At two years old, the International Mixtape Project now features Israeli microhouse, Nova Scotia neo-soul, Bay Area hip-hop, and Congolese electro-folk, exchanged among 500 participants in 30 countries. Efforts like these fly in the face of both the recording industry’s lockdown on copying and the free-for-all digital filesharing services, neither of which, let’s face it, does much for broadening your musical horizons. IMP is just one of a few services, but it’s unusually accessible. You can sign up on MySpace:
You send one compilation CD-R or (for street cred) cassette, and you get one in return. It’s nice to see mixes continue to flourish in the digital age, because it remains a wonderful way to get turned onto music — and find new musicians to support.
Via (the usually drivel-filled) Daily Candy. (Thanks, Jennifer, for separating the wheat from the chaff!)
Anyone on IMP already, or know of other such services?
Previous coverage of our cassette tape fetish: Warhol shilling for TDK (video tapes, but still, I do love tapes), a truly obsessive collection of blank cassettes, and (a must for participating in IMP) a cassette deck that installs in your PC.
My brother at least used to participate in this, I don't think he is anymore. Seemed pretty cool as he got some interesting mixes including those completely of music in non-english languages, certain genres he hadn't listened much to before, and others. Also, it's a good feeling to send out a mix full of your favorite lesser known, maybe local, artists.
<blockquote cite="Peter">Efforts like these fly in the face of both the recording industry’s lockdown on copying and the free-for-all digital filesharing services, neither of which, let’s face it, does much for broadening your musical horizons.
Unless I've misunderstood you here, I have to disagree. Through filesharing, I have discovered many groups that I normally would not have. Think about it…let's say I'm recommended an artist that I've never heard of and there isn't a whole lot of information/reviews about them. Even though I was recommended them, it's unlikely that I'd purchase an album of theirs blindly. With filesharing, I can download some of their music and decide whether I like it or not. If I do like it, I'll make an effort either to order a CD of their's, or go to a show if they come near, or maybe both.
Tristan, I think that Peter is referring to that "one-track" mindset that many possess on the P2P nets, where they don't grab stuff that friends (or other people) have recommended, but instead focus on the music that they already know and love. This focused mentality doesn't do much to broaden your musical horizon and it's great to see projects like IMP and websites like <a>MOG trying to do exactly that.
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Ah, in that case I agree. Thanks for the clarification. It all depends on the listener's openmindedness (or lack thereof) I guess.
[…] Going beyond the mix tape now, here’s a new community for creative types to meet up and collaborate, all while sharing work under a Creative Commons license, as created by Marco Raaphorst of Melodiefabriek: “/v/stories/2006/june/cccreators.png.html” > Any Creative Commons creator can join for free. So if you’re a composer, a filmmaker, a podcaster, a writer, you name it, please join! As far as I know this is the first community which is so broadly oriented and Creative Commons based. Sure, I love to talk with other composers and remixers about music, but wouldn’t it also be nice to communicate directly with the new generation of filmmakers for example? Connecting filmmakers and composers. […]
I'd like to participate. Please tell me more info?
I run a website solely dedicated to this kind of thing, if you're into this kind of thing then please come and check us out! http://www.mix-change.com