In the old days, mixtapes were a labour of love: meticulously-planned feats of taste and engineering which required substantial skill judging the silences between tracks.
Now, of course, Spotify and the rest have made the mixtape a simple thing to make and a new app, built by Echo Nest developer Paul Lamere, has taken it on a step further, by automatically creating a geographically-appropriate playlist for your American roadtrip.
Simply type in your start and stop points and the app creates a playlist using artists from the area you're in, changing as your trip progresses. So if you're kicking off in San Diego, you'll get some Blink 182 and by the time you hit Boston, you'll be listening to Aerosmith.
It's just available as a desktop app at the moment (so admittedly not terribly useful quite yet), but there are plans for a mobile version soon. Have a play with it here.
