8tracks.com

One of Porter's significant influences for the project was Napster, more specifically its "Hotlist" feature, which allowed users to add other users to their "hot list", consequently giving them access to that user's entire library. Also, after having spent three years before business school in London, Porter was fascinated by the social nature of the city's electronic music scene, in which DJs gained cult-like followings and augmented their following primarily through peer referral. Based on these concepts, Porter drafted a business plan entitled "Sampled & Sorted", now the name of his blog, and garnered some initial attention for the project from venture capital firms. However, given his relative inexperience in the business world, Porter joined Live365, gained an understanding of their business model, their strengths and weaknesses and was able to refine his original proposition. With the rise of Web 2.0, Porter finally decided to found 8tracks in Fall 2006, and after compiling a preliminary team, was able to launch the site on August 8, 2008.

In November 2011, 8tracks made its debut in the Android Market, launching with more than 300,000 mixes. An Android 2.1 or higher device is required to use the app, but Market stats reveal over 10,000 downloads within days of release.

Between 2011 and 2015, there was also a list of tracks from SoundCloud provided by 8tracks for DJs to add to their mix.

In April 2013, 8tracks made its debut in the Windows 8 App Store. Any Windows 8 Pro or RT device, including desktop PCs and tablets was able to access the app.

In early 2016, 8tracks was required to stop offering streaming music via its app outside of the United States and Canada and instead started to use YouTube videos.

While initially, 8tracks did not feature commercial interruption during playlists, they adopted them in 2018, to remove their listening cap. Users were able to bypass these ads by buying a subscription service, 8tracks plus. The cost was $25 for a six-month subscription.

On 26 December 2019, 8tracks announced in a blog post that they intended to cease operations at the end of the year due to a lack of revenue and a lack of interest in their purchase by any larger company. By this time, there were less than 1 million monthly users, down from over 8 million in 2014. However, on 19 April 2020, 8tracks relaunched under the new ownership and operation of BackBeat Inc.

As of December 2024, the service is inactive. The service was last accessible on December 30, 2024.