MXT8

Turn meaningful music into a beautiful, shareable digital cassette keepsake.

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Inspiration

So the idea of MXT8 came to me while I was perusing the internet, I came across a post asking:

“When was the last time you got a mixtape?”

The answer for me was back in 2017, not when I received a mixtape but rather the last time I made one for someone else. The post really made me wonder, was I one of the last people to do this old school act of giving a mixtape?

Was I the last person she ever got a mixtape from?

I still remember the songs I burned onto a CD, handwriting a letter to accompany it, and cautiously handing it to her best mate to pass on to her for me.

Sad as it sounds I also I remember listening to the same songs over and over imagining what she would think when she listened to them 😅

So MXT8 is my tribute to the past, to something that might not/probably doesn’t exist anymore. My attempt to retain the essence of it, the meaning, the feelings, the emotion that comes with a real mixtape and transform it into something that people can do now, without needing to find and old cassette/cd player, and all the hardware need to make and listen to it.

Sure you can share a playlist, but it doesn’t hold the same weight to me. So share an MXT8 instead 🙃

What it does

[TLDR: Digital Keepsake version of giving a mixtape+extras]

It’s based on what I would include in a real mixtape if I were to make one today.

First, the Cassette/CD, how is it decorated? what colour is the Cassette? What design is on the label?

Then the songs (very important) who’s it for, a family member? A love interest? A friend? These questions shape the songs you choose.

Next its the Letter, handwritten on paper, adding depth and context to the songs you already selected, setting the tone.

Then Photos, Polaroids of special moments included.

A print out of a special location, maybe where you proposed, or where you first met, or your favourite place together.

With MXT8 I’ve tried my best to maintain the ritual of creating and packaging these thoughts and emotions into a digital format.

So when you open a MXT8 you are shown an opening animation (selected by the gifter) your designed cassette going into a tape deck or a shoebox/parcel opening revealing your design for example.

Followed by an animation of the Letter opening to reveal your words.

Next the Polaroid style photos (optional) revealing 6 in a row, each one captionable.

Then the location (optional) showing on a mini map with its own caption

Finally the Cassette in its full glory, doing a spin animation to show both sides of your cassette which you can design individually, and below the 16 songs you selected, 8 per side. Each song is previewable, and an option to copy the songs onto your apple or Spotify is there too!

How we built it

Codex > Claude code > Higgsfield, but to name a few of my employees!

I do not come from a traditional software engineering background, aka I’m a lowly vibe coder. Going back even a few years ago, bringing an idea like MXT8 to life would likely have needed team of people that knew what they were doing to back me up and far more money than I have/had.

I genuinely believe this is a golden age for guys like me in software creation: people who have ideas, creative direction and an understanding of the experience they want to build.
What was once out of reach for non technical people is now possible.

Cloudflare Workers, D1 and R2 support its accounts, data and uploaded memories, so I’m told.

Challenges we ran into

The greatest challenge has been turning a physical and emotional ritual into a digital one without making it into just another playlist app.

Being a visual perfectionist I have to admit I spend way too much time on the look of the cassettes, I wanted it to feel real, even though its just on a screen. I wanted people to care when making theirs, so it had to look good, create a wow factor, I definitely struggled with getting the spin animation to work. Turns out making a flat 2D image rotate is more challenging than just a simple prompt.

I also had to design carefully around music ownership and licensing. People need to be able to reference songs that matter to them without MXT8 becoming a streaming or music-distribution service.

I also wanted the core mechanics of MXT8 to be free, so anyone can make one, so the challenge was, how to monetise outside of the free layer.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Im an Artist, and a bit of a romantic (if you can’t already tell) so I guess I’m proud of venturing into the digital realm more, it feels like a natural progression from my artwork www.rebelromeo.art (Shameless plug)

And somehow it is now a real iPhone and iPad app that made it through App Review (eventually 😅). The full Make → Gift → Open → Keep journey works on both, including the two-sided cassette designer, opening animations, letters, Polaroids, places and the privacy controls around personal memories.

I’m also proud that I found a way to make money from it without charging people for the meaningful bit. The core gift stays free, while RevenueCat and StoreKit handle the optional Metallic, Neon Clear and Y2K case packs and restore them when people reinstall.

And I guess I’ll be super proud if I get stories of people receiving MXT8s as gifts in the future.

What we learned

That anything is possible when you put your mind to it (with ai backing you up) And that this whole process has been a big learning curve but also massively rewarding and fun.

What's next for MXT8

Hopefully not total obscurity?

🥲

Though thinking about the future of MXT8 does excite me. I imagine a future where MXT8 could be used for events like concerts, where a music artist, or event creates a limited edition MXT8, that is linked to the ticket, they gift you with the limited edition cassette design and a selection of songs from the event, plus location+date and you complete the MXT8 with your photos from the event. It then becomes like a digital time capsule, that you can share everywhere, (or no where, if you’re that way inclined).

And in the future we could bridge the gap between digital and physical through prints and merch based on the very MXT8s people design, build and gift.

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