While digital technology has mostly improved the way we acquire and listen to music, the handcrafted mix tape has been lost to the ashbins of history.
To recapture some of that programming magic, try 8tracks, a free service that allows you to create and share the digital equivalent of online mix tapes.
To make a mix you simply pick any 8 songs (about 30 minutes of music) using the site’s drag and drop functionality. 8tracks allows you to search their network of previously uploaded tracks by song, artist or genre. You can also upload music from your own library.
When you’re done you can add artwork and short descriptor to your masterpiece.
Publishing a mix tape allows you to share it with the 8 Tracks community and with your friends (or, if you want, just one special friend), via Twitter and Facebook
You can also listen to any of the 65,000 mixes already on the site (we found some great ones and discovered a ton of new music along the way).
As for that old Nakamichi tape deck you still own? Leave it in the closet to collect dust.