I wrote 2 months ago about the open source mixtape application called OpenTape and had a huge amount of people interested in this new open source application. So because of the large amount of interest I thought I would write more about OpenTape and give you an inside look of what makes it so cool. In case you missed my last post about OpenTape, it’s an open source music server and platform built in PHP that allows you to host on your own server, your very own music playlist or mixtape.

OpenTape’s Cool Features

OpenTape has many cool features that make it extremely easy to use. Before diving into the specific features, let me just mention that OpenTape is ridiculously easy to install. All I had to do was drop the files on my server ( in this case my Dreamhost server), then open up that location in my web browser, give it an administration password and whallaaa! OpenTape was installed and running. Now let’s look at the features.

Easy Uploading

Uploading songs through OpenTape is very very easy. As long as the songs folder is writeable by the webserver OpenTape is able to just drop the songs directly into the /songs folder.

Rearrange Your Songs

Once the songs have been uploaded, you can now through a slick drag n’ drop interface, organize your songs to your liking.

Embed Code For Your Playlist

Under the settings page in your admin screen, you can copy and paste embed code that is give to you so you can embed your newly created song playlist anywhere of your choosing.

Network Settings & Features

There are currently 2 network features with OpenTape. 1) you can have OpenTape automatically upgrade itself whenever there is a new version and 2) you can provide download links with the songs on your playlist in case you want your friends to download the songs you are listening too.

When you are done, you end up with a slick looking page with your favorite songs on it. You can then share this page with your friends. Or you can be like me, and actually listen to the same songs all day long! You can click on the image below to see a demo of my playlist in action.

Features I Would Like To See

OpenTape is still a relatively new open source project, so you can probably expect to see many new features and advancements in the future. There are a few feautres that I wouldn’t mind seeing, and I thought I would take the time to explain them here.

1. Multiple Mixtapes – Currently with OpenTape you can create 1 playlist or mixtape per install. It woud be nice to be able to create multiple playlists from one OpenTape install. This one I’m sure is in the works, but I’ll mention it just in case.

2. Music Videos – this feature is a little random, but could be cool. The ability to upload a music video and have that display on the front end just like a song, only when you click on it, up pops up a jquery style popup with the video inside. Probably using the Lightbox plugin or something like that.

3. Better Looking Embeded Audio Player – I have nothing against the current player because it works. But eventually finding or creating an embed player that looks a little more stylish. Preferraby a player that looks a lot like the OpenTape interface.

4. A Plugin For Wordpress – This would please all the millions of self-hosted Wordpress bloggers out there. It would also help grow the popularity of the OpenTape project and hopefully get more people on board. Not to mention that as a Wordpress blogger, you could now create a page in Wordpress that has the OpenTape playlist inside.