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Comment by hucker | Hacker News Reader

Turntable has got me thinking. It seems to me there would be a market for doing something similar for "real" DJs, where they could stream live sets to listeners. I know I love to listen to a good electronica DJ when I'm coding or just chilling, but I can't always take my laptop with me to a live set. Obviously it could be done with justin.tv or ustream for example, but something more customized for sound should exist. If it got popular one could even have a profit-sharing scheme with the DJs like justin.tv has (or is it ustream?), so not-super-famous DJs could earn some cash on the side.

What do you think? Would anyone ever use a service like this?

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This is already sort of happening on turntable. The other night Sir Mix-A-Lot was DJing in one of the rooms.

So can a DJ on turntable actually DJ (e.g. transitions, mixes, effects etc)? If not, did Mix-A-Lot just put on cool songs in sequence or did he have a prerecorded mix or what? I mean for the regular facebook-crowd just putting on playlists for each other is cool, but what I was thinking was more focused towards people who enjoy live DJ sets. Alas, I have not been able to get into turntable.fm yet, so I have to ask :/

No transitions/mixes/effects, just picking cool songs and taking turns like everyone else. I could easily see turntable hosting solo DJ sets with transitions and everything (and charging admission). Definitely something I'd pay for.

Heh, the concept of online clubs (with real DJ, cover charge etc) intrigues me. I wonder if that is just crazy enough to work.

I've thought about this as well. I used to record my DJ sets with an mp3 player that had line-in. I'd just spin, record, and then upload when I got home the next day (and even do my podcasts this way on my home gear). An iPhone app that did the same for name brand DJ's would be excellent. They could record or even stream to a room of their own (or their label or the nightclub itself). I'd love to login to the Club Amnesia room and be able to listen to sets from their Ibiza parties in the last week. The right execution would totally work for EDM fans I think. I tried something similar with podcasts: bestdjpodcasts.com but what TT has is much more compelling IMO.

If you don't care about streaming you can use something like fIRE2 from Audiofile Engineering and upload direct to Soundcloud. There are other similar products in the app store, and you could probably even use the built in free "voice memo" app. Streaming live is hard because you generally have no control over the uplink wifi and 3G is too slow.

Interesting, thanks for that! I know lots of DJs are using SoundCloud now, so maybe a TT-Soundcloud type integration with some branding elements and the like would do the trick. How great a tool would TT be during say, Armin Van Buuren's weekly A State of Trance show to interact with his fans in realtime. I know guys use Twitter now but I feel like Twitter is being forced into being this tool because this tool doesn't really exist. This would bring some context to the conversation.

The EDM crowd is exactly the type of people I'd see targeting with this. As you suggested clubs could have their own "rooms", as well as individual DJs. Streaming live (if possible), and saving to an archive. Fans/listeners could obviously mark as favorite and get notifications when live or a new set has been uploaded from the club/DJ. Real time chat for discussion and requests. Frontpage with featured up and coming DJs, the most favorited and so forth.

As you remarked though, proper execution and probably contacts so as to get some sizeable DJs in from the start would be key for this to work.

The smaller labels or clubs is the way to get the DJs. If you let them monetize their own rooms (sell their merchandise, music, or own ads) then there's a huge incentive for them. The clubs would be interesting though. Imagine using virtual currency to buy someone a drink or some glowsticks swag for your avatar.

I don't know if this still goes on, but the guys at turntablelab.com would have live DJs in their office and a video chat (forget what service it was on) on mute. It was especially cool because most of the listeners were also DJs that bought from TTL, so you could talk shop and learn a lot while listening to sweet tunes.

Sounds a lot like Mixlr http://mixlr.com/

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