The Murder of Muxtape
It’s one of the default questions you ask someone you’ve just met. “What kind of music do you listen to?”
Underneath you’re really asking: What audible emotion sparks something inside of you? How can I connect with you? Are you really a goth headbanger disguised in American Eagle?
Do you like songs that sound like the feeling of driving in a car on a stretch of empty country road towards a new beginning? The ones that feel like snuggling in the arms of a loved one in front of a crackling fireplace? Or the ones that sound like violently smashing glass on concrete? Knowing gives you a strong insight into the character of that person.
Wanting to reconnect with the emotions of getting to know someone that I felt a few months ago, I searched my inbox this morning for a link to the muxtape he gave me when we first met (a muxtape is an online mix tape). I remember the beats flitting into my ears, tickling my tear ducts, and exiting my mouth with a sigh.
The underlined characters symbolized the time he took to choose the songs, put them somewhere I usually was (online), and share a bit of who he is is with me.
Time is all we ever really have, right?
The little url was in the middle of a thread about watching Donnie Darko with wine and brie. Ahh memories.
I clicked on the link and was redirected not to sounds of Sunz of Man, but to a letter from the Muxtape’s creator Justin Ouelette. On August 15, the site had the servers pulled out from under them.
The Recording Industry Association of America had sent Amazon, the place where Muxtape had stored all its content, a letter telling them that they had infringed on artist’s rights, so they’d better shut it down.
Justin met with record labels to try and save the site, but he didn’t want to sell out. So, Muxtape is no more. It was murdered by Avarice.
You can mourn muxtapes at the play list graveyard. It’s @ http://muxtape.com/remembers/yournamehere.
Bye Bye, Muxtape. I barely had the chance to know you. I know you weren’t the only song-sharing site out there, but you were at the top of my playlist.
