I've Loving Turntable.FM, a Cool New Live Social Sharing Site for Music With Chat, Avatars, Virtual Goods

Turntable.fm is a new music sharing site with avatars and virtual goods which I think is very cool and destined to get big soon. It's still in closed Beta, but if you have a Facebook friend who's already using it, you can get in now. My friend the Second Life popstar Keiko Takamura is one such hipster already on the system, so last night, I hung out with her, and as it turns out, a fellow Linden Lab veteran known as Meta.

So how does it work? It's a bit like hanging out in a cool Second Life club with friends, listening to a great DJ spin tracks live, just with all the technical friction points taken out.  (SL meets Spotify, let's say.) It's web-based, you log in with Facebook Connect, and your avatar is a simple cartoon character. You can be a DJ and spin your own tracks, and here's the killer part: You get points based on whether your audience likes the music you're playing, and those points will unlock new virtual content, like upgraded avatars. ("They have a Deadmau5 and Daft Punk avatar for people with hella points", as Keiko explained to me.) Meantime you're in a virtual chatroom space chatting with the DJ and other friends there. Is this the next big thing for music on the Net? Considering the growth of social media and our love of sharing content online, I would sure say so.

Comments

[Missy Restless]

Your link goes to turntable.com which is just a site that sells USB turntables. Did you mean to link to turntable.fm instead ?

Btw, I tried an ION USB turntable and they suck. If you want to rip vinyl then getting an old cheap preamp and a good turntable is way better.

[Hamlet Au]

Hahaha ack, thanks for the heads-up, fixed the link.

[Senban Babii]

"You get points based on whether your audience likes the music you're playing, and those points will unlock new virtual content, like upgraded avatars."

Hmm, so in an attempt to gain popularity, rather than play music we like ourselves, we'll now be pressured into playing music that other people will like, making popularity and social acceptance more important than actually playing the music we want to play.

I've just been listening to Marilyn Manson and I really don't care whether some random avatars think it's "Lame" or "Awesome".

[Veeyawn Spoonhamer]

I think that a site like turntable.fm will get the greater public more comfortable with the concept of virtual worlds. It's so easy to get started in turntable and people start connecting/identifying with their avatar even it only bounces its head back and forth.

[foneco zuzu]

It looks really like a lot can waist their free time on other then Second Life!