The RIAA shut down Muxtape but that doesn’t mean its memory won’t linger on the hearts of those who must share their love of the Hold Steady with the world. Enter OpenTape, an open source package that essentially recreates the Muxtape experience on a personal level. You simply download the application, unpack it on your web server, and then upload songs. It took me about two minutes to set-up OpenTape on CrunchGear’s server [embed works below but the main page doesn't... checking with opentape on Twitter] and a few more minutes to upload music. Voila!
I actually applaud OpenTape for offering this tool. While it’s fairly basic, it creates hundreds, if not thousands, of targets for the RIAA and while they wrangle messily with poor Muxtape the concept will already be ubiquitous. Projects like these and OpenClip are cries for help - we want this functionality and we will take it by force if need be. Or maybe people just really like mixtapes.
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John: It is not “Viola!” [a musical instrument] — It is “Voila!” a French word that means “there!” — Pronounced “Vooala!”
Matt
Fixed. Fast fingers.
I had a friend in highschool that pronounced it “Viola”
playlist.com here in Los Angeles will do it all way better and for free. There’s a review of Project Playlist here: http://tinyurl.com/playlistReview
Playlist.com? Aren’t they being sued by seven different labels right now?
Never thought I could feel so nostalgic over a photo reminding me of an old technology…
Great stuff, keep the RIAA busy hunting ghosts.
Is this on shaky legal ground? If consumers are only putting up music they legally bought, is it legal?
If muxtape was on shaky legal ground, playlist certainly is, so total deadpool or they’ll be forced to license on terms similar to pandora.
I am STILL waiting for http://www.8tracktape.com or something. Let’s get really retro. Perhaps http://www.reel2reel.com?
NOTE: domains parked, not porn as of this writing…
sorry for changing the name of the van morrison track to ‘Hi Mike’ — i didn’t think it would actually save.
You put The Magnetic Fields in your mix… great taste!
This will be even easier for the RIAA to shutdown. A little cease and desist email to these cats along with a list of who downloaded and tool and you’ve got yourself a shut down service.
go light, go tiny
I’d say we’re safe for a while until the RIAA works their way through the long list of people who’ve ever download & installed the Apache web server.
What if you’re running the software locally for your own local network? This would be really cool to check out on an open wifi network in the city.
Happy to see they are live and kicking, and yet i don’t think i’d download + install on server.
Their player works & looks exactly like ProjectPlaylist, sorry but i’m not sure why it’s worth the effort?
was it confirmed that RIAA shut them down? Surprisingly, I thought Valleywag hit the nail on the head w/ bandwidth costs. I’m sure the RIAA sent a letter of some sort, but I don’t know if I believe that’s the reason it went down.
I’m probably one of the most rabid Beatles fans out here, and ‘Cayenne’ is too much for even me! That’s beyond eclectic into madness!
Although I applaud the resourcefulness of openTape, I don’t see how it addresses the two main problems with muxtapes:
i)creating a monetizable, and on going music business.
ii)resolving DMCA litigation.
The average user doesn’t have access to a web server. Therefore, the distribution of this package doesn’t enhance the user experience in terms of controlling their playlist. It merely creates more digital musical silos for them to manage. Of course one could develop a business to search these silos to mediate this problem–but aren’t we all tired of a search-ad paradigm? Moreover, linking to copyrighted content isn’t protected under the DMCA (see tv-links case study) At it’s best, openTape de-evolves into a hype machine paradigm.
I haven’t read or heard anyone discuss Gestalt design for Web 2.0. Personally, I think this has to be the new paradigmn. If you’re searching for something, you’re in a certain mood. Whereas if you’re communicating with someone, you’re in a different mood. Ultimately, this is why facebook will fail, since its essentially a glorified email + text messaging platform. Furthermore, Google, Msn, and Yahoo have failed to monetize their email and messaging services, and so will facebook–because they’ve failed to design for moods and a holistic design approach. Instead they’ve over-emphasized reductionist methodologies ie. functional requirements, At the present, sites are data-centric. Hopefully in the near future, sites will ideally be designed to affect users to consume something other than data. In short–think and design your website as an ongoing narrative with your users.
Please stop writing about Mux tape, no one cares
The idea is nice but discovering more music was half the fun. Not to mention the whole limit on number of tracks. 24 track mix? Boo.
JS-driven sound is a personal interest of mine; I maintain a related JS + Flash sound API, which allows plain old HTML links to MP3s to be played “inline” (see a Muxtape-style demo.)
NICE. a side effect is that i can probably replace zina (andromeda clone–ancient mp3 upload/hosting tool) as i’d been running on the music portion of my site.
I believe less in Muxtape and more in sites like soundcloud.com when it comes to solving the (legal) playlist problem.
The issue with Muxtape - and now OpenTape - is that all you’re doing is uploading MP3s to a web server and telling people where they are. I am most definitely anti-RIAA, but this is the *most blatant* copyright violation there is.
eg: here’s the link to one of your MP3s
http://www.crunchgear.com/open.....iverse.mp3
Anyone can download it with no effrot at all, and you TechCrunch is quite clearly distributing copyrighted material without permission.
See the problem?
valid point, Dom, but most DRM systems are trivial as well. The key is to find a paying audience and serve them. Until then, searching for ‘”Parent Directory” +Beatles +mp3′ in google is a great way to circumvent the RIAA as well.
Fuk the RIAA !!!
Some potentially legitimate uses for OpenTape? http://www.stuffiti.com/2008/1.....t-so-much/