Black Web 2.0

Recently launched Muxtape, has been all the buzz on Twitter the past couple of days. Considering the site just announced its launch March 25, the amount of muxtapes being created was phenomenal. In fact yesterday, I saw a few tweets stating that the service wasn’t allowing any new signups.

Well, I got in there today, and though I haven’t started my muxtape yet, my playlist is set and ready for upload. I just gotta figure out which one of my most played genres I feel like sharing with folks.

What is Muxtape exactly?

It’s a simple, elegantly designed service for sharing music. Upload files and make a playlist, then share with friends. The Ajax interface is one of the best I’ve seen. It’s not Ajax for the sake of Ajax. It’s Ajax because it works.

The site received so much attention in it’s first two days that the server was down for a little bit. How these folks got the server power behind this endeavor is beyond me. And how long the virtual mixtape service will last before the RIAA comes a knocking, is also unknown. There’s no way this can be legal. The Industry isn’t getting money for this. While a listener won’t be able to download tracks, the issue of payment for streaming will loom.

That’s where Muxtape differs from Mixaloo. I first became acquainted with Mixaloo as a Facebook App. With Mixaloo, you’re not uploading your own music, you’re making your playlist form what’s already available. The collection is nothing to sneeze at though, the site acquired “three-and-a-half-million songs through deals with major record labels.” So Mixaloo isn’t just a cool concept, it’s got a business model built in. Mixaloo sells tracks, and individuals make money if someone purchases a track from discovering it through their playlist.

You can bank on more of these services cropping up soon, as the music industry grasps at straws for solutions to its impending debacle. In other words — FAIL!!! Of course Long Tail solutions that service the customer, instead of working against them — like Warner’s Jim Griffin’s proposed “music tax,” wherein a music-listening, downloading, sharing, fee will be bundled into consumer’s ISP charges. Can you imagine Comcast charging you a random $5 as a “music tax” bundled in your Internet bill? What if you don’t even listen to music on the Internet? RIDICULOUS. But that’s another story for another post.

What we were talking about here were cool little services that enable you to share your favorite music with your friends. And while Muxtape and Mixaloo aren’t the first in this arena, they certainly won’t be the last. My favorite used to be Webjay, until Yahoo! gobbled it up and rolled it into its Yahoo! Music Jukebox.

In the meantime, go make yourself a Muxtape, before it’s all over or some major player turns it into something a lot less fun. Just keep in mind, there are a few restrictions:

Users may not upload multiple songs from the same album or artist, or songs they do not have permission to let Muxtape use. Individual users may not create multiple muxtapes. Accounts not meeting these restrictions are subject to termination without notice.

That’s a low barrier to entry, isn’t it?

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 10:53 am and is filed under Digital Media, Hip-Hop 2.0, Launches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.