So what is this about?
Okay so this is something that I have wanted to do for quite some time now and some of you might be familiar with the concept through past websites that innovated on the idea such as Turntable.FM and Plug.DJ. While those sites have long since gone away there is a new kid on the block picking up the pieces and continuing on in the same vein but with some new ideas, that is BeatSense.
Basically it’s a chat room that you can go into and take turns “DJing” to a “live” internet audience, complete with a variety of features to make the experience interactive on some level. It uses YouTube videos as a source for the music so its all above board and legal, that also gives it a visual viewing element for music videos and lives that are queued. There is bit more to it than just that, beatsense has actually done some cool stuff that their predecessors didn’t but at it’s core this is what it is.
Okay, but why should I care?
I used to be a part of a forum that regularly met up/hosted different sessions in both TT.FM and P.DJ, we would pick different days and times to cover different time zones and regions etc. ahead of time and announce them site wide and get together several times a week to just hang out and chat while listening to music. The coolest thing is that its a excellent way to discover new music that you might otherwise never have considered or given a chance while also getting to know different community members better. Another fun aspect is that anyone can use the room at any time, it doesn’t have to be a “official” meetup but more of a impromptu affair if you want.
I think something like this could be cool for this community for several different reasons including the aforementioned but also just from the perspective that Sonus as an audio gear focused forum and we as audiophiles have a tendency to focus on the gear aspect of the hobby while not really getting into the actual music part. For me as someone who comes from mostly music focused forums, this has always slightly bothered me. I think this could be beneficial in pushing more interaction in that direction. I get that talking about gear is fun but I personally find the music we listen to using our cool toys to be even more fun and we should share those experiences more often.
What Can I do to help?
So that is the gist of what I'm proposing. The point of this post is to gauge interest among the users (you) and also collect ideas to be incorporated. So yeah just post here and let me know what you think, how likely you would be to participate, and any ideas you have pertaining towards the meetups. Also any questions you have about the service and how it works feel free to ask and I will answer them the best I can.
This is ultimately something I could just throw together and let it go on it’s own without much planning or thought or even involvement on my part, but as I have been a part of something similar in the past I think it best to include as many community members as possible and put some effort into it. That way we are more likely to have a healthy active engagement rate and not let the idea die on the vine before it really gets started.
I have already made a private room for Sonus and am messing around and learning the site and how everything works. After collecting thoughts here I plan to put together a more in depth post introducing the room and a tutorial (with pictures) for how to get started with using the site/general tips. If anyone wants access to the room before then, drop me a PM and I can give you early access and we can have a test session, that would actually help me out a bit in figuring out the flow of a active room.
If you made it this far, thanks for looking!
probably be on for a couple hours