Mixtapes were love letters. You felt something so strongly you had to arrange it into a perfect sequence. Armed with a radio, some vinyl records, or if you were lucky, a dual deck recorder, hours went into creating the perfect playlist on magnetic tape. Now it was yours for the road: in the car, or everywhere with a stylish Sony Walkman. Share it with a friend, gift it to your girlfriend...
Mixtapes weren't perfect. I remember how I crossed my fingers that the DJ wouldn't mix in their own voice destroying those final seconds of the song... Ah, dammit, have to wait for the next time they play that song now...
The medium was quite bad. And got worse if you played it a lot. It hisses, sparkles, but with magic. Clipped transitions, half a song at the end of side A... But all of this tells a story.
A story that lives for long, much longer than we ever anticipated. If you get hold of someones mix-tapes, you can learn a lot about that person, and where they were in life when they created it.
Photo by Louis Laboratory / Pexels
Today mix-tapes are replaced by Spotify playlists. Some put big love into creating those too. But mostly, the way we listen to music is more and more about algorithms and AI.
Big, anonymous systems that believe they understand you, and deliver more and more and more of what they think you want. The concious act of listening to music is disappearing into the convenience of hitting Play at 4 PM and having something 'work' in the background until bedtime...
There's something beautiful about having to get up and turn that vinyl every 20ish minutes, browse through a CD-collection with a friend, choose the next album or track can be a social event that brings people together.
I am passionate about the photo collection you have on your phone. We take more photos than ever. We watch concerts, birthdays, parties through the lense of our photo- and video-apps. Some is shared on social media as proof we were there, much is stored in your camera roll and seldom reappears. What a waste!
When we give energy to something, it becomes beautiful. Sitting down for an hour selecting some photos and sharing with a friend, looking back at a memory, or in anticipation for something coming. The energy you put it translates into love on the other end.
Photo by cottonbro studio / Pexels
Let's make photo albums the mix-tapes of 2026. Here's a challenge for you: Set aside 60-90 minutes. Think of a friend or a loved one. Now take some time to go through your photo collection, gathering photos of shared memories. Arrange it into a sequence. Share it digitally, or even better, print it out. Take the time to make a photo book - something physical that will last for years or even generations. The energy you put in will translate into love for years to come.
Not only is this a gift that far surpasses anything you can find in a store, but when someone picks up that book years from now, they will learn a lot about you and feel your love through the imperfect shots, the sequence, your stories, what you left in and what is not there...
Chris is the creator of LiveWall, a privacy-first photo sharing app that brings friends, family and loved ones together through shared memories. It lets you build sequenced slideshows and drafts photo books you can put the final touches on in Canva. He is passionately obsessed with how we get photos out of our camera rolls and into social events, bringing people together, and leaving something behind for the next generations.
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