Check Out Chill – “Turntable.fm For Videos”

Chill launched last week and was quickly dubbed a "Turntable.fm for Videos" in that it hosts VJ'ing rooms using videos from YouTube, Vimeo and Hulu. I've been checking it out for a couple of days now and after a big first day buzz it's been sparsely populated over the weekend so I've decided to help folks check it out (See end of post for membership info).

Chill Tour by Doc Rock

Chill launched last Wednesday featuring "Chill Lounges" where VJ's can cue up to play videos from other services. After surviving more visitors than expected followed by a dustup over "aggressive" Facebook marketing practices that were quickly corrected, the site was immediately dubbed the "Turntable.fm for Videos".

The comparison to Turntable.fm was inevitable though, at this stage, it pales in comparison in multiple ways, unfair or not. In addition, Chill is for videos in general while Turntable's focus on music more directly matches the DJ metaphor.  However, music videos seem to be the most popular choice by Chill VJ's so far.

Both sites have solid designs though Chill's directory page for VJ rooms is better looking than Turntable's Lobby while Turntable's avatars and audience imaging is cooler than Chill's.

Unfortunately, this weekend there's only been a handful of users on Chill and that makes a big difference in how the two feel. Beyond that, Turntable's audio does not include advertising but Chill's videos bring advertising from their respective platforms that undermine the flow of the shared viewing experience. It's the visual equivalent of listening to a promo releases with a DJ periodically cutting into the track to shout out the name of the track or album being promoted.

You can check out the video above to get a sense of additional features, including a nifty search engine/dashboard for picking videos without leaving Chill. Or, for a closer look, you can log in if you have a friend on Facebook who's a member of the service. Since that's rather unlikely at this stage, you can friend my Facebook industry account and I'll add you with no expectations after your demo!

Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. Flux Research is his business writing hub and All World Dance: World Dance News is his primary web project. To suggest websites and related topics for review, please contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.