New Sound Now // An online music show and blog

There is a severe nostalgic quality to mixtapes, especially among us who made dozens (or hundreds) over the years. The aesthetic feel to them conjures of incredible memories for me. It’s the same way people talk about vinyl, really. The feel of a blank tape with barely-legible writing all over it represented more than a few hours of musical syncing and thought; it represented a time when giving someone else a set of songs wasn’t considered illegal file sharing, it was simply sharing. Simpler times.

Mix CD’s came along and, while allowing everyone with a computer the ability to play 1-hour DJ, never stole the glory of the tape. Again, like vinyl, the cassette had melted its logo into our subconscious, echoing an image of the personal soundtrack that only the ipod has had the ability to infiltrate. As well, I think people were always a little suspicious of CDs. Whereas with vinyl and cassettes, you can see the physical evidence of the music, either in the groove or the ribbon, the CD hid its visual proof in a way the average listener couldn’t properly explain to a five-year old.

So with that, what are we to make of this admittantly sexy little gift idea, the USB mixtape? It appears to fuse the recent past nostalgia we all still linger for in the form of its casing - a retro-looking mixtape cover, complete with side A labelling and lines for track listings - with the technology of the recent present - a 64mb USB key, which allows the user to upload about an hours’ worth of tunes. While the average listener can’t explain the way a USB key works any better than a compact disc, at least they don’t have to worry about the USB key playing music by itself. It needs a computer to do that, and that’s obviously the point. Since people don’t really listen to CDs anymore, what’s the point of making a mix CD, when they’re only going to have to insert the disc into their computer, rename all the files themselves, then sync it with their mp3 player. The USB key circumvents this, removing two of those steps.

In a way, the USB stick is really the successor of the mix tape anyway. It is essentially a permanently refillable vessel (okay, so blank tapes could only be refilled so many times before the ribbon wore out), stamped only with labeling and (preferably) love. So the Mix tape USB drive makes ample loads of sense, and I’m sure would be appreciated by any audiophile’s significant other out there.

The downside, as with all new tech, is price. At 20 pounds (roughly $30-35 Canadian, or $300 American) plus shipping, it’s hardly the proper replacement for the $2.00 blank tape. Another downside is that this item signifies the death of the mix tape in a way that CDs never did. This product literally points out that mix tapes are obsolete, because the USB stick does absolutely everything the tape did, and it does it in a way that’s compatible with the digital music we’ve all accepted.

It’s a really cool item, but it’s also something to think about.