Last month, the online music streaming and sharing service, Turntable.fm relaunched after eight years offline. In its heyday, Turntable allowed members to gather in virtual rooms, queuing up songs for anyone to hear. The original Turntable was unique, but would-be DJs can now choose among several apps that allow them to spin and share tracks in real time.
Tech expert Omar Gallaga told Texas Standard that the service allows groups of people together in virtual rooms, where they take turns playing songs. Audience members, represented by dancing avatars, can listen in.
“Turntable warms my heart,” Gallaga said. “If you talk to anybody who was around when it was a thing – 2011, 2012 – they remember it so fondly. It was so much fun.”
Highlights from this segment:
– Turntable will be available in two versions: Turntable.fm, which is very similar to the original, and tt.fm, which is expected to launch this month.
– The service failed because of the high costs required to provide music access. The new services will rely on user donations for a large part of their funding.
– A partnership between Spotify and the Discord chat service also aims to allow live DJ’ing.
