I've had really good experiences trying out mixed tapes from communities on livejournal, so thought we could try a similar thread here, minus the novelty of having new entries each week because it's a much smaller crowd at b77. But please, whenever inspiration finds you, feel free to post! I miss talking music with ya's.
Just so we're clear: mix tapes are a collection of music, often with some kind of theme, but can also be entirely random. They usually feature several different artists, though it's okay to focus on just one if they have several albums to choose from. Variety is the key, whatever you end up doing.
If you've ever thrown some songs together for a friend, or made a playlist on itunes, you're already set. The only limits are to keep each mix between 10 and 20 songs, and under 80 minutes in length. Everything else is up to you. Want your mix to feature only non-English lyrics? Bands you've seen live? Stuff your aunt likes? Song titles with animals in them? Whatever you want. Go nuts. I've seen lots of music memes on blog sites, so there's no lack of ideas for these things. It doesn't have to appeal to anyone here, but if they end up liking it, they can report back and ask for an encore.
To make things a bit more fun, the people on LJ usually made album cover mock-ups of their mixes. So if you feel especially creative, play around with that too!
Side note: if songs should be played in a specific order, either number the song files or the tracklisting to reflect that.
How does one post their mixes online? Easily, unless I don't understand your computer programs. Just create a new folder to paste copies of the songs you intend to include in the mix. Once you've put your 10 - 19 files in there, find a site like sendspace, mediafire, yousendit, or megaupload. (I don't know if it would work adding to b77's server?) You can either register with them or just upload files for free. Once you've uploaded you mix, just paste the link in this thread so peeps can check it out. To save space and make for a faster upload/download, compress the folder into a zip or rar file before putting online. There are a few people here who should be able to walk you through it if you need further help.
Please don't include songs that are locked and unavailable to anyone trying to play them on a different computer. itunes purchases work like this.
I think that's about it, but if you have suggestions for reliable file-sharing sites (sites, mind, as opposed to programs - we're not pirating, we're just trying to enjoy music here), theme requests, etc., I'll update this post with the helpful information. Cheers.
*E*