Now-dead Mixwit offers escape hatch for user data
Now-defunct mix tape service Mixwit gives users a chance to salvage their playlists to play once again.
Dying companies should take note of Mixwit's strategy to preserve user data. The now-dead mix tape-sharing service, which closed its doors in late December, is now offering users a way to save their mixes and tape designs for reuse elsewhere.
Former Mixwit users received an e-mail early Wednesday detailing how to download a permanent archive of their mix tape data which includes both a track list and the design of their virtual cassette tape. This data will continue to be hosted on Mixwit-is-dead.com through April, giving users about a month to make a back up.
While Mixwit is no longer hosting the tools that let you build these tapes, or the players that can be embedded in social-networking profiles and blogs, the good news is that the idea behind the site is still very much alive. The project has moved on to Mixwidget.org, which lets you accomplish a similar feat by hosting everything on your own server. This isn't as user friendly, or mass market as Mixwit was, but should be a healthy alternative to the Opentape.fm project.
Users still looking to get their hosted mix tape jones can always use services like GrooveShark, 8Tracks, and Blip.fm.
