turntable.fm: a refreshing twist to sharing music.

hot on the web is the new music pseudo-sharing site turntable.fm, which can best be described as a user-driven music shuffle/discovery tool masquerading as web-dj for the masses. and it works well.

the concept is simple. you log in with a facebook account (as long as one of your facebook friends is already a part of turntable.fm, this is a must!), are a presented with a list of lobbies to join. this screen is easy enough to digest, you’re presented with how many people are in the lobby, how many of the dj slots are occupied, and the name of the lobby, which is usually the indicator of what kind of music you should expect to hear in that lobby.

choose a lobby and you taken to the next screen, a virtual club filled with tons of cutesy avatars, which represent the other users in that lobby. everybody is facing a dj table, which seats 5 users (each with a laptop in front of them, and a windows or apple logo on said laptop, depending on which platform you use – a clever touch, although it’s totally irrelevant).

the track list for the lobby is up to whomever is sitting at the table. dj’s queue up songs and the lobby goes one by one down the table. when it’s your turn, the next song in your queue plays for everyone to hear (songs can either be retrieved from turntable’s database, or you can upload your own song). there is a meter on the bottom the screen where you can vote on the quality of the song – “awesome” votes give you dj points, which is kind of like your rep (which unlocks avatars for your otherwise boring starter guys), and “lame” votes try to kick you out. too many “lame” votes and your song is skipped and you suck.

and that’s the gist of the interface. simple and easy to use. but where i feel turntable.fm really succeeds is as a tool to expose people/be exposed to new music. people have different tastes and everybody has that one song in their library that they’re sure no has heard and will be a hit. for aspiring artists out there, if you upload your newest record, it’s a great way to get instant feedback.

my beef with turntable.fm? it has to be the difficulty to score a dj slot in a crowded lobby. good luck waiting for one of the current dj’s to leave, and even more luck to snatch up their seat before someone else does. if you’re intent on sharing your own music, you’ll probably be better off creating your own room and hoping it draws some sort of audience. it’s a gamble, but getting involved is the draw of the site and i would hate to sit around waiting impatiently for the chance to try to grab an empty seat.

if you get the chance, check it out. i recommend it, and odds are you have at least one facebook friend already scouring these virtual clubs so you should have no problem getting in.

school of rock: the smartest rock stars

it’s often fascinating to see a “behind the music” piece on a talented artist – you learn some fantastic things about them that you would otherwise never even dream to assume.

many promising artists struggle through their early lives and career, using music as a way to escape an otherwise dreadful life – domestic problems, living in poverty, working dead-end jobs, etc. many artists have zero to hero stories like these that make their success that much more satisfying to reflect upon.

some talented musicians, however, don’t live the stereotypical “rock-bottom” lifestyle before they hit it big – in fact, the following artists drop a promising academic, intellectually fruitful future to pursue music full-time.

alicia keys at 12 years old enrolled in the prestigious profession performing arts school, began writing songs at 14, and graduated as her class valedictorian at 16 – a more-than-model straight a student. after graduation, she accepted a scholarship to attend columbia university (again, 16 years old), but dropped out after a month to pursue music full-time. by 20, she had released songs in a minor, which went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide.

greg graffin, the lead singer of bad religion, double majored in anthropology and geology at ucla, got his masters degree in geology at ucla, and eventually went on to earn his ph.d in zoology/evolutionary biology at cornell. he currently splits his time with teaching life sciences and paleontology classes at ucla, and of course writing and recording with bad religion.

chris martin of coldplay attended university college london, dedicated his time to ancient world studies, and receive first class honors (highest level of achievement for british undergraduate studies) in greek and latin. it was at ucl where chris martin met his coldplay bandmates, and the rest is history.

brian may, the guitarist for the legendary superband queen, graduated from the prestigious imperial college in london with a degree in physics and mathematics. he was halfway through his ph.d in astrophysics when queen took off. he later went back to finish his ph.d, which he completed in october 2007. his dissertation was on radial velocities in the zodiacal dust cloud (whatever the hell that is) and has an asteroid named after him.

dexter holland, lead singer of the punk band the offspring, graduated high school as valedictorian and attended southern cal, earning a bachelors degree in biology, and a masters degree in molecular biology. he was ph.d candidate at usc in molecular biology, but he dropped out to focus on the offspring.

stephan jenkins, lead singer of the band third eye blind, graduated valedictorian of his class at ucal, berkeley, with a bachelors degree in english literature.

rivers cuomo of weezer graduated phi beta kappa at harvard in 2006, and has been continually attending the school since 1995.

will smith, never actually attending a college, was admitted to a pre-engineering program at mit, and claims that because of his extraordinary sat scores, knowing someone on the admissions board at mit, and being black, he probably would have gotten in. he never applied, having no intention to go to college.