image credit: brandon king. click photo for his flickr
Since my last posting on Muxtape, a lot has happened in the
Social Music arena. It has risen to the top of a heap of interesting
single-serving websites (ones with a super simple purpose and an
equally effortless user experience design) and its elegant simplicity has
made Muxtape the buzzy-leader in the online mixtape market.
Different mixtape services serve different purposes. The interface is basically one big button and all kinds of mashups have been built on top of Muxtape. See: Muxtape With Coverflow [Mac], MuxtapeStumbler, MuxSeek Search Engine and MuxScrobbler - a script to synch your Muxtape listening with your Last.fm user profile.
Yep. The resurgence of music is upon is an I’d argue its bound to be more meaningful than it’s previous revolutions.
enter Favtape
The newest entrant into this field is much easier to use for publishing collections. Favtape creates a Muxtape-like interface for listening to the full-length version of your Pandora or Last.fm favorited songs. A feature which Muxtape users have been screaming for since launch.
It’s simple (remember the single-serving website movement), and it’s super cool. There are tie ins to Lyric Wiki, a ringtone search, the ability to listen to more songs that are similar or by the artist and other features. It’s powered by the Seeqpod API, which you’ve probably heard of if you’re one of the 82 zillion iPhone fans out there.
Favtape just launched this week. Can’t wait to see where it goes from here - but Favtape isn’t the only newbie making a play in the resurgence of music.
meet Mixwit
Ok. I REALLY dig Mixwit. (And I’m really pissed I didn’t think of it.) Check this out:
MixWit is a Flash mixtape creator with a very nice interface and gives you the YouTube-esque ability to embed your player on web pages. See my mix below. The service can have songs added by URL or through Seeqpod or Skreemr MP3 search currently. Hope more are to come!
Click the play button below or RSS readers click here to see it in action.
It’s a great example of how flash can be used for authoring and social apps and still be SEO friendly. This tool is going to put Mixtapes EVERYWHERE.
The cassette tape border around images users upload is really visually appealing. It’s fun to use and to get (listen to) and to publish. Even more so than the other services we’ve seen out there. It’s more fun to use as a publisher than either of the services mentioned above.
another note
It remains unclear as to whether any of these services are actually legal. Streaming solutions are definitely “more” legal than outright downloading (and if Mixwit like solutions keep allowing for song purchase they’ll spread some much needed good-will). But there is a thin red line still being balanced. Legal decisions may be made about services like this in the coming years that will affect streaming solutions. Funny enough, the original mixtapes were arguably illegal as well, though. But that didn’t stop you for makeing them for the honeys, did it?
Rawk on and happy mixing!