I remember 2003 being in college throwing a house party putting on Jay-Z “I just wanna love you“. The place went crazy and I loved it. I mean who doesn’t want to be a DJ or get the crowd fired up. Turntable.FM has managed to not only capture that feeling I had 8 years ago but have taken it to the next level.
How It Works:
You can enter an already created room like “90 Hip Hop” or “Formspring” or simply create your own. Once inside a room 5 turntables are available for people to play tunes from or you can simply hangout in the crowd and simply enjoy the music.
If you are lucky enough to snag a turntable you can play a song, the crowd can vote if the song is great or bad in realtime. As you get more great votes your score increases and eventually you unlock new costumes like my new bear costume.
You rotate left to right playing one song at a time and at any time a DJ can choose to stop spinning and someone new from the crowd can take their spot. What makes this concept so brilliant is instead of an algorithm people’s emotions and favorite songs become the centerpiece’s of discussion. Judging by the crowd’s reaction to a previous song you may choose to play something else.
My Magic Moment
I refer to moments with software/products where they defy your expectations and thoughts as Magic Moments. I’ve blogged about this previously with Quora.
Last Friday I jumped into the Hip Hop Room and saw Joel Zimmerman just hanging out. Joel Zimmerman is known by the stage name Deadmau5. The funniest part of this is that one of the Avatars you can earn in Turntable.FM is the mousehead Deadmau5 himself invented and wears on stage.
Over the course of the next few hours I started trying to understand how this could really be him. What became apparent to me very quickly is how amazing the Turntable.FM platform is. I started learning from other users what sample was used in the song Playaz Club, discussing the crowd’s reaction to tunes and having a conversation around nothing but music.
If you are curious about that sample for “finally moving” enjoy 
I’ll be back tomorrow with some thoughts about where the service can go beyond mobile. I simply can’t get over what Seth and team have built. It’s just brilliant.