My Review: 6
I like muxtape.com. Sol told me about it (more or less) when he sent me a muxtape that he had made. It was good (we like similar music) and it inspired me to make my own.
The idea is super cool. You can upload as many as 12 .mp3 files to muxtape, name the “set,” and even configure the header bar color. Then you can share it with friends. They can opt to buy the songs on your set list (presumably the founders are getting a cut.) It’s neat.
However, it’s also sort of cumbersome. It would be a huge improvement if you could pick multiple songs and do a bulk upload. The current setup requires you to upload a single song at a time, which is annoying. I also found that quite a few songs failed. I don’t know if it was because the files were corrupt somehow, or if maybe the meta data was too ugly to deal with, or what. There are clearly stated restrictions that it must be a .mp3 file, and that it must be under 10 MB (all the files I attempted met those criteria.) Having my chosen songs be un-uploadable was annoying.
They have a blog up on Tumblr and seem very interested in and open to feedback. I like that openness a lot, it’s the right way to go.
The UI is pretty plain-jane, but I kind of like that. It certainly wasn’t confusing, and that is a huge plus in my humble estimation. I think the concept rules, the product is cool, and the implementation is pretty-ok-kinda-good. A solid 6, though the idea is really an 8 or a 9. Just needs some more work.
UPDATE:
You know what else would be sweet? There should be some kind of “Number of times this mix has been played” hit counter. Currently there is an RSS feed meter that tells you how many people have favorited your mix, but not a total number of times it’s been played. Everyone thinks their own mix is rad. Muxtape should take advantage of that. Come on muxtape, feed my ego.
