Interview: The Man Behind Muxtape

[Mumbo Sauce]

Interview: Justin Ouellette, The Man Behind Muxtape
By Eliot Van Buskirk April 28, 2008


Muxtape, a simple tool for uploading and sharing MP3 mixes with a cassette theme, emerged seemingly out of nowhere to give us a great way to share mixes online in the simplest way possible. Everyone from Kojo Nnamdi to Maggie Fost has been talking about the site, and I've already set up two muxtapes for Listening Post:

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To find out what makes Muxtape tick, I caught up with its creator Justin Ouellette (pictured) via e-mail. In the interview, he talks about how he conceived the idea after logging songs for his college radio show, how Muxtape could eventually make money and whether the record labels have been yelling at him.

Wired.com Listening Post: How did the idea for Muxtape come about?

Justin Ouellette, Muxtape: It actually goes way back to when I had a show at my university's radio station. I had to record logs for all the songs I was playing, so I decided as long as I was doing that I should make a little web page that collected them all in one place. All the shows were recorded onto two hour tapes, but I found myself wishing that the music itself was accessible as the page that indexed them (which wound up being a good barometer for what I was listening to from week to week). It was beyond the technology at the time, but years later I was doing some user interface experiments and thought it'd be cool to make a playable version of that list and make it a side feature of my blog. The result was more or less what Muxtape's interface is today. Making the system available for anyone to sign up and use was the next natural step.

LP: How have the servers been holding up with all of the attention the site has gotten?


JO: The first couple days were hectic. I never expected it to grow as fast as it did, so it never occurred me to move it off my little development server before I launched. I was thinking I'd see how it did with a little traffic for a few weeks and then reevaluate, but within 48 hours it became clear that it needed its own setup. Things stabilized after that, thankfully!

LP: How many users are there at this point? How many muxtapes?

JO: Ostensibly one muxtape per user; more than the population of Germany, less than the population of Japan.

LP: Have you been contacted by labels or other copyright concerns? If so, how is that going?

JO: I've heard from lots of interested parties, and it's actually been very encouraging. Labels big and small have told me that they're excited about Muxtape as a model for discovery and ultimately selling music, and I think that's extremely keen. Cassette mixtapes were such a great way to discover new music before the internet, and I think the lessons we learned from that era can be carried into this one. A concise mix with a personal touch is a powerful way to get someone to consider a song or artist in a way they might not just hearing it on the radio, and that's the kind of experience I'm trying to replicate on Muxtape.

LP: What was on the very first Muxtape?

JO: I wish I'd saved the whole list, but there was Midnight Star, Latyrx, and Russian Futurists to name a few. Mostly what I'd been listening to while I was developing it.

LP: I love the simplicity and lack of ads, but is there a revenue model for the site?

JO: There are several things I'm working on. One thing I added recently was Amazon affiliate links, and the conversion rate has exceeded my expectations. People are buying music they're discovering on Muxtape, which is exciting. I haven't totally ruled out ads, but for now I'm focused on ways to generate revenue that are more harmonious with Muxtape's nature and purpose.

LP: Have you terminated any accounts for copyright reasons?

JO: I've had to send a couple emails, but I'm definitely spending more time right now fielding questions from artists and labels who are looking to get their music into Muxtape, not out of it.

LP: Is there anything you'd like people to know that I didn't ask about?

JO: Muxtape will always value simplicity, but it's still brand new and it's going to evolve considerably in the coming months. My goal is to find the best ways to introduce you to new music, so check back often

Source: Copyright and Copyfight, Digital Music News