Goodbye Muxtape, Pandora. Hello 8tracks!
Founded in March 2008 by Justin Ouellette, Muxtape is was a very simple service that allowed people to make an account, upload their music tracks, and make a playlist to send to anyone they wanted. It seems like a nice idea right? Well not to the RIAA.
On August 18th, 2008 Muxtape was shut down. It has since displayed a message reading “Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.” However as popular as Muxtape has gotten since earlier this year, they haven’t generated enough money to pay for the sort of legal help that they would require to beat the RIAA.
Muxtape isn’t the only site that’s in big trouble; popular Web radio site Pandora may also be shutting down soon, says founder Tim Westergreen. In a recent interview he spoke about how last year’s royalty hike for Web radio is making them lose alot of money FAST, explaining “we’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This is like a last stand for webcasting.”
Now, now. Don’t cry, online-music-playlist / web radio lover’s. There is a light on the horizon!
8tracks is a website created by David Porter that is very similar to Muxtape. It allows users to upload music and make 8 track playlists. Get it? 8tracks.
“Well why the hell hasn’t 8tracks been taken down?!”
Because it’s legal!
When you play a mix on 8tracks, you can’t see what songs are coming up next. You can only see the song that’s playing. You also can’t start a track over; you can only pause the whole mix, or start it over from the very beginning. This makes 8tracks more like a web radio service than what Muxtape was, although it’s also similar to Muxtape in that you make your own short playlist to send to anyone you want. This is how 8tracks looks like it will be safe from the hands of the RIAA…for now at least. :O
Regardless, I’m still crossing my fingers for Muxtape.
