Turntable.fm Guide

[Zeus 7997]

Hey MH!

So a few members of the mod team have been playing around with a new site called Turntable.fm and we think it could be a great thing for discovering new music. Essentially it is a site that you get to be a DJ, upload your own music, and take turns playing your tunes with other members that are currently DJing. You can vote on the song and if everyone votes that it is crappy it is skipped. A room for MH has been set up here. You will notice that there's another one. Disregard that because I made it while I was testing ^^;

Ito had some rules for basic music in mind: The general focus will be Japanese rock, but some deviation will be allowed. However, if you are going to be playing a different genre of music, it needs to be Japanese. And if you are going to play music in a different language it needs to be rock.

On top of that there are two little catches. The first is that as of now you need to be located within the US in order to utilize this service. If you're outside and you want to get in, skip down to Champ's post on how to get in (linked below). The second is that you need to have a Facebook account and to be friends with someone that is also on turntable.fm. As of now, you need the account in order to log in. So if you don't know anyone yet, start making friends!

In addition, there's a little section I wrote below for rules and etiquette while on Turntable.FM as well as a way to get even MORE out of that website! Check it out below.

I hope to see you guys there.

Directory:

Champ213's Guide on How To Get In (Outside US Only)

Turntable FAQ

Getting the Most out of Turntable.fm using Google Chrome

[Champ213 1858]

Since most users there are still from the US I decided to write a quick guide how to get into turntable.fm without being in the US. There are several ways how to use a proxy, I will just cover two of them which have worked for me so far. One of them is for Firefox and one is for Chrome.

Pre-requirement is that you have a Facebook account, and that some of your friends already use turntable.fm. If none of them does I'm sure some people here will be willing to add you though.

Anyway, let's do this.

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When users outside the US visit turntable.fm, they see a grey page and a message explaining them that the service is restricted to US users. So, we have to make TT believe that we are indeed from the US.

For Firefox I suggest that you use the Stealthy extension. It can be a bit slow at first, but you won't have to manually configure the proxies and can easily switch it on and off.

Go here and install Stealthy for Firofox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/stealthy/

It's compatible with versions Firefox 3.5 - 5.*

Once you installed the extension, you will have this symbol added to your browser:

Click the small black triangle to configure the plugin and make sure the options looks like this:

Now, you're ready to go. Once you click the red symbol Stealthy will activate and the symbol will turn green. You are now behind a proxy. Try loading a few pages. If you get an error, or the loading is really slow, click the Stealthy symbol twice (ie. switch if off and on again). This will change to a different proxy. Once you are satisfied, try to enter our room again. Loading may be slow with Stealthy, so be patient.

(If you don't want to use Stealthy you can also add proxies manually, but you should try to find some extension that allows you to switch between proxies. Then the process will be similar to the one described for Chrome.)

For further instructions on how to login after having configured the proxy, please scroll down after the configurations guide for Chrome.

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For Chrome you will have to configure the proxies manually, but once you have done this it actually seems to work better for me.

Before you start, you should install the Switchy extensions. Chrome's own proxy abilities are pretty rudimentary and it would be a hassle to switch between proxies otherwise.

Once you installed it, go to the Switchy menu:

As you can see, I created a couple of profiles for turntable.fm, all with a different proxies. You will need to find some proxies to fill in, so visit this page. Pick a few US proxies with good speed and connection time, and copy&paste the IP and port into the Switchy Profiles. I would suggest to create several profiles with different proxies, just in case.

Once you're done, you can easily switch between proxies or your normal, direct connection from the globe symbol on the top right. Again, make sure you can load pages with the proxy. You may be getting a page from the CoDeen network when first using a proxy, just wait until it redirects you.

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Whichever way you chose, you should now be ready to log into turntable.fm.

Instead of the grey page with the message you now should get this page:

If not, try to switch to a different proxy/double-click stealthy.

If it worked click the Facebook button. A window will open, asking you to login. Then facebook will ask you to install the turntable app. You need to install the app! If you don't turntable has no way of knowing if you already have FB friends on turntable!

