Mixtapes in the digital age: Site revamp, not 7-year itch for Splintr

Being a music fan used to mean sitting by the radio, waiting for your favorite song to play. With a blank cassette tape and your finger ready to hit record, you prayed the DJ would finish talking before playing the song, and finish the song before starting to talk again. The next step was writing the lyrics down. After an hour of pressing play, pause, and rewind, you'd finally get the whole song on paper. You could also get a copy of Song Hits, but then you could never be too confident about the accuracy. Until you were old enough to stay out late and catch gigs at the bars, many of which no longer exist, radio was where you got your music fix, from new albums to interviews with musicians. Cassettes made way for CDs, and CDs made way for digital music. Of course, there's still a certain thrill to having an album you can hold, and more and more people seem to be collecting vinyl records, which can be quite expensive. Meanwhile, music fans use the internet in many ways, from discovering bands from places you weren't even aware existed to being able to interact with other fans. Of course, there's no more need to sit by the radio to record your favorite song, and there are countless websites where you can find lyrics. It's difficult not to get nostalgic about the mixtape. Flowers and chocolates had nothing on a lovingly organized playlist, painstakingly recorded and packaged in a DIY sleeve, usually a recycled piece of cardboard. I suppose it wouldn't be practical now, since not too many people still have cassette players. There are approximations on the internet — websites that allow you to make and share playlists. It's not the same, but why not? After all, almost everyone is always online. "My Playlist" is among of the new features on Splintr.com, which launched its new website this month to mark its seventh year. Splintr.com started in 2006, before popular music sites like SoundCloud and Bandcamp. "Splintr.com being an internet music channel was groundbreaking and revolutionary. By recording live performances and making them available over streaming, they bridged the gap between bands and those bands' fans," Francis Reyes said during the launch on April 26. The site features videos and articles on local as well as international acts, including regional bands like Malaysia's Deepset and Hong Kong's Chochukmo. They also have exclusive live studio recordings on Splintr Sessions. "We've been at it as a website longer than most other local indie music websites here," Russ Davis told GMA News Online. Contrary to the concept of the seven-year itch, Splintr.com has no inclination to move on. Rather, they plan to continue forward. The site revamp, according to Davis, is the next step in continuing what they've already had. "It's another push also, for ourselves. We're really trying to make the next step and to really be the music site for local and international [music lovers] here in the Philippines," he said. Davis shared that the site revamp includes an all-new design as well as new features, including the personalized playlists. The site is also more social media-friendly. "People can share videos now on Facebook, share articles, all the content on the site," Davis said. Another new feature is the Daily Splintr. "We're trying to make it like a real music online magazine, so every month we have a featured artist. And of course throughout the month we have articles on that artist and the regular articles as well about music news and things like that," he said. Francis Cabal, who writes for Splintr, noted that before, the site contained mostly videos. "Every seven years, your mode of thinking actually changes a little bit. So every seven years, you really have to change whether you like it or not,"  Reyes said. Held in the afternoon, the launch was not what one might expect in the rock and roll scene. Although Splintr is a music channel, there was no band, only a screening of video clips from the site, including some featuring Deftones, which Splintr is bringing to Manila on May 26. The reason for bringing Deftones back was simple, as Reyes said. "It was successful," he said, referring to the Diamond Eyes tour in 2011. Meanwhile, Davis said it was "just a way of reminding the music fans and fans of Splintr that we're still around, and we're still committed to producing more content and bringing the music scene closer to them." At the launch, a few of the guests nodded their heads to the music, glasses of Jack and Coke in hand. If you hadn't known they were only watching clips, it almost looked like they were at a gig. The thing about music is no matter how you're hearing it, it still moves you. As Reyes said during the launch, "Splintr.com is for people like us who simply love great music." — BM, GMA News