It’s Time for Another Turntable.fm Pivot
The headline is a little dramatic, but it hits an question that I’ve been thinking about quite a bit recently. I’m in favor of the rise of “listen with” services, but in an online setting they’re much more complicated than they seem.
Erin Griffith points to one key issue:
Part of the problem is that group listening, and Turntable in particular, is too intensely engaging–if you’re using it, you’re in an active chat room that demands full attention.Goldstein admits this is a problem with the service:
“I wish it was more background,” Goldstein replied. “In a way I think there are a lot of passive services that aim to be more engaging. We have the opposite problem. It’s really engaging for a small community. Because typically, if you use Turntable, you go in and you get addicted, and spend four days of your life not doing much of anything else. And then you say, ‘I just can’t do this any more. I’ve got to get back to my life.’ Right?”
Turntable in particular is “gamified” enough that it doesn’t usually feel like hanging out and listening to records with friends: it’s a DJ competition, both for better and for worse.
And for a “listen with” service, if there isn’t some kind of active engagement along those lines, how is it different from a static playlist your friend created a month ago? How is it better?
An actual blog post will come of this…it’s a fascinating problem, and I think that something’s going to happen here.
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