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Music Mix Maker

Submitted by: thecougar
Created: Jul 15, 2007, 2:31 pm

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The Idea

My idea is a site that allows you to build, share, and download music mixes for a specific type of party or event.

Here’s how this might work. Let’s say that you’re throwing an 80’s theme party. The plan is that people will begin arriving in their leggings and Michael Bolton t-shirts around 9pm for drinks, with the party kicking into full gear between 11 and 1, then slowing down up until 2am - at which point you start blasting Starship on repeat until your guest leave.

The get the perfect custom mix for your party, you could enter in the basic details and timeline, and the site would display a sample play list. The songs would be listed in chronological order and color-coded to denote energy level of the music (more blue = chill, more red = high-energy dance music). Each song would have a little 15-second preview clip so you could quickly identify any songs whose titles you’re not familiar with. If there are any songs that you really dislike, you could simply switch the song out with one at a similar energy level.

Once you’ve chosen the perfect mix, the application could search your iTunes library to determine which songs a user already has, and then provides an option to automatically purchase the songs on the mix that the user doesn’t own. Once the songs are downloaded, the app could also add-in a playlist into iTunes that keeps the songs in order for easy play back.

I thought of this idea when I was...

filling out a playlist for our wedding reception DJ

Comments Posted

vanhees Posted: July 16, 2007, 12:35 am

Well I'm not a fan of itunes at all, to commercial for my taste, but the idea is not bad at all.
What worries me is how to get the metadata: what is chill, what is rock, etc. These judgement are higly subjective by the way.
Tommy

thecougar Posted: July 16, 2007, 12:30 pm

The key is to hire a few professional DJs or music experts to code the songs according to energy level, theme (i.e. 80's, dance, dinner party), and popularity. While I agree that music tastes are subjectives, the entire professional DJ market is built on the fact that putting together a music mix is hard and having someone who can play good music for an event is a valuable skill. This idea fills a niche in-between an event that requires a professional DJ (i.e. a wedding reception) and an event like a casual party where you need good music but don't want to spend $500 - $1,000 on a DJ.

saigon Posted: July 18, 2007, 9:27 am

Yeah i think its a DJ work since they do this kind of long playing prpogram...as a site...seems viable to me than looking for someone to customize my type of prepared repertoire in my theme party.

JelmerBV Posted: July 18, 2007, 10:48 am

SOunds like a very nice idea! =D

Merman Posted: July 18, 2007, 12:50 pm

Sounds like some possibilities here...but I'm seeing a major block in broadcast rights. How do you pay the music owners for broadcasting their music? Have to buy the rights to the music somehow...not sure how that figures into the cost structure for making money on this.

noniesaft Posted: July 18, 2007, 1:23 pm

Very cool idea, especially for the musically challenged. I like it, because I never have enough time to put together a great mix, and it always turns into a rush job. Having actual DJs classify the music and then create some algorithims that would help you create the perfect party mix is really the mass customization of the "mixed tape".

On the business side of things there is the potential to provide this as a pay-for-use service, that accesses your DJ classified music database. There's also the growing market of people who put their own music together for weddings, ect.

Raspyman Posted: July 18, 2007, 3:50 pm

I like the idea of being able to quickly choose a themed mix. Could you also add mixes for themed parties for kids - it would be great for clowns doing parties to quickly access and give enough choice to keep it fresh. A neat feature in this context would be intermixing kids songs with songs the parents like in a bit of a mash-up. (Like Pixar targets both audiences).

anathema Posted: July 19, 2007, 2:42 am

You could do this easily with last.fm tagging.

phaze Posted: July 19, 2007, 5:07 am

http://www.pandora.com

iain_innes_X Posted: July 19, 2007, 6:05 pm

Good idea,

PhilipH Posted: July 20, 2007, 11:44 am

I like this. I can't see how the comment about broadcast/performing rights applies at the moment - unless you're putting on a PUBLIC event I don't think you have a problem. For a private event, this is no different to people just downloading songs as normal. Something you'll have to check though, of course.

Allan Posted: July 20, 2007, 5:41 pm

Check out : CAMMS (Computer Aided Music Mixing System) Patent: GB2370405

It powers : http://www.mixalbum.com/main/

Hello!

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