Fanmixing December Challenge Part 1: In With the Old
For December, we'll have two optional challenges, if you want to start playing right away!
Challenge 1: Send us your existing fanmixes!
There are three ways to participate:
Send the link through our Submissions page.
Make a new post with the fanmix and tag it with "fanmixing"
Reblog an existing post (or make a new post) and tag @fanmixing within the post.
All fandoms, ships, and characters accepted - as long as it's a fandom-related mix, we want it! We will reblog any mix we get through one of the three above methods at some point during the month.
(This is one person's project, despite the use of the royal 'we', so if I end up getting a lot of submissions, please be patient with me!)
If you have any questions, the ask box is open. Otherwise, we want your famixes - send away!
Reblogs are welcome and appreciated! The more music, the better!
8tracks, the music streaming service and fanmixing platform, is shutting down at the end of the year (Tues Dec 31st, 2019).
Despite some pretty big flaws and missteps - many of which came as it tried to switch to a revenue model - 8tracks had unprecedented flexibility in fanmix-making and a great tag/collection system for searching and hoarding fanmixes. One of my favorite things about it was I didn’t have to rely on it having the music I needed because I could simply upload it, and tracks never got yanked or made unavailable. It launched my own fanmixing career, and I’m sad to see it go.
If you’re interested in the whole story, there is a (long but transparent) post on the 8tracks blog.
If you’re an 8tracks user and haven’t received the email yet, I’ve posted it in full below the cut. It includes instructions on how to export your (and your favorite!) playlists to Spotify, which you’ll need to do ASAP.
Hello,
8tracks has had a long run and its day in the sun. We're sad to announce, however, that the company and its streaming service will wind down with the end of the decade, on December 31st, 2019.
We have mixed feelings as we round out this decade and the life of 8tracks. We served many listeners and DJs well, at important times in their lives, for more than a decade, introducing adventurous listeners to new artists they may never have otherwise discovered, and for that we're proud. On the other hand, we recognize we've disappointed many listeners and DJs, employees, investors and partners. We all wish we'd had the opportunity to continue to innovate in the music sector and serve our community and other stakeholders well, just as we had in our earlier years.
I've described our 137-month journey in a lengthy blog post. While the post also explains why we're shutting down, the TL;DR is that we're winding down because we're nearly out of cash and can't afford to pay the royalties owed to rightsholders. We've fallen behind in royalty payments because our revenues have declined as a result of a steady drop in listening activity, which is in turn largely due to Spotify's cannibalization of our audience with ever-better lean-back playlist offerings (like Discover Weekly) and its ability to offer listeners both lean-back or on-demand streaming "under one roof."
The fundamental economics of the sector make it difficult, if not impossible, to sustain a small- or medium-sized steaming music service. While we thought we could prove this prevailing wisdom wrong, we were unable to find a path to raise sufficient funding (or a good home for the company) in order to double down on 8tracks' unique value proposition vis-a-vis market leaders Spotify, Apple, Google/YouTube and Amazon.
However, we want to give you the opportunity to migrate any 8tracks playlists you've created or liked to your second-favorite music streaming service ; )
If you've ever *published* a playlist on 8tracks, you'll find all the relevant details in this email, below my signature line, including the mix name, art, description and tracklist for each.
In addition, on 8tracks.com, you can now export any 8tracks playlist to Spotify by clicking the "Save playlist to Spotify" button included on top of the mix art. This process isn't perfect, as some tracks aren't available on Spotify, and others *are* available but aren't matched to Spotify's catalog. But 80-90% of tracks in a given playlist should match, for most genres. Note that we can't make any assurance as to how long the website may remain up and running, so please act now if you'd like to migrate your favorite playlists over to Spotify.
Thank you for your support over the years! Happy listening and happy holidays!
So, this whole time I’ve been obsessing over ducks I have also been slowly crafting a duck fanmix, as one does. That’s what sparked the “You’re Welcome is a good DWD song omg i should write lyrics” day. I hope to one day have a completed fanmix with one perfect song for each character, and/or a lengthy complete fanmix with as many songs as are necessary to fully describe each character, but right now I’m woefully short on songs for Scrooge, my songs for Huey and for Gosalyn are very iffy, and my Fenton/Gizmoduck section needs a lot of fine-tuning now that I have actually witnessed him in his native habitat (ie on Ducktales and not just a whirlwind guest star of amazingness on DWD). I did notice tonight that one song that got shuffled from character to character and somehow migrated to Fenton might actually be my favorite Fenton song so far--A Better Son/Daughter by Rilo Kiley. I also like Rocket Man for him, but anyone who has listened to It’s A Duck Blur will understand that I am having trouble not associating that song with Gyro.
