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Stinkdigital create The Flixtape mixtape maker for Netflix

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A mixtape was a classic device used by well-meaning but ultimately lazy music fans who wanted to express their own individuality through songs written by other people. The idea was simple, but it was popular for a reason, as it allowed even those without a shred of musicality in their bones to forge a unique, personal connection with their favourite music and share that connection with the friends and/or objects of affection. Mixtapes, however, became something of a lost art during the halcyon days of the CD, but have seen a slight resurgence in recent years in the evolved form of playlists thanks to the ease of compiling songs on iTunes and online streaming services such as Spotify. It's not until now, however, that such a feat was possible with movies and TV. Enter the Flixtape from Stinkdigital, which is a cleverly-designed platform from which Netflix users can create their very own video mixtapes, showing off not only their exquisite (or not so exquisite as the case may be) tastes, but the sheep depth and variety of the Netflix catalogue.

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Stinkdigital partnered with Netflix to concept, design, and develop a site that allows users to make mixtape-style playlists and share them with friends, loved ones, and the entire world. Stinkdigital also created assets for Netflix's social channels to support the launch campaign: in-line silent-play videos for Facebook and animated GIFs for Twitter. Visitors to the bespoke Flixtape website are greeted with the option to either explore pre-made mixtapes from Netflix or create their own, starting with just a title. They built a custom natural language processing (NLP) solution to transform any user-generated title into a suggested base playlist of three shows or movies from the Netflix catalog. Users can fill up their Flixtape playlist by adding more NLP-suggested titles or searching the catalog for something specific. When they’re ready to share, they can then customise their Flixtape covers with illustrations to match their playlist. It's a surprisingly deep and heavily customisable system that is sure to breed some very interesting combinations.

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I spent a solid 20 minutes creating a few of my very own Flixtape playlists and was more than a little disappointed to find that you can't choose individual episodes of series (yet), and that the suggestions given based on the name of your playlist are more often than not Netflix Original films or shows. The obvious bias can be forgiven though considering just how flexible and easy to use the platform is, and it's obviously working wonders with the general public as over 10,000 Flixtapes were created by Netflix users in the first weekend after launch. It's been getting some pretty serious media coverage so far too, so I think, as long as they keep updating the platform, this thing could run and run. I'd like to plead, however, that anyone creating a list of must-watch TV avoids adding Breaking Bad to the list. I know it was great, but it's been 3 years now and we've all moved on! Mostly.

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK.

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