Mixaloo reinvents mix tapes

In the heady days of the early nineties, when some of us were still in high school (not saying who), there was no finer way of communicating adoration to a crush than to dub them a mix tape. A little Stone Temple Pilots and a little Journey--whatever sent the message that was on your mind. The mix tape went out of style as digital music came in, and there hasn't been quite anything to replicate that warm, analog feeling of illegally communicating your infatuation for somebody at school. Shareng with your special someone an iPod playlist just doesn't have the same effect, especially with DRM.

Until now. Mixaloo is a service that blends social networking and music, letting you build your own play lists and share them through widgets that you can post on your MySpace or Facebook page. Even better, this method of making mix tapes is completely legal and won't even cost you 45 cents for a blank. Plus, if you can create a mix that somehow appeals to the masses, rather than just your sweetheart, you can actually score some bank in the process.

Since they've chosen Clearspring as their platform for widget-building, we'll probably see these playlists all over the place before too long. Mashable has more deets about Mixaloo's in-progress beta.

Tags: audio, cassette, mix tape, mixaloo, MixTape, music