The mix tape is reborn - roll your own for iPhone and iPod touch

Remember when it was okay to copy music without feeling like a felon? In fact, it was practically encouraged. How else do you explain the proliferation of the dual cassette tape deck? The very same device that became the catalyst from which a new art form sprung, the mix tape. Creating a good mix tape was like being a DJ, you had to choose just the right songs and put them in a certain order to evoke emotions for the moment. And a great mix tape creator knew that the right tape at the right time could control the entire vibe of a party. Maybe you weren’t old enough to buy the beer, but you could make or break the party because you were the king of mix tapes. Today, the spirit of the mix tape is born again at Muxtape, a free web site to create iPhone-friendly virtual mix tapes and share them with others. Read on to find out how to create your own mix tape and post and share them here at Touchtip.

To listen to the mix tapes at Muxtape, point your iPhone or iPod touch to muxtape.com and tap any colored square from the matrix on the home page. Each square represents one virtual mix tape from a Muxtape user. After tapping into a tape, you can see the list of songs on the tape and jump around to any one of them at any time. Eachsong displays the artist, title of song, length of song, and when it was added to this tape. Songs will also display a time counter while the song is playing so you can see how far along you are in the song.
To create a tape you need to register, select “create tape”, then upload your own mp3 music. You can reorder or delete songs anytime. Your tape will have it’s own URL that you can publish or send to your friends. Currently you are limited to one mix tape per user, but you can change it at any time. Also, each mix tape has a limit of 12 songs maximum at no more than 10 MB per song.

MixWit is another mix tape web site that offers more features than Muxtape, but sadly, is not available to iPhone or iPod touch users because of its dependence on Flash. Still, MixWit is a blast to play with on the desktop browser. The biggest difference between Mixwit and Muxtape is that Mixwit doesn’t require you to upload your own music, you can choose songs already resident on the internet. Mixwit makes this very easy for you by integrating the online musice databases at Skreemr and Seeqpod. Simply select one of the two, then search by artist, song, or album. When you find your song you drag it to your tape and off you go. Mixwit preserves visual look of the cassette tape and lets you customize the colors and fonts so that it really looks like a home made mix tape, and you can even upload your own artwork. Mixwit also has some ways to share your mix tapes on blogs and social networks.

It’ll be interesting to see how the RIAA deals with these sites. To upload music at Muxtape you must agree that you have permission for Muxtape to use that music, but legally, what does that mean and who is liable? The Muxtape registration is quite anonymous so we doubt there’s much risk in using Muxtape for now. Mixwit pushes the liability to the third party sources that already host mp3s, so all you do is put them in the order that you want.

In a straight comparison of the two sites, we prefer Mixwit over Muxtape, but until we get Flash on the iPhone we can always use Muxtape. If you’re feeling ready to roll your own, head over the Muxtape, create your mix tape and post the link in the comments below. We’d love to hear what you are listening to. To kick things off check our first mix tape, Smoove Sounds from Touchtip, courtesy of Muxtape.

Muxtape - mix tapes for iPhone and iPod touch
www.muxtape.com

Mixwit - mix tapes for the desktop browser
www.mixwit.com