The True Story of Turntable (tt.live)
Update: this has been resolved and we won :)
Everything is going great with our beta on the all-new Turntable LIVE (tt.live) which people have been testing since way back in 2020. I just wanted to quickly clarify some confusion related to a former colleague.
I worked with Billy Chasen back in 2011, when we founded the original Turntable together. The original mobile domain was tt.fm. Since it shut down in 2014, I have made several attempts to work with him to bring Turntable back, but he consistently refused. When I started crowdfunding for the all-new Turntable LIVE (tt.live) in 2020 so many people were excited! I polled the OG fans to ask them what to call the all-new website: over 90% said “Turntable” and we had verified the rights — so that’s what the fans wanted.
I again emailed Billy to join in creating a new version. He again refused. Instead, even though we had diligently verified our naming rights, Billy publicly called my all-new, mobile-first Turntable a scam, made other false statements to minimize my contributions as a founding team member of the original 2011 version, disparaged me, threatened me with litigation, cyber-jacked domain variations of my name, and much more. I felt shocked and dismayed by his behavior.
As time went on and our nascent venture began to generate more momentum, Billy became increasingly hostile towards our all-new Turntable LIVE (tt.live) and me personally. For example, despite the fact that I had been listed on the relevant Wikipedia page as one of the founding members who created the original 2011 version, he repeatedly edited that page in an effort to write me out of the Turntable history entirely; again and again doing so each time I or others would try to undo his public abasement.
Additionally, beginning in mid-December, 2020, Billy repeatedly threatened to sue me. When I asked him to clarify why exactly, Billy said that he owed me no answer and refused to continue the conversation. He also refused to answer any of the many phone calls I made to him, and he said that he would “tweet” that it was “a scam,” and the next response from him would be from his “lawyers on 12/15.” He never did send anything from any lawyer last year, I believe because he realized that his threatened claims against me were not legitimate.
Also in January, Billy registered a number of web domains containing variations of my name — joeperla.com, josephperla.com, and josephjavierperla.com — all without my consent. He then redirected those domains to his website, which contained more false and misleading disparaging remarks against me and the all-new Turntable LIVE (tt.live). After undertaking those actions, he emailed me again, explicitly stating that he would transfer ownership and control of the web domains (of my name) that he had wrongfully acquired only if I paid him money and complied with various demands. Essentially, he was trying to extort me with a classic cybersquatting scheme. I felt shocked and dismayed by his behavior.
And
Around that same time, I began learning that Billy had been communicating with third parties in private, in a further effort to damage my personal and professional reputation, and try to derail the all-new Turntable LIVE (tt.live).
At some point in March 2021 — apparently in direct response to the impending launch of our team’s new Turntable app — he suddenly decided to resurrect an 8-year-old codebase to further confuse people.
Irrespective of Billy’s motivations, we are going to make our new app a success. I created Turntable in 2011 for music fans like myself. Our team started making Turntable LIVE (tt.live) in 2020 for the OG fans, who were abandoned, but who deserve to have a way to listen to music with friends together. We are all excited for its growth!
