Hulu?  Pandora?  Spotify?  They’re stealing my act.

I’ve been mixing music for my friends since the dinosaur days of low bias 45 minute cassette tapes.  Many of them STILL EXIST; some of them still play.  Nowadays my mixes come on a cd, but once I finish they are DONE- immovable, written in stone, complete.

Back in the old days of cassettes, one pass was all you got- I very rarely re-sequenced them.  Now a typical cd mix could take up to TEN passes before it’s straight- currently the one I’m working on is going on its eighth incarnation.

Music streaming sites are a cool idea, unless you already have a massive base of music from which to draw without leaving your desk.  They are somewhat personal, in that you can “pick” the genre or artists that you dig and discover some other stuff just like it, but if you were my friend and I made you a mix you’d get 18 to 20 hand-picked songs that would go all over the map while either trying to convey some sentiment, explore a theme, quietly push the boundaries of your musical tastes, all the while ensuring smooth transitions…  Hey, does that sound familiar? I don’t put commercials in mine, either… at least not yet.  🙂

So, for all of the folks around the globe who at one time or another were handed a cassette or a cd along with a list of songs, you can bet that each one took planning, time, and effort.  If you have one, dig it out, find a cassette player that works, and plug into your own private Pandora.