or: What Will/Has Become of The Mixtape in The Digital Age?

I’m working on a playlist for NYE. I also just recently watched Season 1 of (the excellent) How I Met Your Mother, in which (not ironically at all) Barney brings his “Get Psyched Mix” along for the NYE ride. His mix is on a CD. That was 2005.

While I firmly believe that giving someone a Mix CD was never even in the realm of romantic… what are the choices these days?

“Guys, I’m going to make her a mix SD card?”

I suppose if you wanted to make a “Mix iPod Shuffle”, that might say something since the cheapest Shuffle you can get is $59. Spending that kind of cash on a girl or guy when you’re in high school or college (or just out of college) means there’s some seriousity involved.

Now, sure, there is some coolness involved in this product (which, okay, might actually work):

I like that you can hand write the track list on there and make notes and put smiley faces, stars, and hearts in the margins. Still…

So much of the romance left when the mix went from tape to CD. Any chump can bring up iTunes, pick 14 songs, and click Burn. But do people even use CDs any more even to transfer music to someone else?

Back in the analog age, when you made a 90-minute mixtape, it actually took 90 minutes (at least) cause you had to dub each song over to the new tape. There was an obvious investment of time in the end product that was created.

Muxtape had it going until the Crushing Boot of Legal smashed them like infant flower. At least there you had to upload all the songs you wanted, so it took a little bit of time and patience.

My favorite site, Lala, lets you embed playlists on a website, but that requires that you have a website, or else you basically have to send it as a Facebook message. Of course, youngsters these days might think that getting a playlist sent in a Facebook message is the height of romance. I mean, there’s some that think that sending nude cameraphone pictures is a good way to seduce someone, right?