DJ The Easy Way With Top 3 Sites To Make Music Playlists

Feb. 28th, 2009 By Tim Watson

In my younger days, one of my favorite ways to pass the time was creating mixtapes. I’d spend hours flipping back and forth between tape-decks A and B, painstakingly coming up with the perfect soundtracks for gaming or just hanging out. I recall coming up with some wacky (or just plain wack) combinations.

When I happened upon each of these three sites, those old feelings came back, although the compilation of the mixes do not take nearly as long this time around.

MixTurtle

mixturtle - online playlist site

Mix Turtle is among the first of these sites that I came across, and I feel that it’s still one of the better ones. Once you’ve signed up you can fill playlists with tracks found by Mix Turtle’s search engine, which appears to hook into YouTube and Google Video as well as index audio files from around the Web.

Results tend to contain duplicates, and some turn out to be broken links, but it’s quick and easy to find a good copy of a song.

Clicking the “live” light lists recently-played tunes which are one click away from your own playlists, which are in turn listed at your username.mixturtle.com page.

You may take a listen to my Mix Turtle playlist here.

8tracks

8tracks

make music playlist online

The makers of 8tracks seem to subscribe to the Apple school of Web design. The Flash-based interface is clear and simple. You’re just about guaranteed to find a good file for the song of your choice, but if not, 8tracks accepts uploads.

Playlists require a minimum of 8 tracks, or about a half-hour. It’s easy to browse and play other users’ mixes, and follow your favorite mixes and DJs.

Spin my 8tracks playlist here.

Maestro

maestro - online playlist sharing

I have been looking for a service like this for some time now. Some of the sites I’ve used have come close, but Maestro.fm surpasses them all.

First, a downloaded client uploads your iTunes library. As long as that client is running, you may access your library from any browser. In an effort to save bandwidth, your songs are NOT uploaded to Maestro’s server until the first time you play a song. Mac and Linux users, I’m afraid you’ll have to take the manual upload option for now. Playlist creation and library browsing with the highly-responsive interface is swift; you may add tracks individually, or save search results as a new playlist.

Finally, my extended “Ridiculous Beats” mix on Maestro, which has already been played by site users 75 times, is right here. You’ll end up either banging your head, bopping it, or scratching it.

How do you roll your playlists? Tell us what we’ve missed in the comments. Be honest, but gentile, and above all, enjoy the music!

(By) Tim Watson is a full-time student, husband, father of two, and head of Dork Lotus Enterprises. He's on Twitter @TimDub.

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6 Comments Add Comment
2009-02-28 14:35:16
Simon Slangen

Maestro is my all time favourite

2009-02-28 15:52:35
Subscribed to comments via email

also try http://www.lastvid.com, it combines youtube videos with last.fm music recommendations.

2009-03-01 09:13:59

one of the things that bugs me about these websites is that the songs are not nicely faded out and in to one another. check out this mixtape for a mixtape composed of legal downloads that just fit.

2009-03-01 19:27:42
Brady

its all about streamdrag.com

2009-03-03 18:30:59

these are not good sites to use. for the sake of curiosity, boredom, and entertainment tried the first one and although it says it’s pulling up results, the site is bogged down too much to play them through when you select them or add them. end result, mixturtle looked cool, had potential, but was a dud.

in order to call it a ‘mix’ the songs need to transition… other wise what you have a is a small music library. as a DJ the above links are not the route to go, even for your own houseparty… if you don’t want to learn the real way and prefer the free simple push button walk away style…

then look to winamp and it’s plugin: crossfade – it will automatically fade 3 seconds in/out of tracks.

I’m sure there’s other/better free options out there for those interested in online play-lists… but I can’t see a time where you need access to play music for a party and aren’t able to install anything onto a computer. [example: office computers won't let you install an mp3 player and you don't have any other way to play music for an office party? really? then you're office is lame and shouldn't have a party or should hire someone]…but I mean with windows media player built in I can’t see why you wouldn’t beable to have music on a USB stick, or memory card…or plug an ipod/mp3 player in… etc

2009-03-05 09:50:25
Roj

I must say, as much as I don’t like the heaviness and bloat of iTunes, the new built in “Genius” does a pretty good job of creating playlists too.

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