Guidelines
In general there are no specific rules to making a mixtape or CD but there are guidelines you should follow. However, all of these can be broken if the mix is made stronger by breaking them.
- Try to use songs or artists that you have talked about with the person this is directed to.
- Avoid singles if you can, we've all heard them a million times over and while "I just called to say I love you" may be something you've done, it lends itself to being skipped or worse, overshadowing the whole project.
- Avoid using the same artist twice unless it's part of the theme.
- If the recipient can listen to tapes easily, try to aim for that. Tapes require more work to create and require the listener to listen to it all the way through.
- Pay special attention to the track order, try to make it musically flow together well. Ease into slow and fast songs, but be sure to make lots of tempo changes to keep it interesting.
- Keep it diverse if you can. Don't just make it rock songs, try to throw some folk or soul if you can.