4 ms·

Mostly, turntable is growing because they are subsidizing free music. The social is gravy, but people love free stuff. At some point they will need to actually

by far33d 15y ago

Mostly, turntable is growing because they are subsidizing free music. The social is gravy, but people love free stuff. At some point they will need to actually cover their costs (note the shutdown of non-us traffic) and it's going to be a lot more difficult. Growth has never been the hard part for music startups. Making money has.

brianmwang 15y ago
If you want free music, particularly on your own terms, why not just use Grooveshark? Finding free music on the internet hasn't been a problem for a long while.
- chrischen 15y ago
  Grooveshark is pretty popular too.
noisebleed 15y ago
There are hundreds of ways to get free music that haven't had the same explosive growth rate as turntable. I think the article is right in that they've done very well with subtle but surprisingly deep social aspects. I do think they have a huge legal problem looming, especially with regards to letting you play tracks others have uploaded. Google and Amazon are already fighting the 'public performance of copyrighted works' issue, and turntable is far more blatant.
- andrewcross 15y ago
  I agree that it's not the free music aspect that drives Turntable. It's that social recognition for a good song. I was using it with another member of my startup on Friday (before it was banned in Canada) and we created our own room. Literally just the two of us rocking out trading songs. If someone's song sucked, we'd chirp the other person. It makes listening to music fun, which was previously lacking. Definitely agree on the legal problem here. The whole non-US shutdown doesn't look promising.
cwilson 15y ago
Like @noisebleed I'll have to disagree. It's extremely easy to find any of the tracks people play on Turntable simply by doing a Google search, not to mention other sites like Grooveshark. The reason turntable is popular is due to the social elements, specifically vanity. You're on a stage in front of an audience getting points for how sick your tracks are. It's a basic human emotion that is triggered that makes the site so popular. The discovery aspect is great as well but I don't think it's as important to the sites success.

by far33d 15y ago

brianmwang 15y ago

If you want free music, particularly on your own terms, why not just use Grooveshark? Finding free music on the internet hasn't been a problem for a long while.

chrischen 15y ago
Grooveshark is pretty popular too.

noisebleed 15y ago

There are hundreds of ways to get free music that haven't had the same explosive growth rate as turntable. I think the article is right in that they've done very well with subtle but surprisingly deep social aspects. I do think they have a huge legal problem looming, especially with regards to letting you play tracks others have uploaded. Google and Amazon are already fighting the 'public performance of copyrighted works' issue, and turntable is far more blatant.

andrewcross 15y ago
I agree that it's not the free music aspect that drives Turntable. It's that social recognition for a good song. I was using it with another member of my startup on Friday (before it was banned in Canada) and we created our own room. Literally just the two of us rocking out trading songs. If someone's song sucked, we'd chirp the other person. It makes listening to music fun, which was previously lacking. Definitely agree on the legal problem here. The whole non-US shutdown doesn't look promising.

cwilson 15y ago

Like @noisebleed I'll have to disagree. It's extremely easy to find any of the tracks people play on Turntable simply by doing a Google search, not to mention other sites like Grooveshark. The reason turntable is popular is due to the social elements, specifically vanity. You're on a stage in front of an audience getting points for how sick your tracks are. It's a basic human emotion that is triggered that makes the site so popular. The discovery aspect is great as well but I don't think it's as important to the sites success.