First Thoughts: OpenTape

After the unfortunate and unexpected shut down of Muxtape, a small group of people came up with the idea of OpenTape. Now, to those of you who don’t know what Muxtape is/was - it was a service created by awesome Justin, which allows users to share their favourite songs, and a create an online mixtape. The idea was simple, it worked and people loved it. They loved it so much that the big boys got involved and destroyed it. Including the legendary RIAA who wants to destroy the dreams of developers, and idea’s that work.

Along comes, OpenTape which has something fascinating about it. It’s hard to tell the different between this web app and a muxtape. Both work exactly the same, with a flash app running in the background protecting the original track from being downloaded.

This idea has to be one of the smartest idea’s that i’ve seen, and that’s free and of, course Open Source. The worry to me is that if you share copyrighted content, e.g - a song from, Snow Patrol. The issue of legality comes into view. And if you’re sharing their tracks without permission… hmm.. This is awesome for a little & local band that want to share their music with their listeners with ease and without having someone develop an web app for them.

Overall: An excellent, open source idea that works.