The 21st Century Mix Tape
April 24, 2008
Hands up if you ever spent four hours hunched over the radio, finger over the pause button getting ready to tape the Top 40?
Hand up again if you ever spent a couple of hours knee deep in CDs or tapes making a mix tape for a friend, family member or special someone?
Don’t lie I know you did it in the same way that I know you jumped up and down in front of the mirror with a hairbrush in your hand singing along to your favourite song - guys and girls.
We’ve all done it, it was part of growing up in the 80s and 90s - but it’s something my kids are never really going to get to enjoy - the pure rawness and personal touch involved in making a mix tape.
Well now there is a bit of an mp3 alternative in the form of Muxtape - a beautifully simple website that lets you register a domain (upyourego.muxtape.com) and upload up to 12 MP3s.
My Mux Tape is a bit limited at the moment as all my songs are in m4a format (not supported by Muxtape) but when I get a chance I will convert 12 to mp3.
You can then send that tape to people you know.
I know you can share your musical tastes with others through services like Last.fm BUT they let you share everything - what Muxtape does is force you to spend time knee deep in MP3s to choose those 12 songs.
It makes you think, it makes you listen to them all again and it makes you fall in love with the music in the same way you used to as a teenager with your finger on the record button.
It’s also a pretty good thing for up and coming bands. Say you’re in a band and you want something you can easily send fans to as a way of finding out what you’re like.
You register ‘velofax.muxtape.com’ and you can then say on a poster go to velofax.muxtape.com to find out what we’re like - it’s such a simple interface ANYONE could use it.
It’s also good for people like me. Very soon I’ll be launching a new music show in Jersey called Jersey Introducing that will play songs from Jersey bands - in fact about 10 within the hour show.
With the bands permission I could use Muxtape to put those songs up - over writing them each week and in turn giving 1) fans a chance to hear the music anytime during that week and 2) greater exposure for the bands.
In fact I might just do that when the show kicks off in June - we’re already thinking about filming the interviews and putting them on You Tube, keeping show notes on the site AND a live ‘as we broadcast’ Twitter feed where people can give us feedback as we broadcast (we’ll be live online at bbc.co.uk/jersey).
Photo credit ‘mix tapes‘ is by newrambler on Flickr.
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2 Responses to “The 21st Century Mix Tape”
Posted: Apr 26th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Ryan, you could always intersperse music tracks with excerpts from the interviews on Muxtape, like a mini radio show? I presume Muxtape’s TOS will allow spoken word as well?
Posted: Apr 26th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Yeah I think they do - that might be a good idea thanks. I’ll keep that in mind when working out the new media elements of the show.
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