I work in a social business, so I keep a pulse of what's happening on Twitter throughout the day. My social savvy also led me to Turntable.FM when it was in beta, so I've become familiar with the platform. I am really impressed by the true sense of community it brings to music. It allows you to express yourself as a DJ, and also find some great new tunes as a listener.
Last Tuesday, I randomly saw a tweet mentioning a contest put on by Southwest involving Turntable.FM. I followed the link provided in the tweet, and entered the Southwest Airtunes Turntable.FM room. The DJs were selected by way of trivia. The first five people to name an Artists Den artist and the venue they played were awarded the five DJ spots. I was in the right place at the right time: I had seen some conversation in the chat about Artists Den, so I checked out the website. I just happened to be exploring the shows page that listed the answer. I was in!
So it was time to stack my playlist. Having one hour, I gauged I would get to play three or four songs. The audience judged the contest, using the "Awesome" and "Lame" buttons provided on Turntable. There were 80-100 people in the room, so selecting the right songs was essential.
First, I chose Black Betty by Ram Jam, because it is truly a mood lifter and it was late in the day. My next tune was Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. I chose that since it was sort of relevant to Southwest's motto (and magazine), plus just a great song. My final selection was Santeria by Sublime. I needed to play something that would cross the entire audience of listeners, and I think I did just that.
The contest came down to the wire. I won with a score of 46 points. The next highest was 45 points, and I'm told it came down to the very last second. My prize was two roundtrip tickets on Southwest in what amounted to a very interesting contest.
My wife and I love to travel with our daughter, so I think we'll wait until it's really cold and go somewhere warm!
Thanks, Southwest!
