Muxtape, the online playlist service which launched in March to a user base larger than Germany but smaller than Japan, seems to have run into problems with the RIAA, according to a message posted on the site late Wednesday evening. While it alerts users that "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA," the Muxtape tumblr insists that "the site is not closed indefinitely" and "no bands or labels have complained."
Many people — including you, me, intellectual property attorney Fred von Lohmann, and site creator Justin Oullette — have speculated as to the soundness of maintaining such a website in the era of RIAA lawsuits and other digital music crackdowns. The optimism of the message displayed on the official site and on tumblr echo Oullette's assertion in interviews that Muxtape's primary purpose is to introduce listeners to new music and that labels and artists have been encouraging when talking to him. Indeed, it appears from the tumblr post that Oullette has been developing a service called "Muxtape for Bands," an as-yet-unexplained feature first hinted at in a tumblr post early last week.
For more details about "Muxtape for Bands," as well as about the issues with the RIAA, keeping an eye on the tumblr page is probably your best bet.
