Chasen and Seth Goldstein and run by Billy Chasen, who started it in January 2011 using revenue generated by his previous start-up to fund Turntable.fm. The service allowed users to create "rooms," which other users could join. Designated users, so-called "DJs," chose songs to be played to everyone in that room, while all users were able to talk with one another through a text interface. The service opened to the public in May 2011, and by late June had already reached 140,000 active users. The company used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to license the music that was played on the website; because of this, only individuals from the United States were allowed to use the service.
Turntable.fm combined "music-streaming, chat rooms, and voting" by simulating a virtual environment filled with audience members and DJs represented by player avatars. Rooms were set up around certain musical genres, moods, or real-world atmospheres. When users were present in a particular room they were represented by their avatar who appeared as an attendant in the audience. If there were open DJ spots, users could "hop up" on to a DJ turntable and play music for the rest of the room. The DJ either provided a song that they possess on their local computer or selected a song from Turntable.fm's library. Available platforms to access the service included the hosting website, a Facebook application, an iPhone app, and an Android App.
The users who were in the audience voted on songs that were played by a DJ by clicking the "lame" or "awesome" buttons. Too many "lame" votes triggered the room to skip to the next DJ while "awesome" votes gave DJ points to the current DJ. If a user decided to click the "awesome" button, their character began to sway their head back and forth, simulating how a fan would react to a song they liked in a club. More DJ points allowed for users to unlock additional avatars. The service additionally allowed users to chat in the rooms and to "follow" other users.
Turntable.fm later created a paid feature known as "Turntable Gold". This allowed the users to have an ad-free interface, post .gifs and .jpg/.png files, and have access to special characters. The service allowed you to pick your price per month, from $1, up. This "Turntable Gold" helped fund the website and develop new features, such as Turntable Live.
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