Turntable.fm has FINALLY released an iPhone app into the wild, making it the first streaming service I might actually use on my iPhone more than once a year.
For those not quite as hipster as myself, turntable.fm is a cool new IRC/radio mashup, allowing you to chat with friends and total strangers alike, all the while enjoying the same tunes. Five DJs man the table up front, playing music that everyone can vote on: Lame or Awesome. When DJing, you maintain a queue of songs ready to play at any given time. Your aspiration in life as a DJ is to play a song people will consider Awesome, so that you may obtain more DJ points, and thereby switch to a more pimped out avatar.
Licensing from Medianet, their library is quite extensive. I’ve found very few songs that I wanted to play unavailable, and even if they aren’t there, you can upload your own MP3s anytime to play for everyone.
Turntable.fm is still very, very beta. Sometimes it crashes, sometimes the connection drops and other times it decides you aren’t worthy to DJ anymore, but for the most part, it’s really slick. As I tweeted before, the iPhone app is particularly crashy on iOS 5, but given time, things should stabilize. I’m just glad it’s no longer a figment of my and @mikeyutley’s imagination. Of course, it could be that their app is slower because they have an iPhone 5 prototype to test with, but that’s just pure speculation… ;)
PS – Turntable.fm is still invite-only. You’ll need to be friends on Facebook with someone who has access in order to get access. Hit me up on Facebook if you want in. Once you have an account, be sure to check out my favorite room: Burping Sushi.
Update: Turntable let me know that they’re now open to anyone with a Facebook account! Enjoy!
