Popularity Of Shared Mixes Grows As Music Filter

"Music fans once turned to radio DJs to expose them to new music. But as music grows on the net,  listeners are relying on friends and strangers to feed them…Fan-built playlists and mixes are taking over the way people get their music," writes Wired.com

"Apple Computer, for one, promotes user-generated iMixes and celebrity playlists at the iTunes Music Store. And the popular iPod shuffle is designed around the idea that people like pairing reggae and pop with country and jazz. "

"But music fans are ahead of corporate-endorsed playlists, putting their own clever twists on mixes by holding mixing contests, auto-generating playlists from blog posts and collaborating with others to build theme mixes."

"…Mix tapes and playlists are really the new container for music," said Lucas Gonze, creator of Webjay, a site that allows visitors to build playlists from free (and legal) MP3s compiled from sources all over the web. "They’re dirt simple, they’re social and they work."

"…It solves the problem of, ‘How do I find good stuff?’" Gonze said. "You are surrounded by (music) you can buy but there’s no way to get through it all. If you go to magazines, commercial TV and the radio, you’re going to learn about bands (with) well-funded marketing budgets."

"…Tiny Mix Tapes, a music news site, has an Automatic Mix Tape Generator feature: Music fans write in and ask for a mix based on a particular theme…Volunteers post a new batch of finished mixes weekly."