I remember the days of analog music: vinyl records and mix tapes. But my music these days is digital, using services like Rhapsody and…
It seems as though a digital counterpart to the mix tape would be a good thing. That’s what Mixaloo sets out to provide. Here’s how TechCrunch described Mixaloo a few weeks ago.
As a Mixaloo user, you can create playlists of music from all the major record labels… You can then share these playlists with friends via email, or you can embed playlist widgets into your website, blog, personalized homepage, or social networking profile…
To make a mix is free, but your friends will need to pay for the whole mix if they want to hear more than 30-second preview clips. The songs are 99 cents each (good) and protected by Windows Media DRM (very bad).
I didn’t realize the very bad part when I signed up for an invite to the private beta. But I did sign up, and I did mix. So there’s a mix of music I miss from my vinyl years over at my WordPress test blog. (I can’t put it here due to WordPress.com restrictions.)
I’m left thinking that the digital mix tape metaphor is appealing, but what it really means is playlist, and there are multiple ways of generating a playlist that I like better than I like Mixaloo’s. I’m thinking mainly of Sonific and Seeqpod. But I’m not writing off Mixaloo, since it’s still in private beta.
My thanks to Mashable, provider of my invite to the beta. (By the way, I have some Mixaloo invites of my own to give away; let me know via comment or email if you want one.) My thanks also to Anita for the rather lovely photo.
Hey, great article (and great mix tape!). Glad we could be of service and thanks for the Mashable shout out!
-Adam Hirsch, Mashable.com
Hey Andrew, thanks for the post. The best part about Mixaloo is that when you promote a mix and it sells to someone who checks it out, we split the profit with you.
This is really a new distribution method for music – the fans who are most passionate about the music get paid for sharing and promoting the music they love – so you become the seller and are compensated really well for it.
Thanks again – Mark Stutzman, Founder, Mixaloo.com
Adam and Mark,
Thanks very much for visiting, and for taking the time to comment. I don’t think that what you have now captures the spirit of the mix tape – DRM? But I’ll be interested to see where you go with the idea. In particular, I’ll be interested to see where Big Music (or whatever we should call the record industry these days) lets you go with it.
Andrew
We do have DRM tracks, but we also have a pretty large selection of mp3’s in the catalog and that will grow everyday. Also, it is important to note, that we are 100% legal and approved by all of the labels.
Again, thanks for checking Mixaloo out – we will continue to work hard to improve it every day!
Mark,
Good point about the MP3s. Keep making this point – there’s an impression out there that Mixaloo music is DRM’d music. Perhaps you could make it on the rather shy Mixaloo blog…