Microsoft has teamed with Spotify and the Echo Nest to rework the classic art of creating mixtapes, offering a tool to remix Spotify playlists to suit an occasion perfectly or for general listening.

The online MixShape software takes an existing Spotify playlist (or you can try out some of Microsoft's suggested ones) and turns them into a visual wave, putting tracks depending on their content into an order it believes is optimised for the circumstance you've chosen.

You can then alter the wave, which will swap around the tracks automatically to suit, and output it back to Spotify to listen to.

For example, should you want to listen to a playlist in a work environment, where loud and bombastic tracks may distract you or your colleagues, you set the parameters and MixShape will ensure that the order favours more ambient tracks.

If you have a Spotify Premium account, the playlist can even be set for offline listening, so you can have it tuned for exercise or a run. Parties are also catered for through the MixShape in-browser engine, which, because it's a Microsoft project - albeit powered by the Echo Nest system - is recommended by the company as working best through IE10.

It is also optimised for tablet use, specifically the Windows 8-touting Surface and Surface Pro devices.

You can check out MixShape at www.mixshape.ie.