Muxtape: “High Fidelity” For The Masses

Music Web 2.0 applications are hot right now. There are tons of complex applications out there right now as companies try to create the first, best monetized model for online music, like Grooveshark . What about the people who don’t want the time involvement and learning curve of a more complex site like Grooveshark? For them, there is now Muxtape.

Muxtape is the Web 2.0 version of those mixed tapes you made for people in your high school and college years. Just like in the movie “High Fidelity”, finding the right songs for your mixed tape (Muxtape) is key. You never know who is going to forward your Muxtape link, after all.

In keeping with the mix tape meme, Muxtape uses a simple cassette tape graphic on its front page. It also limits each Muxtape list to about the same length as a cassette. That is 12 songs, for those who were too young to have enjoyed the art of the limited length mix tape.

This incredibly simple application has taken the Twitter crowd and the blogging universe by storm. It is everywhere you turn online. That’s not a bad thing, either. Between Grooveshark and Muxtape, I’ve discovered (and then bought) more music in the last four days than I have in three months.

Using Muxtape is not complicated. Sign up takes seconds, and you are immediately directed to a simple upload page where you can add your 12 songs. The upload page has a cute graphic of the Muxtape cassete, with your Muxtape url on the “label”. Your songs must be mp3s, and they can not be larger than 10MB.

Once you have uploaded 12 songs you can send the link to anyone you’d like, and they can click on any song listed to play it. It really is that simple. I’m not sure if the link works with less than 12 songs. I started making a mix and had so much fun I forgot to stop to test that out.

All week people have been emailing me their favorite Muxtapes. I love it. Maybe I’m showing my age (36), but I’m a child of the 70s and teen of the 80s. Some of my favorite music in my collection is on old mixed cassettes made for me by my friends. This reminds me of that feeling, like your friend is sharing possible musical treasure with you.

You can grab RSS feeds of your favorite Muxtapes to use as you see fit. You can visit the Muxtape home page, where there is now a grid showing you Muxtapes you may not have heard yet. You can pay attention to site like Twitter and FaceBook, where people have begun talking about their favorite Muxtapes and exchanging links. Or you can make your own Muxtape and share it with your friends. There is no software to download and no application to learn - just you and your music collection, 12 songs at a time.

Do you have a favorite Muxtape? Share the link in the comments!

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