Muxtape Returning With Indie Bands and Music Hosting

We initially covered Muxtape back in April and provided a video from founder Justin Ouellette. Muxtape is a MP3 sharing application that allows you to put together playlists and then share them with your friends. Last month Muxtape closed and everyone wondered if the RIAA was behind the closing.

This afternoon Ouellette has posted a lengthy article explaining the background of Muxtape, where the idea came from, the technology, his dealings with the major record labels, the RIAA, Amazon S3 and where Muxtape goes from here. Ouellette notes that they had 100,000 registered users in the first month and over a million unique visitors in that first month.

If you are considering creating any business related to music, you need to read the entire post. Ouellette concludes with the info on the next version of Muxtape:

"Muxtape is relaunching as a service exclusively for bands, offering an extremely powerful platform with unheard-of simplicity for artists to thrive on the internet. Musicians in 2008 without access to a full time web developer have few options when it comes to establishing themselves online, but their needs often revolve around a common set of problems. The new Muxtape will allow bands to upload their own music and offer an embeddable player that works anywhere on the web, in addition to the original muxtape format. Bands will be able to assemble an attractive profile with simple modules that enable optional functionality such as a calendar, photos, comments, downloads and sales, or anything else they need. The system has been built from the ground up to be extended infinitely and is wrapped in a template system that will be open to CSS designers. There will be more details soon. The beta is still private at the moment, but that will change in the coming weeks."

I think a partnership between NY-based Muxtape and NY-based AmieStreet could be a good win for both companies.