Today’s post is personal, not antiques, and is about my son, Billy Chasen, and his work. Billy is a software engineer and entrepreneur whose last creation was stickybits. It was a great idea, but didn’t gain traction, possibly because it was ahead of its time. So Billy directed his software team in a totally different direction, into the music world. He created turntable.fm, which was launched a couple of months ago. The proud papa wants to tell you a little about it.
Turntable.fm
Basically turntable.fm is a social way to listen to Internet music. You enter the site and choose between creating a music room or entering an existing one. Each room can have up to five different DJs, who each play a song of their own choosing, in order. The music can come from turntable’s library of over 11 million songs, powered by MediaNet, or you can upload music from your personal library. The DJs are represented by avatars sitting at a desk in the front of the room and the listeners by avatars standing in front of the desk. Listeners can vote on each song, lame or awesome. Too many votes for lame and the song stops. The DJ gets a point for each awesome vote. Listeners can also chat, which is frequently very lively. That’s the basic concept.
The site has caught on like wildfire, so for the moment, Billy has had to restrict the number of people who can use it. While the site is in beta, you must be in the USA and you can only enter if you have a Facebook friend who is already using turntable. Quick growth can cause software problems as a site scales up the number of users. These software fires have to be put out immediately, so the users have a good experience — all part of growing pains, a good problem to have.
In the meantime, here are some of the Internet headlines. PCMag.com – “Turntable.fm: The Fastest-Growing Music Service You’re Not Using”; CNN Tech – “Turntable.fm: The cool kids’ Pandora?”; BetaBeat -“What Is This Magical Turntable.fm Everyone’s Talking About?”; NPR.org – “Turntable.fm: A Roomful Of Fun”. Just type turntable.fm into the search bar of your browser and read all about it.
Turntable.fm is actively hiring software engineers. They need “rock star” python and scaling engineers. Let them know if you’ve got the skills and want to work at one of the Internet’s hottest startups.
In the meantime, join me in wishing Billy and his team success.
Impressive 11½ inch Daum Nancy floral vase
Kudos to your son and his site — I’ve conservatively spent 10 – 12 hours over the last week on turntable and it’s the most fun I’ve had with music since Pandora was released. I wish him the best~
How kind of you to tell me. Thanks!
As a music publishing A&R I can seriously say that Turntable.fm may very well be the most important thing for music since Napster. Now I just hope this time the labels/publishers don’t screw it up. Would love to get in contact with your son if possible to share my support!
Nick Velo
Thanks, Nick. It’s always nice to hear such positive comments.
I remember when Billy proposed the idea to me. He said no one was doing anything like it. I thought it was interesting, but not special. I’m glad to say I was wrong.
Sorry, but Billy is not talking to anyone at the moment.
Best.
Philip