Yesterday, Spotify informed me that I’d listened to more than enough music this month already, and I’d have to wait until November. Normally this never occurs. I always manage to somehow stay within the default 10hrs of free usage. However over the past several days I’ve had freelance projects and a second LIF test paper to complete, and so I turned to the service for aural motivation.

As I contemplated upgrading my account for the first time, (with the added potential bonus of finally being able to use the android app), I remembered I hadn’t been to 8tracks.com in a while…

Before I knew it I’d found not one but several fantastic mixes, ranging from post-rock and instrumental, to a brilliant and pretty unique indie/rock dubstep remix playlist. And of course, as the user base continues to grow and grow like any platform, so does the volume of music uploaded. This invariably also results in finding far more stuff you haven’t heard before, and certainly wouldnt have hunted through Spotify for.

The fun of 8tracks is that you don’t know the full “setlist” of any mix, and each track is only revealed to you as you continue to listen. More often than not this results in a great track being dropped in front of you without warning, and this is what hooks you into the medium. You are essentially relying on the user to create a great set of music, and this is what seems to drive most users to do just that.

With that in mind, I had a quick stab at throwing a few tracks together to create a new mix of my own, “An Autumn Walk with a Post Rock Crescendo”.

Sorry Spotify, but for now I’m going back to the 8track…

Now if they would just hurry up and finish their own android app!