Remaking the Mixtape: 8tracks Takes Up Where Muxtape Left Off
December 17th, 2008 by Garrick SchmittTags: 8track, hype machine, itunes, mp3, music, muxtape, platform, service, streaming, twitter
It’s no secret that my favorite web service of 2008 was Muxtape (now defunct, sadly) which, inspired the analog mix tape cassette culture of the 80s and 90s, allows users to create their own mixes — typically 12 songs — upload the files, sequence the songs and post.
I raved about the service twice. First, here: “Muxtape and the Future of Music” and then, again, here: “On Muxtape, Twitter and the Future of Web Services and Platforms.” In the latter post, I discussed how the most impressive web services were actually becoming platforms (ala Twitter.com).
Now, thankfully, 8tracks has taken up where Muxtape left off. Building upon the simplicity of the original service and adding key things like search, a dedicated library of songs (no uploading required) and a full-on community feature (much like Twitter, actually. Best of all, it completely integrates with Twitter, allowing users to automatically notify their communities (I will not use the word “social graph”!) when they’ve posted a new mix.
Better yet, the folks behind 8tracks smartly allow you to embed mixes almost anywhere via a nifty little player. See below for my top 12 tracks of ‘08:
Couple that with a drag-n-drop iTunes application for uploading MP3s and you’ve got the makings of a killer service.
And this time it’s all legal, thankfully. Courtesy of CEO and founder David Porter from Live365 who operates 8tracks as a non-interactive internet radio service under the compulsory license for webcasting established in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
Definitely worth a spin.
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5 Responses to “Remaking the Mixtape: 8tracks Takes Up Where Muxtape Left Off”
Garrick,
Many thanks for the props! It\’s definitely heartening to see people using and enjoying the service.
Please let me know if you\’ve any suggestions or issues that come up.
8Tracks is a fantastic site, it\’s so well thought through from beginning to end. Shazam (in which I was a founder) should integrate with this, it\’s a slamdunk.
Yup, gotta love 8tracks for keeping it legal. The Wordpress plug-in is avail too. Makes it easy for anyone to create a mix and publish it to their blog, without having to mess with the xspf Flash player. It’ll also be legal….so that’s a good thing.
I should disclose that I’m working with David to evangelize 8tracks to the dj community. We’re working on some nice additions that will make it pro dj friendly as well.
Tony Z.
Well deserved, David. Definitely interested to see where you take the service. iPhone is next, I’m sure.
Having worked at the (three-way) intersection of marketing, digital, and music for many years now, I love the 8tracks service - a super easy, user friendly way to spread the word on what you\’re grooving to, and discover music from your friends and trusted peers. I just used it to distribute my own goofy Christmas music comp to friends (http://tinyurl.com/xmastime) - the process that used to take a few weeks of auditioning, programming, recording, duplicating and mailing out tapes or CDs, took about an hour in this Brave New World of User-Generated Christmas Compilations…