UPDATED 12:45 EST / JUNE 23 2011

Turntable.fm Hits 140k Users in First Month. Napster is Reborn Again.

Turntable.fmTurntable.fm is a social music service that’s taking off like a rocket ship.  Why? It brings another gateway into music sharing.  However you can’t physically share music, but can add other people’s tunes to your queue.

The concept is creating a room,  and up to five DJ’s can spin music at once.  If people like your tunes, you’ll get points.  Otherwise there’s a chance of getting boo’d off the stage.

The team has enough trouble just keeping the servers up, and has been working overtime to fix vulnerabilities as they appear. Letting users download tracks is a big no-no for a service that needs to keep the music labels on its good side.

Chasen wouldn’t say much more, but Betabeat has learned from sources that, in its first month open to the public, Turntable.fm has passed 140,000 active users, according to reports.

The company had to throttle back the number of new users who can join. It’s on a 24/7 hunt for new engineers, working the Ace Hotel late into the night, with investor Chris Sacca and magician David Blaine making appearances alongside Turntable.fm founder Seth Goldstein.

“Every VC in town wants to get in,” said a local investor. “But the murky legal questions around music rights do remain.” Right now users can upload tracks from their collection, or draw on Turntable.fm’s library, which is provided by Medianet. Turntable.fm pays fees to Sound Exchange and publishers on every track played.

I see Turntable.fm as a great avenue for companies to reach out to users.  Whether a product relates to music,  we can all connect through tunes.  Companies like Gowalla, Path, Zaarly, Vaynermedia have a presence on the site.


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