Turntable.fm: Brilliant Pandora-Killer, Piracy Promoter, or Silly Startup Destined to Die?

It could be the future of music, but is it a future that we want? Last week, Turntable.fm took over the Benzinga offices. We were obsessed, and with good reason: the site combines the joy of playing music with the cool and addictive aspects of being a DJ. On paper, it sounds ridiculous. “What's the point?” I thought. “I have an iPod and CDs at home, and I can stream virtually every song I want on MySpace.” My gut reaction was all wrong. Turntable isn't simply about streaming music. It's about the overall experience of sharing and rating music with friends and other music lovers – safely, legally and in a very cool environment.

Getting the Addiction The above graphic is little more than a cartoonish tease of what Turntable has to offer. While it would be wrong to compare the site experience to that of a real nightclub with real DJs spinning music, Turntable does a wicked job of making you care about the songs that you're playing. In fact, once you realize just how many people are listening to the music you select, you might have a difficult time making a decision. “Blink-182, that's a safe bet,” I mumbled to myself while DJ-ing one afternoon. “The theme from Super Mario Bros. is so quirky it just might work. But I'm not too sure about The Humpty Dance. Will people even remember that one!?” Your concerns will begin the moment you see what others are saying about your music. Turntable offers a simple chatroom on the bottom right corner of the screen, allowing music fans to argue over which bands suck and which bands rock. And that's just what we (my colleague, Joel Samonie, and I) did. Then, worst of all, one of my songs got the boot. Turntable allows users to rate what you're playing as either “Lame” or “Awesome.” Receive too many hits in the former category and your song is a goner. It's a painful but necessary feature that gives the majority of music listeners – not the DJ spinning the track – the power to say, “No way dude, you cannot play this.” It also gives credence to what would normally be a silly point system. Every time you “Awesome” a song, the DJ receives one point. The more points he or she obtains, the more awesome, you could say, that DJ has become. Massive Database Turntable may be a startup, but it already has enough songs to compete with the big boys. All of my favorite bands – Switchfoot, Anberlin, Barenaked Ladies, Jack's Mannequin, and Blink-182 (and Blink's offshoots: +44, Boxcar Racer, and the atrocious Angels & Airwaves) are available for streaming. Golden oldies like Vertical Horizon and Better Than Ezra are also on board, as is The Postal Service, hellogoodbye, and The Format. Mainstream hits are covered as well. Lady Gaga, Adele, Eminem, OneRepublic, Nicki Minaj, Lil' Wayne, Katy Perry, and Lupe Fiasco are among the many artists you'll find in the database. Turntable's search engine isn't perfect. If you search for a band called “Fun,” you won't find a thing. But if you type in the name of a song, such as “All the Pretty Girls” or “At Least I'm Not as Sad,” that particular song will appear. Right now, Turntable does not allow users to click on an artist's name to receive more songs. This is a bit surprising, considering how well this feature works in other music services. Users can, however, click the “Buy” link to visit the iTunes store, ensuring that Apple AAPL will one day benefit from the site. A Beautiful Future Turntable's database is so massive that most people won't need to use the site's upload option, which allows users to upload any track from their own collection. This is a great feature, first because it allows indie artists to get their music out there with or without Turntable's support, and second because it ensures that users will be able to share all of their music. Even better, Turntable might actually have a negative effect on piracy. Whereas most people share music by stealing, Turntable does not allow you to directly download the songs from the database. Likewise, it does not allow you to download songs that a user has uploaded. Thus, when users come to the site, they will always have the option of hearing their friends' favorite tunes. But they can only immediately acquire those tunes by visiting iTunes. While this won't curb piracy, it positively reinforces the idea of sharing and buying music. Turntable vs. Pandora/Spotify If you haven't heard, Spotify has finally launched in America. While it's unlikely to dethrone Pandora P anytime soon, the service is expected to become the leader in streaming music. Considering how different both of those services are from Turntable, you might not think of them as competitors. But after using DJ-ing site for a while, you will quickly realize how irrelevant those other services have become. It is so much more fun to hear new music from friends and colleagues – music that may be too new or too indie to appear on any one particular radio station – than it is to get it from a source that could be influenced by a record label. On Turntable, payola never comes into play. Follow me @LouisBedigian