Turntable.fm Turntable.org Aprilclark: Turntable.fm, a Brooklyn-based social music service that features a site, Android app, and iOS app for playing interactive DJ sets with other users in real time and was called the “most important new development in social media since Facebook” by CNN has relaunched.
Since its inception six years ago, Turntable.fm has seen over 250 million hours of archived music played on its platform. At any given moment there are as many as 30 DJs spinning simultaneously from around the world. The new site features sleek and simple design, easy to use functionality, and more social features.
Users will be able to login to the site with their Facebook or Google+ accounts.
The relaunched site also features a new iOS app, which adds Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and Facebook integration. The Android app features a new visualizer and soundboard that allows DJs to view the mixes of their friends. Each day a new song will be added to the Turntable.fm playlist, which is a blend of popular songs on the site and has reached nearly 600 million plays.
In a statement, founder David Krivine said: “Turntable.fm has always been about building the most important new development in social media since Facebook. We’re careful to not change much but rather focus on creating an even better experience for the end user.”
The relaunched site also features a streaming API for other developers to use the data for their own websites. In early February, Turntable.fm announced that it had raised $7 million in new funding from some well known investors, including Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
The relaunched site also features the ability for artists to share their music directly with their fans and a video feature has been added as well.
Although the service is free to use, there are plans to create a “Turntable.org” site in beta soon. A subscription fee is required to use the site, but the number of users who pay is not limited. The site will offer the ability to play entire albums and create a custom radio station.
In 2005, Krivine founded Turntable.fm with fellow DJ Jonathan Morris and computer engineer Vivek Subramanian.
The service became popular quickly after it launched in 2007 because of its “social music experience.” It was released in 2008 as an open source software library for flash-based web applications.
In 2010, Turntable.fm was sold to Warner Music Group for $50 million. In 2012, the company’s CEO Mike Davis left the company.
In 2013, new social music discovery app Discovr was launched with the backing of Morris and Krivine. The app uses crowdsourcing to “tag” songs with information including lyrics and artist bios. In 2014, Krivine launched another startup called Interlude with former Turntable CTO Vivek Subramanian. Interlude is a video platform for live streaming concerts.
One year after the company was sold, Warner released a Turntable iPad app and then shut down the site. Warner did not promote or support the site. In December 2012, there were rumors that Warner would sell Turntable.fm to Live Nation, but nothing came of it.
A year later, in August 2013, Krivine announced that he was leaving his own company to join Google Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR).
In June 2014, Krivine and Subramanian announced the launch of a new startup with the goal of creating an “app store for radio” called Uju. The site launched in beta form in February 2015 before going live that summer. The first major feature was artist profiles for artists to share news, photos, and videos about themselves.
On October 2nd, 2015 Uju officially announced that it was shutting down operations. The site mentioned that it had “run its course” and was unable to find partners or investors in the music market to help it continue.
In January 2016, Krivine announced that he would be joining Artillery as an advisor. He was based in New York City and had started an advertising agency called Big Dog Media, but the startup was shut down after less than one year of operation.