Now you should get logged in and will probably end up in the turntable lobby. Of course you want to be in our room, so go here.

Wait until the room has fully loaded. There should be 5 turntables and a Lame and Awesome button. If some elements do not load correctly, refresh.

Make sure that all functions work for you (Chat, upload, music). If a DJ is at the turntable, you should be hearing music soon, at the very least after the next song has started.

If some function is not working correctly, refresh the page or try a different proxy.

Once you made sure that everything works, you can actually turn off the proxy if it slows down your normal browsing. Of course, if you want to refresh the turntable page, you have to activate the proxy again.

Anyway, I hope this will be helpful.

Any questions, problems? Ask them.

[Zeus 7997]

Turntable FAQ

I'm new here and I want to DJ, what do I have to do?

To actually DJ you need to get up on “stage”. To do that, just find an empty seat and click the bubble that says “Play Music”. If you are in a popular room with a full rack of DJ's then you will need to wait for an opening. The right hand seat will be the one that opens. As people leave the DJ stand all the other DJ's will move left to fill in the missing seat.

The other thing that you need to do, and probably before the above step, is to put some songs in your DJ queue. More on that later.

How do I add songs to my queue?

On the right side of the window will be the “Add Songs” button. Clicking that will bring up the search box. Type in the artist, the name of the song, or the name of the album. That will bring up a list of possible matches. You can preview each one by pressing the “Play Triangle” next to the Plus sign. When you are satisfied that it is the song you are looking for just click the Plus to add it to your queue.

You can also add songs to your queue from the reader board in front of the DJ's. If you mouse over that there will be a “t” button that will add the song to your queue. You can also use the “t” to add from the room history.

Songs added from the search will go at the top of your list, songs added with the “t” button will be put at the bottom of your list.

Also you can only upload songs that are in MP3's. M4A is not supported.

Wow, this is amazing, is there a version of this I can use on my mobile device?

Not yet.

How long can you be on the DJ stand?

You can be on for as long as you want only if the DJ table is not full. If it is then you should only be on for an hour. Be sure to give others the chance to DJ as well!

If there gets to be a lot of people on it, the people that have been in the room waiting the longest should be given the option to DJ first, working our way back to those that just walked in the room. Try not to kill each other over DJ'ing please.

Once you step down for being on for an hour or so, try not to get back on the stand for another hour to give the most amount of people a chance to DJ. However if you're ready to step down and no one wants to take over, feel free to DJ. If someone comes in the room and requests to DJ however, respect the request and step down if you've been up there for/over an hour.

ALSO, two more things on music: first, try to limit the length of your songs. When you play a 10 minute song while the room is full you prohibit other DJ's from maximizing on their time. That's not fair to them. Second, try to be diverse with your selection. By that I mean don't play just visual kei music or just black metal music. Try to incorporate a little something for everyone .

Ack! I had a problem so I refreshed the screen and now I'm not on the DJ stand.

It is almost guaranteed that if you refresh the page you will lose your spot on the DJ stand if you are in a busy room. Refresh at your own risk if you are on the stand.

What are DJ points and how do I get them?

DJ points are awarded when other people in the room click the Awesome button during one of your songs.

If people click the Lame button you don't actually lose points, but your song can get auto-skipped if enough people Lame it.

Your points can seem to be lost if someone changes an Awesome to a Lame while your song is playing, but none of your previous points can go away.

Points are used to qualify for new avatars, just remember that the points aren't permanent until your song is over.

How do I choose the order my songs play in?

There are two ways to choose the order, you can drag or you can “Top”. As of this point of the beta the safest way to re-order your songs is to use the “Top” button. It is possible to drag a song around, but it can lead to the display you see and the site's list of your songs being different. A refresh of the page will typically fix this.

Also if you upload a song tagged in Japanese, the upload will usually finish and the title will be messed up. A refresh will also fix this.

I got on the stand but it's not playing my song!

