casey glass

My Pops used to say it reminded him of Be-Bop

(Image: Grandpa Cassette by Zack Finfrock)

“Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the abstract listening to hip hop
My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop
I said, well daddy don’t you know that things go in cycles
The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin like Michael”

- A Tribe Called Quest, Excursions.

Yes, things do go in cycles. One of the more recent ones to be revived is the mix tape.

Lately I’ve been playing with 8tracks, a service that lets you upload tracks and then put them in a mix for others listen to as an audio stream online. You can also build mixes using tracks that other people have already uploaded. There are anti-piracy limitations built into the system; users can’t download tracks from the mix and just like when listening to the radio, have no idea what track is going to come next.

The first mix I listened to was pretty good. Mix creators can share mixes with simple URL’s and embed mixes in a web page fairly easily with a copy and paste embed code on the page of each mix.

There are some changes that I think they could make to the system though:

1. Mix tapes should be limited to 8 tracks in length. Why else is it called 8tracks? (It’s not about music creation, so I don’t see a link to 8-track recording) Most kids using this system would have no idea what an 8-track tape was, I only just barely remember them. It would strengthen their brand and also the quality the quality of the mixes if they brought in this limitation. I am a firm believer in restrictions bringing creativity.
2. Make the “share this mix” functions more visible and also offer more than one option. At least have an option for people that don’t know how to code HTML. Something simple like an AddThis button would be perfect, hooking into a myriad of social networks and bookmarking sites with just one button.
3. There is an option for mix creators to tweet their mixes on Twitter, but given that the bulk of people online are spectators rather than creators, these users should be given the power to share mixes and favourites using Twitter too.
4. Keep a list of favourite or recently listened to mixes/tracks with links to those mixes.
5. Scrobble listened and favourited tracks to Last.fm

Muxtape was another mix tape service that popped up earlier this year, offering a similar service. The difference with it was that it offered links to buy the tracks you were listening to from online music stores such as iTunes and Amazon - until it was shut down this week by that organisation that wants to see all music locked up like original Star Wars action figures still in their boxes - the RIAA.

Almost overnight, Opentape has hit the scene. A ridiculously easy to install online application for you to run your own mix tape service,

Opentape is eerily similar to Muxtape (almost exactly the same, although they deny any link to Muxtape), but there is some very alarming differences to Muxtape:

• No more single service for the RIAA to try and negotiate with.
• No more streaming audio with friendly links to music stores - tracks in mixes can be made available for download for others to collect and add to their library.

It will be interesting to see what impact Opentape has now that it’s been let loose. Given that you have to install in on a host yourself, that is going to slow it down a fair bit. But how long before a developer gets creative and makes it into something you can install as a Jailbroken iPhone application to share playlists?

I’m no marketing guru, but I know that word of mouth of advertising is the best kind of advertising you can get. It’s free and its trusted. And if someone is so into your stuff they are trying to get other people into it too, isn’t that a good thing that should be encouraged?

I grew up on the regular swapping and creating of mix tapes with my friends through my high school years which has lead to an appreciation for music and thousands and thousands of dollars being spent on concert tickets and the collection of CD’s I now own. I am a big fan of buying music. But I’m not a big fan of buying crap (although the feeling of joy brought on by flinging a shitty CD out of a moving vehicle can never be overrated).

Which is why I like to try before I buy. It’s common in nearly every industry - free samples are given out to shoppers in grocery stores, manufacturers send out free samples to potential clients, car dealers will even give you a car to try out over the weekend. So why not free music?

Mix tapes couple free samples with word of mouth advertising. It’s the perfect union, and its been proven over the decades to be a great way to get artists work into new peoples hands. So why aren’t these kinds of services being fostered by the RIAA and the record labels? Trying to shut them down seems to be doing them more harm than good.