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Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

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Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#41
post #20

I was pretty excited when this first came out. I listened to it all night. But, eventually I felt there was something still uncomfortable about the whole experience. Some people said it was their new Pandora. I can't say I feel the same. I get a little frustrated when I can't find a room playing stuff I want to hear. And then I get even more frustrated when I give stuff a thumbs-down but still have to listen to it an…

Totally with you. Cute idea but pales in comparison as a listening experience to Pandora. However - if they can get some brand-name DJs on there with a known style (or grow some) I think the value prop changes for me. Right now it's "experience what it's like to be a cool dj!" Which is great for the dj but bad for everyone else in the likely event that the current dj is not in fact a 'cool dj'

Well, if enough people click "Lame", the song will be skipped, and hopefully the DJ would get the hint.

> Right now it's "experience what it's like to be a cool dj!"

Sad but true. "Look at me, I have a macbook with an iTunes playlist, and I clicked 'play' at a bar! I'm a real DJ, now!"

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#42
post #20

I was pretty excited when this first came out. I listened to it all night. But, eventually I felt there was something still uncomfortable about the whole experience. Some people said it was their new Pandora. I can't say I feel the same. I get a little frustrated when I can't find a room playing stuff I want to hear. And then I get even more frustrated when I give stuff a thumbs-down but still have to listen to it an…

My enthusiasm for tt lasted about a week, then the rooms I was in got larger than my circle of friends and the quality of music dropped significantly and I haven't gone back. It's neat for but I couldn't maintain using it.

I haven't even tried the public rooms - every time I use it, it's with a small group of friends - always under 10 people, and frequently just five.

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#43
I'm still pretty excited about turntable, but not because the music is so phenomenal.

Turntable is the first web service that gives me the sense of physically hanging out with friends while online.

I consider chat rooms or IM to be v1.0 of simulating real-time social interaction on the web, like sitting around a campfire and talking.

But people don't do that very often IRL - they meet at places that have something interesting going on and chat in a low-intensity way while also listening to music, watching a show, eating, etc.

Turntable gives a nice integration of passive entertainment, active participation, and social interaction that makes me feel like I'm hanging out at a club with friends. I can go see which friends are there & what they're doing, listen to a little music, or just say hi.

I think that's cool.

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#44

This looks like a cool site, but I don't have a facebook account and won't create one for the purpose of logging in to another site.

Someone should write a quick bash script that'll automatically create a facebook account with random information, specifically for this type of circumstance.

Obviously it would break the TOS, but it would give you a way of checking out some Facebook-only services. And if you have anarchist-leaning feelings, you'll also be sticking it to The Man by adding noise to their signal.

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#45

This looks like a cool site, but I don't have a facebook account and won't create one for the purpose of logging in to another site.

Someone should write a quick bash script that'll automatically create a facebook account with random information, specifically for this type of circumstance. Obviously it would break the TOS, but it would give you a way of checking out some Facebook-only services. And if you have anarchist-leaning feelings, you'll also be sticking it to The Man by adding noise to their signal.

I'm pretty sure you can't create a working Facebook account using a quick bash script.

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#46
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone should write a quick bash script that'll automatically create a facebook account with random information, specifically for this type of circumstance. Obviously it would break the TOS, but it would give you a way of checking out some Facebook-only services. And if you have anarchist-leaning feelings, you'll also be sticking it to The Man by adding noise to their signal.

I'm pretty sure you can't create a working Facebook account using a quick bash script.

The biggest problem I can see is the e-mail verification, but I imagine even that sort of thing would be scriptable. It's all just squirting characters over HTTP, right?

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally with you. Cute idea but pales in comparison as a listening experience to Pandora. However - if they can get some brand-name DJs on there with a known style (or grow some) I think the value prop changes for me. Right now it's "experience what it's like to be a cool dj!" Which is great for the dj but bad for everyone else in the likely event that the current dj is not in fact a 'cool dj'

Well, if enough people click "Lame", the song will be skipped, and hopefully the DJ would get the hint. > Right now it's "experience what it's like to be a cool dj!" Sad but true. "Look at me, I have a macbook with an iTunes playlist, and I clicked 'play' at a bar! I'm a real DJ, now!"

I think you're underestimating the 'curating' aspect of DJing. There's no skills involved on turntable.fm other than song selection. Picking the right song at the right time or something new that people find exciting is the biggest payoff in DJing for a lot of people.

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#49
Turntable has got me thinking. It seems to me there would be a market for doing something similar for "real" DJs, where they could stream live sets to listeners. I know I love to listen to a good electronica DJ when I'm coding or just chilling, but I can't always take my laptop with me to a live set. Obviously it could be done with justin.tv or ustream for example, but something more customized for sound should exist. If it got popular one could even have a profit-sharing scheme with the DJs like justin.tv has (or is it ustream?), so not-super-famous DJs could earn some cash on the side.

What do you think? Would anyone ever use a service like this?

Re: Turntable.fm Hits 140,000 Users in Its First Month

#50
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure you can't create a working Facebook account using a quick bash script.

The biggest problem I can see is the e-mail verification, but I imagine even that sort of thing would be scriptable. It's all just squirting characters over HTTP, right?

In theory, yes, but the problem with this kind of complex scraping is that you're constantly chasing the moving goalposts of facebook's code updates, which are frequent.

See also: poker bots.

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