Social Music Evolves on Turntable.fm

Meg Rayford Jun 3, 2011 Tweet

Technology, such as personal mp3 players and on-demand services, has turned listening to music into a lone activity, rather than a social one. We’ve sheltered ourselves within the auditory confines of our own–or our network of friends and family’s–musical tastes.  But, if you really love music, you want to talk about it–and share it.

Turntable.fm is a social music platform where members create or join listening rooms to play music for each other, chat, and vote on what each other spins. The listening rooms feature DJ avatars taking turns playing music for the crowd (that’s you) gathered on the listening floor.  Members get the experience of being in a club and discussing what’s being played, as well as making requests to the DJs.

You can also show off your own music collection by sharing tracks from your computer. Or, you can select music from Turntable.fm’s vast library and preview it before sharing it with the discerning crowd. The crowd then votes on your song, awarding you points if they like your selections.

Turntable.fm is currently in invite-only beta, and is the latest project of Seth Goldstein and Billy Chasen, the duo who brought us Stickybits. You can only gain entry if one of your Facebook friends is already a member. So, just like certain clubs, you have to know someone to get in. I have my doubts about how cool that really is, but the site itself is pretty sweet.