Fast-Forward Rewind: The Mixtape Project

It is impossible to have survived the 80s and 90s as a music fan without developing an intimate knowledge and understanding of the Mixtape. In the age of Playlists and online streaming, it is easy to forget the time and effort that went into perfectly developing a feel or theme - while also dealing with the logistical constraints of time and making everything fit onto your selected cassette.

With a nostalgic eye on all aspects of this process, we have delved, willingly, back into this world and have shared the fruit of our labors.

We hope you enjoy and, perhaps, relive a bit of this time with us.

To try and bring as much authenticity as is possible in a digital age to the process, we set some ground rules for ourselves:

The Mixtape Project Rules

RULES
1. Mixes should be either for a 60 minute cassette, or a 90 minute cassette. (Longer cassettes for special mixes can be allowed)
2. Each mixtape will have an equal amount of time that each of us has to fill:
60 Minute Mixtape: 20 minutes each.
90 Minute Mixtape: 30 minutes each.
3. All songs added to the mixtape must have a release date prior to 2000. (Unless the mixtape originator decides otherwise.)

Now, of course, we can be flexible and modify these rules at will. Nothing is written in stone. It's all in good fun.

PROCEDURE
1. The person whose turn it is to pick the cassette will select one of the 60 or 90 minute cassette tapes available at tapedeck.org.
2. The person whose turn it is will either give the mixtape a name, or ask that we all come up with a name together.
3. The person whose turn it is will pick a general "theme" for the mixtape, if they wish. Examples: "Van Halen's best rockers", "Best ballads of the early 80s". "Songs by hot chicks" "My favorite songs, period"... whatever. As creative and original as we want to be.
4. We submit our songs, and we discuss about the placement, flow, etc. of where the songs should go, etc. We have a simple shared google spreadsheet where we add the song list to, calculate lengths, etc.
5. Once we have settled on a final order of songs and have created our awesome mixtape, the individual MP3 files are assembled into a new mixtape album, with proper ID3 tags and the custom cassette artwork that has been created for the mixtape is added.
6. The completed mixtape is then available for us to add to our music collections, shared with special loved ones, and the final results are posted to this blog for posterity and public consumption.
7. Since we cannot legally distribute our finished mixtape albums, a link to a YouTube playlist is provided for each mixtape.

(Originally Posted on December 20, 2016)