Mixcloud Brings the Joy of the Mixtape to the Internet
Once upon a time, we obsessed over making the perfect mixtape for our friends. Then came the burnt CD. Then came the MP3 playlist.
These days, however, we get our songs in disparate bits and pieces, via links, emails, websites and automated radio stations.
That’s what makes Mixcloud, a service that streams songs arranged by actual human beings, so refreshing. It brings that obsessive High Fidelity touch back to how we listen to music, introducing you to new artists while remaining attentive to the cadence of an expertly composed playlist.
Mixcloud started in London in 2008, and though it’s not nearly as popular as competitors in its camp (services like SoundCloud and Songza), it has carved out its own niche following. The service now has more than 4 million mixes on the site and approximately 500,000 DJs (or mix-tapers, whatever you want to call them) who upload mixes, The New York Times reports.
It works quite simply: You sign up as a member, either by email or on Facebook. From there you’ll have the option to browse the mixes available in four categories: Feed (the people you follow), New Uploads, Trending and Your Favorites. If you’re starting from scratch, like me, you can select the Categories section up at the top of the site. From there, you’ll be presented a grab bag of genres, separated by the categories of Music and Talk.
I started out with Pop, which I assumed would be safe enough for a first run. From there, I just had to judge what I was going to listen to based on the cover of the mix. Each little curated collection is categorized further with tags, but they’re very obscure. I figured it’d be best to approach Mixcloud as if I were turning the knob on a radio: If something intriguing caught my ear, I’d stop scanning and listen.
Sure enough, I was almost immediately lost in a playful pop mix titled Amor Imposible Mixtape. Most of the songs were brand new to me (and, speaking as someone who spends all day surfing SoundCloud, that’s an accomplishment). I immediately sensed a quirkiness about the order of the songs, and the transitions from one tune to the next were elegant (not distracting like some of the lackluster compilations suggested to me on Spotify).
I followed the user who made the set, and now he appears in my fast-growing feed when I visit the front page.
In many ways, Mixcloud is the perfect music service for social gatherings. Rather than sifting through a 200 million song catalog of songs to perfect an event-specific playlist, Mixcloud takes care of atmosphere for you.
My only real gripe? Its lack of integration with other music services. If you like a song on a mix, you can easily view its title, “heart” it, share it on various social platforms, add it to your own Mixcloud playlist or comment. But you can’t save it in a separate streaming service on Spotify or Rdio. Mixcloud has its own high-rated iOS and Android apps, but they’re not comprehensive enough to use as my main music provider on the go.
But next time I have some friends over for drinks, I know where to turn for tunes.
We’re making you a mixtape of awesome tech news and reviews on Facebook right here.
