It’s called Mixx Maker, a new application launched January 3rd that gives FaceBook members the ability to assemble and distribute “mix tapes” to their social network neighbors.

The blueprint for Mixx Maker is simple enough. FaceBook users upload the songs they want to include in their “mixx,” assemble the mixx and then send it to other FaceBook users. Those receiving the mixx can then hear the songs streamed from the mixx designer’s account via FaceBook’s friends feature.

“When you make a mix tape you usually have a theme or something you would like to say,” Jeremy Lim, marketing manager for Mixx Maker masterminds Project Opus Technologies, told Pollstar. “When you log on to FaceBook you would go to the page where Mixx Maker is … Then it asks you ‘I want music that …’

“So if you want a mixx for driving you would say, ‘I want music that I can drive to.’ … You can add comments like, ‘I think this is a song you can drive to because it’s really high energy,’ or ‘It’s a great song for the highway,’ something along those lines.”

And it’s that simple. Upon completing the mixx you then send it to your FaceBook buddies, who can listen to your clever arrangement of songs to their hearts’ content.

But you’re not actually sending songs. Instead, each Mixx Maker mixx is a playlist and the actual songs stay in the mixx creator’s FaceBook domicile. Mixx recipients can listen as much as they want, but they can’t download the songs.

“The legal and licensing thing was a huge hurdle for us,” Lim said. “We looked at precedent in this area. The big thing about FaceBook is that it’s a “closed garden” sort of thing. The only people who can really connect to you are people you know. People to whom you say, ‘Yes. I endorse this engagement.’

“So it’s limited to people who are friends. No one else but your friends can hear your mixxes, hear your music. Our precedent for that is bringing people into a living room. Or iTunes. ITunes has a functionality where anybody on the same computer network as you can hear all the music on your computer … Users can never, ever download the original songs that were uploaded. Once they’re on the server, they can only be streamed to. They can never be acquired. Never be copied.”

If this sounds like Mixaloo, the company that gives Netizens an easy and legal way to distribute mix tapes, there are some similarities in that both companies enable users to create mixes and distribute those mixes to friends. But the differences between Mixx Maker and Mixaloo are major.

The most notable distinction between the two products is that Mixaloo users must draw from a pre-determined library the company has licensed. Then, recipients of Mixaloo mixes can listen only to a small portion of the song. If they want to hear the entire tune, they have to buy it.

But Mixaloo mixes can be sent to anyone, anywhere, while Mixx Maker’s mixes reside within the FaceBook social networking environment. Furthermore, unlike Mixaloo creations, which are pretty much carved in stone by the creator, Mixx Maker enables recipients to add to the “mixx.”

Then there’s the e-commerce differences between Mixx Maker and Mixaloo. Mixaloo mix recipients can purchase the songs in an all-or-nothing deal, meaning that they can’t cherry-pick the songs from a Mixaloo mix but must purchase the entire mix.

And Mixx Maker?

“We are working toward integrating Amazon MP3. When people upload songs we capture the title of the song, the artist and the album the song is on. So we’re going to be able to say to Amazon, ‘Hey! Here’s this information. Give us back a link so people can buy the song.'”

By combining viral marketing aspects with Mixx Maker’s natural ability to introduce people to new music, you have yet another example of how music might be marketed in the coming years. People tend to respond more favorably to new tunes when those songs are recommended by friends rather than through mass media and hype.

“In Mixx Maker, you and your friends create communal soundtracks for anything in your lives – like days at the beach, that road trip coming up in July, or your intimate bedroom encounters,” Lim said. “As ‘High Fidelity’ put it, it’s about using someone else’s poetry to tell your story.”