After about two years and over 400-million songs, Turntable.fm is surrendering to high costs and the challenges of monetizing streaming music. As noted in RAIN, Turntable.fm launched a live-concert listening feature earlier this year. In a note to users, the service announced that it would concentrate exclusively on the concert business, Turntable Live.
Moving from recordings to concerts allows turntable.fm to work directly with bands who seek greater exposure generally, and a geographically unrestricted audience for live shows. On the licensing side, direct deals with artists eliminates statutory royalty costs of playing recordings.
Turntable.fm provides a virtual reality, avatar-based, group listening “room” environments. About a million rooms have been set up since the service launched in 2011.