The songs get played from the top spot on each DJ's queue from left to right. There is a spotlight on the DJ currently playing. Don't worry, it will get to you soon.

Ack! I got a notice saying something about my song couldn't be played for licensing reasons, what happened?

With the licensing agreement(s) turntable.fm has, there are limits on how many times per hour artists can be played. Wait a while before you try to play that artist again.

Some points of etiquette that you might find handy:

When you come in a room, check the Room Info tab. It will tell you the official description of the room which will usually tell you what songs the room expects. You can also scroll through songs played in the room recently. Try to avoid repeating if you can.

If you have a question, please ask.

If you're going to go AFK and you're a mod, refresh and give the position to someone else in the room. No point being a mod if you're not there to moderate.

Don't be negative. Really, you are entitled to think a song sucks, but you don't have to keep going on about it. The DJ likes the song enough to play it, there are probably several people in the room that like it, don't spoil things. Lame it if you want, but don't whine in chat. If it is that much torture for you then click on the speakers in front of the DJ's and mute it, or go find a room that suits your taste more.

If you are having trouble getting on the DJ stand and have a song you just have to hear...ask. DJ's are at least half in it for the performance aspect, we want to make our audience happy.

Don't constantly beg for a DJ spot. When you come in you can ask if anyone plans to step down soon, but leave it at that.

If you are on the DJ stand and plan on stepping down, let the room know. That way people can get a shot at getting on stage.

Don't berate people that don't share your love of Song X. Just because you love it doesn't mean others do as well. They are not lesser beings just because they don't share your taste in music.

You are encouraged to discuss the songs, but keep it civil. Typically people here are all passionate about music, but don't let the discussions degenerate into a fight. Learn to accept that people will hate the song you love and love the song you hate, you are unlikely to change their minds by yelling at them.

Don't set up a DJ queue and then go AFK (Away From Keyboard) while on the stand. You will have no way of knowing if you are going to play a song that the person in front of you just played and no way to skip a song that is inappropriate for the room.

If you do have a song that comes up that is “out of bounds” for the room, please just skip it. We understand that queue malfunctions occur, but if you are in a genre specific room, you need to be prepared to skip one that isn't right for the room.

Be nice, you will have a far better experience here if you are nice. Nobody really wants to have their experience ruined.

[Zeus 7997]

Getting the most out of Turntable.FM with Google Chrome

Now we get to my favorite part: getting the most out of Turntable.FM. Now to do this you first must be using Google Chrome as a browser. There's no way around this so just go grab it.

Log into your last.fm account before beginning this as well!

Now the first thing we're going to do is to head over here. Download this app. This app alone will help your experience a lot and it's only available for Chrome. It adds tags, color coding to help you figure out what tracks were recently played and most importantly it scrobbles to your last.fm account correctly! There are others that promise to scrobble but they don't do it right. This one does. If you have any of the others installed, uninstall them before you install this one.

Now when you get it set up and you visit the room it should give you an option on what you want to add on and what you don't. If you don't it should be available under Settings -> Extension Settings. Click "Enable Scrobbling" and it will take you to your account to authorize the app to scrobble to your last.fm. Do so and you should be able to scrobble right!

IF you ever run into any trouble go towards the wrench icon near the top right of your browser, Tools -> Extensions and then disable and enable the add-on and it should refresh itself. If you add it while you're in the room you will have to refresh to get it to work. If you have NotScripts installed you will have to allow the script "mnciafhfaahhafklckmcabbncbgcjpeg" in order for it to run properly. Also, disable AdBlock+ for the website to function optimally.

That's it

Now with that having been said, please make sure to fix all the tags of the songs you plan on DJ'ing before you upload it. Make sure all the titles are correct with the correct artist. Kanji and Romaji are up to you but make sure it's consistent (ie. no Kanji artist and Romaji title or vice versa). We prefer no Unicode because it may screw over on transfer (it has happened to me before) but once again, we cannot stop you. Sometimes turntable also messes up tags on upload so if that happens to you and you spot a track, please fix it ASAP! Thanks!