Mix cds: use all 80 min?

Cafe Society
1

When I make mix cds for myself, I generally try to cram as many songs as I can on the disc so I don’t have to change it very often.

But when I make cds for other people, it varies. If they are completely new to the music, I usually keep it to about 30-40 min. so they can remember all of the songs. If they are somewhat familiar with the bands or genre, I make it longer.

Does anyone here have any sort of rules for the length or content of their mixes?

2

I usually try to build some sort of theme into my mix CDs. Sometimes I get everything I want on there and there’ll be 20-25 minutes left. If adding to it ruins the flow, I leave it blank. Otherwise if I’m just throwing on music I want to hear in no particular order, hells yeah fill it all the way up.

3

Really, the trick is to add the right songs, without regard for the length of time.

4

[Crumudgeon Hat]
The even tougher question is what happens when you go MP3 and you’re unlimited by length all together. That’s why I like mix tapes! Two 45 minute sides that give shape and structure to your mix. Gotta open and close both sides, gotta have both sides relate in some way to eachother. Kids these days, sheesh!
[/Crumudgeon Hat]

5

I used to put my mixes on reel-to-reel tape.

Even if it was Violent Femmes, The The, Oingo Boingo, etc, it made me feel all Hugh Hefner-like.

I fill up my mix CDs to the limit. I can’t not.

This leads me to spend hours and days tracking down a bunch of extra songs when I realize that I only have 58 minutes of coffee-related music, and stuff like that. It’s a sickness.

6

I tend to keep thinking of more and more things I want to include until I’m well over the limit for what will fit on a CD, and then I remove and remove and remove until it all fits, then arrange for timing and flow and delete or add accordingly.

7

I fill 'em up. I listen to them in the car during commutes and need to fill up the time.

8

This is pretty much how I do it, too. You know you’ve got a good mix when you’ve had to get rid of good songs because they wouldn’t fit.

That said, I usually keep my mixes to about 65-70 minutes (1.1 hours, if you use iTunes). I have come across CD players (especially cars) that didn’t like full-length burned CDs.