metric reflection

Mixes, Browsers and more

I was sad when Muxtape was shot down.  It was a glowing star arcing across the night sky, a great, simple service whose brilliance made its demise inevitable.  Of course, the goons at the RIAA killed it instead of trying to work with it.  I’m surprised it took them as long as it did.  They don’t believe in innovation, even when it draws more attention to their (and non-RIAA) bands.  You couldn’t download any of the songs in a mix, but any user could build their own mixes to share with people.  It very effectively updated the old practice of trading mixtapes for the digital age.  Moreover, it was quickly being upgraded for band use – so they could quickly and easily offer a selection of songs on their website in a more attractive interface than myspace’s clunky UI.

But Muxtape’s existence was a waltz with illegality.  The act of storing songs on a server that are not owned by the server’s owner brought down MP3.com almost a decade ago, and this wasn’t too much different.  Limited a bit, but only in that just 12 songs could be uploaded at any time.

8tracks.com, a Muxtape competitor, claims their service is a bit more legal, at least under the DMCA, because they believe they are a webcaster, not… whatever Muxtape was.  I took it for a spin today, and was generally impressed.  It’s not as slick as Muxtape; the interface is pointlessly disjointed, with the main focus of the site (the mix) shoved off to the right for some reason.  Once you get past that, though, it’s fairly straightforward – upload your mp3s, reorder them as needed, and edit the title or author tag if it’s not recognized.  It even allows you to embed the mix (see below) which was one of the shortcomings of Muxtape, and add cover art (I’m too lazy right now).  You’re limited to just 8 tracks, in keeping with the site name, which can be kind of a drag.  But arbitrary limits have to be set somewhere, right?

In other news, Google released their new web browser, Chrome, today.  It’s got a lot of great features, including better memory management than Firefox, a privacy mode, and overall snappiness.  I’m still playing with it, and not sure that it will replace Firefox as my browser of choice (especially since it’s not available for Macs yet), but it’s definitely running lighter than Firefox ever has.  Check out this webcomic for more details.

Now for the mix:

Listing:

1. The Real Tuesday Weld – It’s a Wonderful Li(f)e: What a terribly pretentious name for a great song.
2. The Week That Was – The Airport Line:Sounds like Village Green Preservation Society era Kinks.
3. Devotchka – Comrade Z :I’m really digging this Eastern European sound.
4. The Race – Feathers
5. Kyle Andrews – Tennessee Torture Dream:Andrews wishes he was old school Pete Yorn. We can forgive him for this, but only because new Pete Yorn is so terrible.
6. Takka Takka – Silence:Check out the video.
7. Good Old War – I’m Not For You:My friend Mike found this band, and he’s almost always right when he points me to his discoveries.
8. Billie the Vision and the Dancers – Lily from the Middleway Street:A strange Swedish collective, all of their albums are available for free on their website. This is from the newest one, I Used to Wander These Streets.