8tracks

8tracks.com is an internet radio and social networking website revolving around the concept of streaming user-curated playlists consisting of at least 8 tracks. Users create free accounts and can either browse the site and listen to other user-created mixes, and/or they can create their own mixes. Users who create playlists on 8tracks are known as "DJs".
Due to the Small Webcaster license that 8tracks operates under, their terms require playlists to be strictly "non-interactive" and the contents not known in advance:
On 26 December 2019, 8tracks co-founder David Porter announced the site's impending closure on 31 December, due in large part to its ongoing financial issues and failure to earn enough revenue.To Everything There Is a Season, by David Porter via 8tracks blog. Published December 26, 2019 (Accessed December 27, 2019). Archived version. Users of the site were sent emails with the metadata for their playlists so that they could recreate them on another website.
==8tracks & Fandom==
8tracks was a widely used platform for fanmixes and fan soundtracks throughout the 2010s, particularly during its heyday prior to 2014 (when it started to lose listenership to Spotify and financial troubles began to bite). Fans would create playlists for a particular character, ship, or fandom, create mixes inspired by a particular fanwork, and even create playlists designed to evoke a specific trope, AU, or theme. Some fanfic authors used 8tracks to publish a definitive mix for their fanwork, and invited readers to create and share their own.
Original character mixes (or OC mixes) were also popular.
The decreasing popularity of 8tracks around 2014 seems to coincide with a general decrease in the prominence of fanmixes,"fanmix" on GoogleTrends] likely from lack of an easily accessible way to share them.
===Notable Fannish Playlists on 8tracks===
====Fanwork Playlists====
* You'd fit my lonely arms so perfectly (Archived link) by citrusfluegel, a playlist for the popular Haikyuu fanfic of the same name.
* Pacific Rim: Anthology (Archived link) by irisbleufic, a playlist for the Pacific Rim fic series Anthology, created by the author.
* Dirty Laundry (Archived link) by moon.prince, a playlist designed to recreate the CD Keith makes for Lance in the Voltron fanfic Dirty Laundry.
* Dating Doyles in Uptown Swing, Downtown Doom (Archived link) by lalalalalawhy, a playlist for a The Thrilling Adventure Hour fanfic of the same name.
====Character Playlists====
* ★so, you wanna be a magic girl?★ (Archived link) by maria baldi, a Akemi Homura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) playlist .
*I WANT LIGHTS// (Archived link) by taffer, a Desmond Miles (Assassin's Creed) playlist
*one man bomb squad (Archived link), a Delsin Rowe (inFAMOUS) playlist
* she always does her best to please (Archived link) by politicalmamaduck, a Padme Amidala (Star Wars) playlist
====Ship Playlists====
* KORRASAMI VICTORY MIX (Archived link) by piscinepatel, a playlist celebrating korrasami becoming canon, using the "We poppin the BIGGEST bottles" meme as its cover.
* I don't hate you, I just want to save you (Archived link) by amor13, a popular Swan Queen playlist.
* a perfect match (Archive link) by durinsday, a Victuuri playlist
==Financial Issues==
==Closure==
On 26 December 2019, 8tracks co-founder David Porter published a post entitled 'To Everything There Is a Season' to the 8tracks blog, announcing that 8tracks would cease streaming on 31 December 2019. In it he outlined the reasons for 8tracks' impending closure, including its difficulties with generating revenue to cover the cost of royalties, and the insurmountable competition it faced from services like Spotify, YouTube and Amazon Music. The post also stated that 8tracks would be making it easy for users to export their playlist metadata from the site, including by sending them an email with the mix name, art, description and track list for each of their published playlists, and by enabling them to export playlists to Spotify.
Between January 1 and January 18, 8tracks still functioned in a way, with a newly added "Play via YouTube" function. 8tracks is scheduled to completely shut down on January 18, 2020.
Fans made PSAs notifying others about the closure and how to save playlists., posted December 27, 2019 (Accessed December 29, 2019). by naeshira via Tumblr. Published December 27, 2019 (Accessed December 29, 2019). by symphoniclolita via Tumblr. Published December 28, 2019 (Accessed December 29, 2019). by meanderins0ul via Tumblr, published December 28, 2019 (Accessed December 29, 2019). by otw-fanlore and yahoo-geddon (Dec 30th, 2019) post by starfleetdoesntfirefirst "for anyone interested in relatively easily saving playlist information from any 8tracks fandom or other tag before 8tracks shuts down", 12/31/19. by vergess, intersex-ionality, and gertiecraign
===Fan Reactions=== 
Following the announcement, fans expressed their sadness and anger over 8tracks' closure, and shared nostalgic recollections of the site's heyday. Many were unsurprised by the closure, noting that 8tracks had been unstable for some time and had also been unavailable to users outside the US and Canada.
===Attempts to save fandom playlists===
After the announcement, many fans started looking for ways to preserve and archive the many fandom playlists found in the website.
Some fans saved the information of different playlists by hand, using the website's option to download the tracklist of a playlist in .txt format and saving the rest of the playlist's information using the Wayback Machine. Thanks to user ViddersAdmin (from vidders.net) an Excel VBA macro that extracts playlist info from playlist URLs was created and shared through social media. by starfleetdoesntfirefirst reblogged by ao3commentoftheday, published December 30, 2019 (Accessed January 1, 2020). This made the process of saving the data easier.
On December 30, Dreamwidth user wedonnotcare created a post on the site where fans "who are extracting URLs from tags (of any fandom!) on 8tracks before the closing of the site can post their progress in a comment to avoid extracting the same tags multiple times".
====Archives====
*Wayback Machine's captures
*221 files: screenshots of tags, playlist pages, and 11 users
===Alternatives to 8tracks===
In the wake of the closure announcement, many fans focused on saving or recreating their playlists and others' on Spotify, as 8tracks made this straightforward to do. Several fans recommended transferring to playmoss, a playlist publishing website with very similar features to 8tracks, which permits users to build playlists using links from YouTube, Spotify and other platforms.Tweet by @ginxbo, published December 27, 2019 (Accessed December 29, 2019).Tweet by @heartrendered, published December 28, 2019 (Accessed December 29, 2019).
==Relaunch==
BackBeat Inc., a startup company comprised of dedicated 8tracks fans, acquired the 8tracks platform & brand early in 2020. On April 19, 2020, the site relaunched, with users again able to stream from the site and iOS app (if they had not deleted it), although users could not yet create new mixes and some songs were unavailable. BackBeat's goal is to restore the same functionality as before the initial shutdown.
== References ==
Category:Social Networking