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Music Mix #1: Summertime Jams.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve made a mix tape. Like…uh, maybe 15 years? And considering making mix tapes used to be one of my all-time favorite activities, that’s kinda sad. (Confession: I still have a giant box of 20-year-old mix tapes—most of them gifts from Cure fanzine penpals—moldering in my basement. I just can’t get rid of them!) I found out about 8tracks from Honey Kennedy, and I think it might be the cure for my mix tape longings. Basically, you can upload 8 tracks (about 30 minutes) of music (or more than that, what do I know!) and make a little mix that you can share online or through your iPhone. Neat-o!

You can find and follow me on 8tracks as doorsixteen, but I’ll post my mixes here, too. My very first mix is Summertime Jams—a whole bunch of stuff that makes me feel happy that today is officially the very first day of summer. I hope you like it!

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36 Comments

  • Reply lau June 21, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    i am and have been addicted to 8tracks for quite some time now. you can do more than 8 tracks too, but i find it to be a nice round number, more often than not. really excited you’re on there + can’t wait to listen to this!!

    • Anna @ D16 June 21, 2011 at 3:43 pm

      Oh, you can? I didn’t realize that! I’ve only had an account for about an hour, so… 😀

    • lau June 21, 2011 at 5:15 pm

      Also, I really don’t know why I haven’t been designing covers for mine since the beginning. You are obviously brilliant / smarter than I. :>

    • Anna @ D16 June 21, 2011 at 5:18 pm

      And by that you mean “control freak”. 😀

  • Reply Flora June 21, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    I think it’s such a cool thing to share music this way! So much more personal, especially with the artwork you made to illustrate it. I’m starting to listen now, and it feels strange, as if I was in the street with you when you took the picture -you took it, right?
    I love that feeling.

    • Anna @ D16 June 21, 2011 at 3:47 pm

      Yes, I took the photo last week! It’s at the intersection of 49th St & 6th Ave…taken at around 7PM or so.

      I’m so happy that it makes you feel like that! That’s exactly how mix tapes should work. 🙂

  • Reply Flora June 21, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    Oh wow, I’m so emotional now with the Cure (one of my long-time favourites) and with the details you give about the place you took the picture from. I need to come and live in the US (that’s a dream I share with my husband so it will eventually happen I guess).
    I am now thinking of making my own mix tapes. Thanks for introducing this to us!

  • Reply Jaime from Design Milk June 21, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    Around the Way Girl! Such a great choice – thank you!!! Yay!

    • Anna @ D16 June 21, 2011 at 4:43 pm

      It’s one of my most favorite songs ever!!!

  • Reply Holyoke Home June 21, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    I have three mixed cassette tapes – still – that people dear to me (at the *time*) made for me. They are treasures. That I can’t play anywhere anymore.

  • Reply Lauren June 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    What typeface did you use here?

  • Reply DonnafromBoulder June 21, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    Listening now and considering early cocktails. Thanks for the inspiration.

  • Reply teri rees wang June 21, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    Excellent!… off to check it out.
    Cheers!

  • Reply Jenna @ sweetfineday June 21, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    yay! Listening now and great first song to lead off with.

  • Reply chad June 21, 2011 at 5:06 pm

    Dear Lauren,
    Thank you for asking the question that I wanted to ask re: font choice!

  • Reply Anni June 21, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    Can’t wait to listen. Gorgeous cover!

  • Reply jan June 21, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    fun! love the cure – and hey – rad design!!!!

  • Reply jennifer_in_sf June 21, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    Awesome! I totally miss mixtapes (and also have a stash that I keep meaning to digitize….). This is complementing my post-work summer cocktail very well 🙂

  • Reply Alice @ laxtoyvr June 21, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    I never heard of 8tracks before. I’m so glad I know about it now. Thanks! Listening to your mix now. Great selection! Yay, summer is here 🙂

  • Reply Samone June 22, 2011 at 1:35 am

    SO COOL!!!!!! 8tracks is just what I need. Thank you for pointing it out, Anna!

  • Reply tracy June 22, 2011 at 10:37 am

    i started listening to this last night before bed and I had a dream that I talked to you about your mix! crazy! You did such an awesome job on the cover! Love this.

    • Anna @ D16 June 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm

      Haha! That’s funny. What did we talk about?

  • Reply lisa June 22, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    awesome anna

    and you are featured on their home page !

    • Anna @ D16 June 22, 2011 at 4:24 pm

      Craziness! I have DJ performance anxiety now, haha.

  • Reply Yvette June 22, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    OMG! Love this! I’ve been working Pandora for a while, but sometimes just want my own mix of fun. This is fantastic!! Thanks for sharing!

  • Reply frannie June 22, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    around the way girl.
    sigh. oh, you.
    xx

    • Anna @ D16 June 22, 2011 at 11:24 pm

      xoxoxox You’re my around the way girl.

  • Reply liza June 23, 2011 at 1:45 am

    This is so gooooooood!!! I’ve been transplanted to another time. Thanks for sharing.

  • Reply Laura June 23, 2011 at 5:00 pm

    I listened to the cure track three times in a row and got a message saying I was not allowed to skip anymore tracks for one hour on 8tracks. Ps it’s midsummer where I am?

  • Reply moparbrownstoner June 24, 2011 at 12:26 am

    Ah, the pre-Internet days of exchanging mix tapes with pen pals. Life was SO HARD back then before the Web. I mean the ’80s — although you may mean the ’90s.

  • Reply Fiona June 24, 2011 at 7:03 am

    As if I couldn’t love the internet anymore, now we can make mixtapes again? YUSS! Thanks for this one Anna, it’s well cool. I’m playing it in work right now and muso colleagues are well impressed with my hitherto unrevealed cred. Suppose I’d better come clean, darnit. Muso beside me says he’s got an old vinyl compilation at home called ‘We Do ‘Em Our Way’ which has the same Devo and Bowie tracks.

    • Anna @ D16 June 24, 2011 at 7:14 am

      There’s no Devo or Bowie on this mix, Fiona! Maybe it went straight into another mix without you realizing?

    • Fiona June 24, 2011 at 8:31 am

      whoops! So it did, straight into picturemepurple’s mix, also v cool. It’s still going, I could be here for hours…

  • Reply Denise Laborde June 26, 2011 at 3:50 am

    Hi.

    I’ve always sucked at mixed tapes but I have a box of them made by my best friend. I’m totally sharing this link with her so she can get her mix on!

    Thanks 😉

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