Turnbull Mixtape: I'm (never) getting too old for this Sh*aring.

The inaugural Turnbull Library Creative Commons mixtape was released out into the wild way back in 2012.  

CC licenses gave us the opportunity to make this music fully  accessible to a wider audience by breaking down the reading (listening)  room walls and streaming music online. We wanted to find a way to  promote our CC music collection that enabled more openness and sharing  as intended by the licenses, and the Mixtape was born! 

For The Turnbull Mixtape mixes again we pushed the tracks out to a  wider selection panel in the library while also giving staff a creative  license to wax poetically about the music they chose. 

Turnbull 3: Rise of the mixtape kept the same format but we also  branched out and began uploading the tracks to soundcloud. This gave us  the benefit of seeing how popular the tracks were and provided an  alternative listening platform which helped extend the mixtape to a  wider audience.

The following 3 mixtapes basically kept the same format, Dad jokes and witty titles also seemed to be par for the course… 

Turnbull Mixtape 4: Don't call it a comeback

 Turnbull Mixtape 5: Time to get schooled

Turnbull Mixtape 6: Months in a leaky boat

After 6 months in a leaky boat, it was time to dry out and take  stock. We thought it would be a good idea to mix things up and try and  get the public more involved in the selection process. 

Eventually  we landed on the idea of gamifying the mixtape by creating a long list  of tracks at the start of May that people could listen to, and  effectively vote on through said listens. Near the end of May we tallied  up the stats and selected the top 10 to go into Turnbull Mixtape 7: one  time at bandcamp.

2020 flipped the script and introduced us to the world of Covid and  Lockdowns. With many staff working from home we lent into the theme of  Desert Island Discs for the digital world.  

Staff from throughout  the library were invited to think about what they would take on their  device should they be cast away to a desert island, aka social isolation  in Aotearoa.  Each contributor selected their favourite ‘relaxing’  track from our Creative Commons collections, their favourite podcast,  and one optional app they couldn’t do without. 

This resulted in Turnbull  mixtape 8: Desert island digitals.

Turnbull Mixtape 9: Revolution no. 9 no. 9 no. 9 

This was a mixtape dedicated  to the art of well, remixing. The brief was simple; choose a track that  covers, remixes, samples or mashes up another creative work and have fun  with it!

Optional Extra-Curricular Activity 

Want to do some of your own creating in the commons? You may have noticed that this years mixtape doesn't have any cover art.  

Why  not have a go at creating the album cover? It could be original, using  CC images,  or other collection items, just make sure they are  shareable! 

Email your finished artwork to atl-online-acquisitions@dia.govt.nz with 'Mixtape Cover Art" in the title.

*Images would need to be suitable  to upload to bandcamp (1400 x 1400 pixels minimum (bigger is better)  .jpg, .gif or .png, 10MB max).

Extra Reading and Listening

Check out the National Library blog for a deep-dive into the process of creating the mixtape and some interesting stats 

https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/turnbull-mixtape-10-im-never-getting-too-old-for-this-sh-aring 

View and listen to the Creative Commons Collection

Listen to all the mixtapes on bandcamp