If you haven’t heard of Turntable.fm yet, there is nothing to worry about…yet. But, allow this to be your chance to become familiar with the highly-praised social music service that is quickly becoming all the craze. An iPhone app was recently released to allow users to stay connected and use the service away from their desktop or laptop.

If you haven’t tried Turntable.fm yet, it’s very easy to get the hang of. Think of it as a virtual concert in which you and other members get to be DJ on stage and play songs for the others in attendance. Upon entering the site, you customize your character and pick a unique DJ name that fits your personality and music style. Then, you can pick a ‘room,’ each with a certain musical theme, or you can create your own. For example, the ‘Top 40’ room is very popular and, obviously, only allows DJs to play songs currently on the top of the charts. Each room can have up to five DJs that each play a song in turn. Everyone then gets to vote on the current DJ’s song choice: Awesome if they like it or Lame if they don’t. For every positive vote, you receive a point. If your choice is widely disliked, the song is skipped and the next DJ gets to play. You can also become a fan other DJs and receive emails the next time they start DJing.

Points add to your credibility as a DJ and let you customize your avatar. The service features a large library of music that searchable in order to find songs for your playlist. Users also have the ability to upload their own music that only they can search for and play. This allows other users to discover new music they can purchase in the future.

Accessibility on iOS devices, including iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad will only add to the reasons behind Turntable.fm’s success. Users love this service because it gives them and their friends the ability to listen together, while still being apart. Basically, it is a fun activity that friends can bond over. Through its messaging feature, users can chitchat in general and discuss their tastes in music.

Also, what is probably one of the biggest draws is how the social factor allows users to connect and choose songs based off others’ choices. This is great for generating discovery of new songs, artists, and genres. Lastly, Turntable.fm is fun because users can judge songs and try to increase their status as a DJ that people want to listen to. It’d be awesome to have a following on a website where people come to your room to hear what music you have to play next.

Turntable.fm is still a very new service, but it is a well-executed, simple concept that is great for discovering, sharing, and enjoying music socially. In the future, I’d expect to see branded rooms. For example, a concert tour, like the Vans Warped Tour, or a music festival, like Lollapalooza, could generate some huge buzz off Turntable.fm. A similar idea is to have actual, famous DJs playing music. Could you imagine DJ Pauly D from Jersey Shore’s room? I’m sure that’d be popular.

Go check out Turntable.fm and report back what you think? Do you have any problems with it? Where do you think they could take the service in the future?

About the author: August Drilling works in the marketing department at CliqStudios.com, the online supplier of kitchen cabinets including cherry kitchen cabinets, and is a blogger, social media enthusiast, and Apple aficionado.