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Digital
Turntable.fm switches off user upload feature to cut costs
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 12 September 2013
Turntable.fm co-founder Billy Chasen has emailed users of the service, after changes to how it operates were met with displeasure by some.
As previously reported, Turntable.fm launched in 2011 and allows users to congregate in virtual ‘rooms’ and play or listen to others play songs. Originally launched globally, the site was made US-only due to licensing issues, caused in part because users could upload music files from their own computers to play in their virtual rooms (meaning both a copy and a public performance of the track took place).
This week, however, the user upload feature was switched off even in the US. Instead users are advised to upload content not already in the service’s catalogue to SoundCloud, from where Turntable.fm can access it. It was also announced that sister service, mobile app Piki.fm, was being closed down completely, as “it just didn’t have the traction that we were hoping for”.
On all this, Chasen wrote: “The change we made yesterday, removing the ability to upload music directly, will reduce our monthly bill by roughly $20,000. That’s a huge saving that we need and we thought validated adding an extra step to uploading (upload it on SoundCloud and search for it on Turntable)”.
Chasen added that Turntable.fm was already ignoring the actual user-uploaded file if a track was already in its catalogue, and was playing its pre-existing version instead.
He went on: “There have been a couple incorrect pieces of information floating around, so let me take a moment to clear those up. Every song uploaded to Turntable would get fingerprinted using the same method that SoundCloud uses (and possibly same service, called Audible Magic). This process tries to match the song to known copyrighted content. If it finds a match and we’re allowed to play the song, we use our catalogue version of the song (so the correct people can get paid). If it finds a match and it’s flagged, we reject the upload”.
Responding to claims that the changes would “kill” Turntable.fm, Chasen said: “We aren’t trying to kill it, you are watching us fight for it”.
It remains to be seen if it’s a fight the company can win, but Chasen also hinted at further changes in the future, including one that will “involve artists and have a very live element to it”.
