Muxtape provided a great way to upload mp3 songs to their website creating a mixtape like song collection on the website. It had some limits like a maximum song size of 10 Megabytes and only one mixtape per account but what made it great was the ability to share the mixtape with friends.

The music collection was publicly accessible which was probably the main reason the RIAA stepped in although I cannot find a difference between listening to music on a website and listening to music on Radio or Youtube.

If you open Muxtape right now you notice only one sentence and no way to access any of the services of the website: “Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.”

Some, like LastFM, offer a comprehensive service in which you have a profile and can interact with other lastFM users. Bands can be commented on and reviewed and based on your listening habits new bands will be suggested to you.

The latest start-up to cause the biggest buzz has been Muxtape, a highly minimal music may upload only 12 songs to their ‘muxtape’. It’s a struggle to condense your entire collection into just a dozen songs, but what it does do is guarantee the quality of people’s muxtapes.

In fact it would be a great way to discover new songs, except that a search function is not included in the service. Luckily someone else started up MuxSearch recently.

If you like these minimal song sharing services then why not try Tiny Song? First simply search for the song, select it from the list it suggests. From here you can send the link to a friend to listen to.

The link will open the song up in Grooveshark and begin streaming instantly. You’ll find it sure beats telling someone to go download a song, then having to download it for them when they can’t find it, then having them not like it anyway.

Forget feature filled startups, these are the way to go.