Also, All Star is kinda weirdly perfect for Launchpad.
(Still mulling over my DWD You’re Welcome lyrics. I’m trying to make the line “what has two thumbs and flaps in the night” work, because of course I am, but I don’t know that I can make it work so)
Would the December holiday party for existing fanmixes include accepting submissions? I have at least one existing annotated playlist that I could tack a graphic onto
Yes, absolutely! More info to come in another post last today, but the idea for December is to showcase existing fanmixes. I will be opening the submissions link for this blog, or if it's easier and/or the mix hasn't been posted on Tumblr yet, you can make a new post and tag "fanmixing" so I can see it.
I have been working on fanmixes this morning, and thinking about them. Like most things I do, I rarely finish any fanmixes, although it is a default thing I do when I get into a fandom. Usually I end up just hurling a bunch of songs I suspect will remind me of the fandom into a big playlist. Sometimes I will find a few perfect songs while still in the fandom; sometimes I will listen to the playlist and whittle it down until it is less of a mess. But usually it doesn't go further than that, even if I am terribly proud of my efforts. The closest I have ever come to sharing a fanmix was that time I shared my list of "Unexpected Disney Songs For OUaT Characters", and I've changed it since then. (Also, not super into OUaT anymore except when I am into OUaTW, though I am still proud of this fanmix in its end result.) The most complete fanmix I have ever made, which I feel is probably as perfect as possible and shareable if I felt like it and anyone cared about the fandom anymore, is my Mohinder fanmix (Heroes). I'm particularly proud of the fact that it is probably the only fanmix on the whole internet that is just about Mohinder and not about him as part of a ship. (well, it would be if I had put it on the Internet...) I've got a small handful of Battlestar Galactica fanmixes that are pretty good but probably have too many songs and not enough focus, because mostly they are about one character's entire character arc. I have a pretty good handful of songs for a few Teen Wolf characters, and a PERFECT song for Peter Hale, but nothing resembling a complete fanmix. Ditto Stargate; I have a lot of songs for Daniel, and a handful of good songs for everyone else, but no real fanmix. I've had a fanmix that is just a little bit not quite right for ASOUE for probably a decade; i call it Invisible Ink and it is a Beatrice Letters-based Lemony/Beatrice fanmix, and no matter what I change or add or remove it is always not quite right. (I am, however, super proud of the fact that I had the title--and the song from which I got the title--ages before ATWQ existed and actual invisible ink was an actual plot point, if nothing to do with Beatrice.) I also have a not-quite-right but less polished Jerome/Esme fanmix (to clarify: not a pro-Jerome/Esme fanmix, more about how messed up and loveless they were together), a bare-bones attempt at an Olaf/Kit fanmix, and various attempts at collecting songs on the theme of various characters. Just yesterday, I threw together a "real housewives of paltryville" playlist based on jokes from the Unfortunate Associates podcast, and I'm not sure yet whether it is a functional concept for a fanmix or whether I have all the necessary songs for such a thing. Oh, and I had been working on a Lord Tedd (El Goonish Shive) fanmix off and on, and that's actually coming together surprisingly well. I just don't know that it's something there is any interest in. Basically, any fandom I have ever been in, I have some manner of playlist for. And this morning I am wondering about whether I should put in a little more effort and clean up some of them and, like, share them. I don't even know how people share fanmixes these days, but I could at least do like a list or something? Are graphics still sorta mandatory?
Fanmixing December Challenge Part 2: Cozy Winter Holiday
For December, we'll have two optional challenges, if you want to start playing right away!
Challenge 2: For those who haven't already made a fanmix but want to start playing - make a mix inspired by the photo above!
This photo is royalty-free; feel free to use it as your cover image, or edit it as needed, as long as it is not used for anything commercial.
There are three ways to participate:
Send the link through our Submissions page.
Make a new post with the fanmix and tag it with "fanmixing"
Reblog an existing post (or make a new post) and tag @fanmixing within the post.
All fandoms, ships, and characters accepted - as long as it's a fandom-related mix, we want it! We will reblog any mix we get through one of the three above methods at some point during the month.
(This is one person's project, despite the use of the royal 'we', so if I end up getting a lot of submissions, please be patient with me!)
If you have any questions, the ask box is open. Otherwise, we want your famixes - send away!
Reblogs are welcome and appreciated! The more music, the better!
