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Some thoughts on Muxtape
So Muxtape.com launched today. It allows you to upload mp3 files and create an online mixtape. It's a great idea and the interface is super-easy to use.
I made a quick mix, err mux, here. Here's one ron made.
My initial thought is that there can't be a way this is on the up-and-up, legal-wise. Allowing people to just upload whatever MP3 they want and make those mp3's available has to be not exactly kosher in the eyes of the RIAA. Companies like imeem are doing something similar but they have deals with the major labels and a bunch of indies. Today, imeem opened up their API giving developers access to the music and video they've stored. That's pretty interesting.
Second, they're smartly using S3 to store the files. This is smart, file-size wise and bandwidth-cost wise. Though with no advertising or other visible support, I don't know how they are funding this venture. It looks like they're not downgrading the file quality at all. Since they're already using Amazon's S3, it would be trivial to set up EC2 to take each file uploaded into S3, transcode it to 128kb mp3 or flv file, and send it back to S3. That would save a bunch of file size and bandwidth.
I'd love to see some additional features - like support for files other than mp3. I rip a bunch of my CDs in m4a, and this system wont play those. I'd also be interested in seeing how many times my mix was listened to, and maybe a directory of users or a song search engine. If I'm interested in the Frames, I'd be interested to see other playlists that included the Frames. I'd also like to see the ability to create multiple playlists for my username.
All in all, it's a cool service that I fear will be gone before we know it.
Posted by Mike at March 25, 2008 3:15 PM | Add to del.icio.usi totally agree with your feature requests. i think i'd also want the ability to add another user's song and add it to my muxtape. since you can't download the song off a muxtape, it wouldn't be illegally sharing the mp3, right?
perhaps they are just trying to keep it as simple as possible for now (which they did a damn fine job of).
Posted by: ron at March 25, 2008 5:06 PMCheck out his blog (muxtape.tumblr.com), it looks like some cool new features are on the way, assuming the site isn't shut down. I have a feeling the developer isn't holding his breath, the absolute URLs to the song files include the query string ?PLEASE=DO_NOT_DOWNLOAD.
Posted by: Jesse at March 25, 2008 8:35 PMJust because you stop people downloading files doesn't make it any more legal, imeem has done a pretty good job of breaking most downloaders but they were still sued.
Using s3 for storage and delivery is fine for a small scale proof of concept but they'll never be able to turn this into a viable service unless they can pay for it which means advertising, and they'll need to pay the record labels so the only way they'll be able to reduce costs will be to move to a cheaper content delivery system.
I see big fail all over this, it's not really a mixtape any more than imeem's playlist is, and imeem has them beat in terms of audience and making a viable business out of the concept.
too little too late.
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Posted by: bob at March 27, 2008 11:42 AM
