“It has come to the point that the costs of running plug.dj exceeds the income that we are generating, and that could prove disastrous to the future of plug.dj if we don’t make some important changes very soon,” warns the latest plug.dj missive on its blog site. Plug.dj is asking its members to donate six dollars or at least $1 to keep the application going. I kicked in my six bucks this morning. Plug.dj is well worth the money. Here’s why:

First, plug.dj is an immensely creative service. Basically it carries on the torch initially launched by Turntable.fm, providing virtual community rooms where subscribers can share music files and music videos and chat with each other in real time about the content (or anything else). Enthusiasts and developers from all around the world converge on plug.dj to create what I call “distributed deejay” radio spaces. The excitement that these efforts convey really has to be experienced to be understood.

Second, plug.dj does an outstanding job of maintaining its platform. All of its features are interesting, attractive, and well managed. I always want to stick around when I am in a plug.dj room.

Third, plug.dj makes a huge effort to provide content searchability for its members. Unlike other services, plug.dj continues to keep SoundCloud functionality going.

Fourth, the plug.dj team is a very efficient, lean-and-mean operation (maybe too lean, actually). I know that that six bucks I just forked over won’t be wasted.

As a long time plug.dj user and sometimes community keeper, it’s important to me that this contribution campaign works. I am guessing that plug.dj may transition to some kind of service that remains free to guests but financially scaled for community developers. That would be reasonable, as far as I’m concerned. Where I don’t want plug.dj to go is towards reliance on advertisements.

“If 6% of the people who use plug.dj each month donated just $6 today, or if 10% donated $1 each,” plug.dj notes, “we’d hit our goal needed to operate for the next 6+ months, build an Android app and pursue other fundraising opportunities. Without your help, we cannot continue to build the community we’ve all grown to love.”

So let’s all chip in and keep a great thing going.