"
. With Music, coolness and legality: You tell me
You’re a legal expert, right? Good, well maybe you can answer a question for me.
I’ve been very interested to learn recently about things like Muxtape (via Delicious Ghost and Popgadget), Mixwit (via Sleevelessness) and the somewhat similar but more conceptual (and very much worth checking out) “Cassette From My Ex” (via Delicious Ghost).
I’ll just use Muxtape as an example, since I’ve played around with it a little — and I really liked playing around with it. It’s cool. Basically it’s a very easy way to upload MP3s into an online mixtape kind of thing that anybody can listen to. When you actually upload something, it says: “By uploading a song you agree that you have permission to let Muxtape use it.”
Well! That might let Muxtape off the hook. But how do I knew whether I have “permission to let Muxtape” use a particular song?
If you know, please tell me.
[And please understand, my question has nothing to do with any ideological statement one way or the other about the idea of “sharing music” etc. It has to do with not wanting to get sued. Ever.]
And are any of you using Muxtape or Mixwit, either as mix-makers or as listeners? What do you think?
.
.
Kim Fellner's book 
.
A
Reader Comments
Yes, that disclaimer on Muxtape is just an easy way for them to say they’re not responsible for any copyright infringement. OF COURSE practically no one who uploads has the correct “permission” to do so (only the artist, or labels, or publishers would have that), and additionally, it’s completely easy to download the tracks as MP3s with very little effort:
http://www.phatduckk.com/blog/internet/how-to-steal-music-from-muxtape
And yet, it appears that Muxtape has just gotten lucky, and rather than getting in trouble or attracting any negative attention, in fact, in Wired today, the founder is quoted as saying, “Labels big and small have told me that they’re excited.” Which is unfortunate for all the “mix” sites that jumped through all the hoops and went thru proper channels to create their products.
Yes, I’ve uploaded to Muxtape and it does seem to have some serious heat right now, with Wired, PSFK, Murketing, Russell Davies and others all talking about it.
I wonder if the music industry has finally reached a tipping point where they’ve thrown in the towel trying to kill off this type of stuff. It must be exhausting, but I suppose that’s what lawyers are for.
I’ll be interested to see Muxtape 2.0 when the tweakers and hackers build add-ons, and ways to download the songs (for free, as mentioned above) become easy for everyone.
Cool yes, but I’m more in line with the SF Chronicle’s view of Muxtape as an emblem of how e-convenience is not necessarily better than what it replaced – in this case the good ol’ mixed tape, where you had to make an actual investment of time to create a tape for someone rather than expressing your love through a couple of hasty points and clicks.
On the other hand, maybe this is just an opportunity for some Etsy merchant to make her next million turning your Muxtape playlists into analog, substantive, hold-in-your-hand cassette mix tapes (complete with hand drawn case jackets)…
These are all great comments. Dave, I agree with your view, but I think speed and convenience trump all these days, there’s not much of a constituency for the value of investing time. But the Etsy spin is excellent.
Rick and Constantin, thanks for the wired tip I hadn’t seen. And Constantin thanks for that other link. I’m very curious if the labels really will just let it go. In the past they’ve let things go until those things got too well known, and then acted — maybe for “that’s what lawyers are for” reasons.
One thing I wonder is how many times a typical muxtape mix is listened to, all the way through. I”m going to guess it’s a low number. But obviously: I have no data.
Dave – I alluded to a mention of Muxtape by Russell Davies, he actually posted that he figured out how to download muxtapes, and offered to make old skool hard copies for readers of his blog. He would put your mux on one side, and randomly select another for the B side (there’s a concept no one under 30 will get).
Rob – Regarding how often muxtapes are listened to, I would agree it’s probably low, but then again, it’s so easy just to click on a name and let it play in the background, you could go through a dozen in a day. Also, I’m addicted to checking to see if my mux has been favorited.
And is it just me, or do the majority of muxtapers purposefully try to pick the most non-mainstream, esoteric, borderline unrecognizable songs possible? Check out this one: http://andrewnations.muxtape.com/
For the curious, here’s mine: http://eyecube.muxtape.com/ (too prosaic?)