Apple have recently submitted a patent that could hopefully bring back the process — nay, the art — of making mixtapes for your crush/significant other/heartbreaker.
As Business Insider reports, the patent would allow users of iTunes (or perhaps Apple Music) to curate and gift a compilation album — a "digital mixtape" as per the patent — to someone else, allowing the creator to add songs, images, movies or photos off your photo library in the particular order they wish.
Like a real cassette mixtape would, the creator could hide the name of the upcoming song until you're listening to the song just before it, to maximise the surprise and adoration you feel when The Smiths' There Is A Light That Never Goes Out follows Bon Iver's Skinny Love. Ah, what a time to be alive!
Once you're done collating your album (and there are rules, which Rob Gordon from High Fidelity will run you through below), you can send a notification to your lover about the mixtape, which they can choose to either accept or deny. If they deny your mixtape, they didn't deserve it anyway. If they do accept your feelings, all packaged into one 10-track ball of love, you'll be charged a fee for creating it.
We're hoping Apple follow through with the patent and induct the feature into the iTunes Store/Apple Music at some point, because we would have a lot of fun with this.
Now educate yourself on how to make a (digital) mixtape from the best in the game.
