Turntable.fm 2.0

CNET Editors' review

by: Jaymar Cabebe on May 15, 2012

Fan favorite music-streaming and discovery service Turntable.fm is available on Android, and it does a great job of packing its full desktop experience into your mobile device.

The first thing you notice about Turntable.fm for Android is its absolutely stunning interface. The listening rooms look slick, with the DJ booth and speakers up top and the familiar rating controls on bottom. And of course, the hypnotic little avatars bumping their heads in rhythm fill out the rest. Tap an avatar to view that listener's vitals or hit the speech bubble to see what listeners in the room are saying. Tapping the DJ booth brings up track info and gives you the option to add the song to your queue or purchase it on Amazon. You can also tap an empty DJ seat (if available) to try your hand at serving up songs from your queue to others -- if you're brave enough. Earn fans and DJ Points to unlock new avatars.

Lastly, there's a share button (which looks like it was pasted straight from iOS) at the top of the screen that lets you share your room with friends via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail.

But before joining a room, you must first find one. On the main menu screen, you can search for a room by name, or browse through popular rooms, favorites, or only those with empty DJ seats. You can see how many listeners are in each room, but unfortunately, you can't see a description of the room until you actually join it. This isn't a huge deal, but an onscreen description would make it easier to browse through the long list of rooms quickly. It would also be nice if you could favorite rooms right from this screen.

Another thing missing from the mobile app is the ability to edit your profile. If you want to change your display name, description, or avatar, you'll have to sign on to the Turntable.fm Web site.

Turntable.fm's mobile performance is determined largely by the quality of your data connection (as expected). But even with a full signal, don't be surprised if you still get hit with a hiccup now and then.

Overall, Turntable.fm for Android is a fine recreation of the full desktop record-spinning experience. Navigation is simple, rooms are beautiful, and listening is just as addictive. That said, it would be nice to be able to edit profile info or, at the very least, change avatars from the app.

Publisher's Description

From Turntable.fm:

turntable lets you play music together with your friends and other people online. Each DJ takes a turn playing a song and the entire virtual room hears the song. You can vote on whether the song is awesome or lame and if it receives too many lame votes, it gets skipped. turntable is also truly social. You can chat with people in your room or fan your favorite DJs so that you can find them later. Help people discover new great music or just sit around and listen to the best curated music experience online. Here are some reviews of turntable "The hottest new club isn't in Los Angeles or New York. It's on a Web site called Turntable.fm, where big-headed cartoon characters populate the D.J. booth." - NYTimes "Listening to music has never been this fun. Turntable is also a great discovery tool since everyone is curating all-the-songs-in-the-world to share the very best they've ever heard... with you. Oh, and do you remember chat rooms? They're back. I haven't used one since the 90s and now I'm non-stop chatting in these Turntable chat rooms and meeting people." - Techcrunch "Turntable surpasses its competitors by luring users into a social context that is both gratifying and validating. In a simple chat window, conversations flow naturally." - NPR