Mix-Tape For You, LLC: Where 21st Century Technology Meets Nostalgic Music Sharing

“Mix-Tape brings together the best of Apple Music, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram to deliver custom Mix-Tapes to lovers, friends, and even the general public.”

Making the perfect mixtape was an art form. It took a lot of patience and time. You had to wait for your favorite radio DJ to start playing the perfect song. Then there was the timing—hitting “record” perfectly, so you didn’t cut off the intro, but you also didn’t want to record the DJ talking because that would be tacky. If you had a good selection of LPs or CDs, or if your parents had an impressive collection, you could select tracks that conveyed the mood you wanted your mixtape to reflect.

Maybe you made a gift to declare your feelings for your secret crush. Maybe you made a tape for your best friend who was moving far away. Whatever the occasion, those songs had to speak to the mood and fit like a glove. Then, after your playlist was created, the tape needed a fitting name and the cover needed to be decorated, which could involve either a simple drawing or a time-consuming mixed-media collage.

No matter how you made it, or who you made it for, the mixtape required time and effort and showed just how much you really cared.

Times have changed; technology has surprised us on all fronts. Putting efforts to make that perfect mixtape is not needed anymore. Take a look.

Mix-Tape For You, LLC is the ONLY company that brings together the best of Apple Music. Using an Apple Music Subscription, users can create a Mix-Tape with a 90-second voice intro that allows users to send a personal message with hand-selected songs and even add in custom cover. This app is designed to be easy and fun to use. One can create a Mix-Tape and can share with one person, your family, friends, your crush, or the whole world. The user can customize the Mix-tape by taking a photo or adding images from the gallery and the app will convert it to an actual cassette tape image.

In Conversation with Mix-Tape For You, LLC Leadership -- Isaac Moneypenny (Founder) and Erik Raymond (Co-founder)

Why was the company set up, Isaac?

The company was set up because of the shift in the music industry and giant gap of when music lovers would sit around for hours listening to the radio waiting to record the perfect song for their mixtape.

How successful was your first project, Erik?

The Mix-Tape App was our first project/iOS app that we created, and it is amazing. The experience had so many ups and downs, getting the permissions, rights, layout, design, and building the company from the ground up with minimal capital.

What challenges did you face in your initial years? What can your peers learn from it, Isaac?

Having a roadmap with everything planned out and mapped out before we knew what was the real problem that we were solving with our app. A few words of advice: be adaptable and remember, you are doing this for the user, client, or public. You cannot know everything that the user of your product wants or doesn’t want. Take the time to ask what they want from time to time.

How do you maintain your customers’ trust and loyalty, Erik?

It is simple; we listen and know that the number of people within our organization is equivalent to a grain of sand on any beach. Whether we are there or not, the beach would still exist. Our users are at the beach and their wants and desires will always be there. Our customers know best because, without them, we would not have grown to what we are today.

“Earning trust and respect of consumers all around the world is through consistent focus on delivering high quality in all of our actions.” How do you interpret this statement, Isaac?

I interpret it as saying that every action has an equal or opposite reaction. When planning all of our actions, we ask ourselves: “How will this impact our current users? Will they like what we are doing or the direction we are going? Will they support us or drop us? Will they tell their friends about us?” After having those questions answered, it is pretty simple to make business decisions, even if it isn’t always making us more profitable in the short-term.

What is your ability to adapt and adjust according to the market condition, Erik?

There are many variables that you can’t account for and very few constants. However, everything we create is for our users. Companies that are stubborn to change and adapt usually fail because their vision isn’t dialed in or they are too focused on what they’re creating rather than why they’re creating it. Our why is to create a fantastic product for our users (which includes us!). As long as that remains, we will never have an issue adapting.

What are the five factors that have been the biggest asset to your organization, Isaac?

• Team: It’s so crucial to surround yourself with individuals with the same vision, passion, and dedication.
• Second is having a growth strategy: Our business will survive and thrive with a result-oriented mindset that translates well into adaptable branding. As well, a great vision provides the impetus to enhance the customer base and a successful conversion rate. The scalability will rely on creativity, social metrics, and analysis.
• The third factor is flexibility.
• Fourth, we have to keep an eye on competitors and know exactly what the market wants at all times.
• Last but not least, our funding strategy. This is pretty self-explanatory. Half of the startups fail due to lack of funding. It’s not just about money though; it’s also about relationships.
  
  

Do you have any new products ready to be launched, Erik?

We are in the works of something that will be very fun for our users. It is not yet finalized, but we know that our users will love it.

Mix-Tape For You, LLC Leadership: In Their Own Words

Isaac Moneypenny, Founder: I spent most of my early years in the entertainment/music industry playing in pop-punk bands throughout the world. When the digital age of music hit, I realized that I only really had three choices if I wanted to stay in this industry. I could go with it and make less money through record sales, fight technology, or find a way to work with technology and that is where the idea of creating the nostalgic music sharing app known as Mix-Tape.

Erik Raymond, Co-founder: I guess you could classify me as a serial entrepreneur. I am not much into labels, but I have always searched for and joined ventures that have the potential for massive market impact. Some of these have been silent partnerships and others more visible. I am very excited to be Isaac’s co-founder. Mix-Tape has great potential, both as a source of entertainment and as an industry disrupter. Along with entrepreneurship, I am a historian -- I just finished my thesis and I am working on a popular history book about women during the American Revolution.

“We are truly combining 21st-century technology with nostalgic music sharing that every generation with a smartphone can experience.”