"Mix Tape" Sites

Miss the old days of getting and giving eccentrically labelled, deeply personal cassette mix-tapes? (Or perhaps you're under 30.) Putting together MP3 playlists for friends is also enjoyable, but a lot less … colourful.

You can get the old sense of playfulness without the nuisance of messing about with actual cassettes at various aural-networking sites, among them www.muxtape.com - surely the work of a Kiwi! But the most user-friendly is probably www.mixwit.com.

The idea is that you choose from a list of free, legally available songs. At the moment, Mixwit has about 6000, including a higher than expected indie selection. You compile them in your preferred order, and give the resulting collection a name that is somehow significant to you. If you're so inclined you can also add artwork. The end product, designed to look like a cassette, is then available on the site for others to listen to and possibly rate.

It's not necessarily a site you'll visit all that often, but because you can search existing compilations by artist and track name it's a good way to remind yourself of old tracks without having to pay for downloads. And there is an amusing nostalgia in reliving the old days, albeit via a keyboard.

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