As Turntable.fm rakes in Kanye and Gaga's money, an ex-Google engineer releases a copycat open to th

It’s no surprise that someone would want to attempt to replicate the success of Turntable.fm after insider reports have revealed that Kanye West and Lady Gaga are investing large sums in the music-sharing venture.

In an extremely quick turn-around that is surprising, though, Tim Zhou, who used to be a senior software engineer at Google, has launched Rolling.fm , an uncanny replica of the America-restricted website which does everything that can be done by its counterpart.

Despite its short lifespan of Turntable.fm anywhere outside the US, after licensing laws meant its creators had to limit access to America alone, the website is continuing to thrive Stateside. A cross between Spotify and Habbo Hotel, Turntable.fm is a music-sharing experience in which you can wander into different “rooms” to listen to other people DJ music from their own libraries – or you can get on the decks and have a go yourself.

Now, Rolling.fm has taken that model and copied it exactly, rushing it out to market presumably in order to capitalise on the huge Gaga-endorsed popularity Turntable.fm has right now. Logging in with Facebook, browsing rooms, rating songs and chatting about them as you listen are just some of the features that the two websites share – in fact, the only difference comes in the details, such as being able to declare a song is “hot” rather than “awesome”, as you would say over at Turntable.fm.

Being the only Turntable.fm-style experience outside the US, Rolling.fm already has over 5000 people signed up, and is continuing to grow.