New MySpace vs. future Muxtape

Less than a couple of months ago, millions of users were creating mixes out of their own electronic music libraries and uploading them to a site called Muxtape. For a while, the joy of the mix tape, made popular in the 1980s, was translated seamlessly into a Web site. Via streams, people could share the music they love and discover new music others had posted.

Then the RIAA stepped in and it was shut down. Although no songs could be downloaded from Muxtape, the RIAA (and plenty of major record labels) deemed the Web site illegal.

So, the old Muxtape is dead. But its creator, Justin Ouellette, announced in a letter on his Web site that Muxtape is “relaunching as a service exclusively for bands, offering an extremely powerful platform with unheard-of simplicity for artists to thrive on the internet. … The new Muxtape will allow bands to upload their own music and offer an embeddable player that works anywhere on the web, in addition to the original muxtape format."

Hmm, with MySpace getting bogged down with its desire to compete with iTunes, could a user-friendly site like Muxtape be the future of social networking for musicians?

I can't say that Muxtape could ever possibly hope to be what MySpace has become, but with the MySpace's fancy new imbedded music player that adds to the already famously laggy Web site, I can see the social networking giant beginning to stumble.

As for Muxtape being a service exclusively for bands, well, the first prototype page for Francis & the Lights is looking pretty nice (see for yourself: http://amodernpromise.com/). Muxtape gives the band a unique URL, there's no advertisements, it's fast-loading and easy to navigate. And I'm assuming it's free to sign up for. As long as it allows bands to easily connect with fans, promoters and other musicians (which is what MySpace does best), it looks like an ace in the hole for the ideals behind Muxtape.

For updates, check out www.muxtape.com.