How to Find a Song From a SoundCloud Mix

Play the mix to the track you want and write down the time, for example 1:12:30. Choose a moment in the middle of the track where it plays alone, not the blend into or out of it. Every later step uses this number: comments are placed by time, tracklists are ordered by time, and anyone you ask will want it.

This page is the SoundCloud version of our full guide on how to identify a track in a DJ mix, which covers every method and when each one works.

Open the mix's own page on SoundCloud, not the feed, and expand the description under the player. Many DJs, labels and radio shows paste the full tracklist there, sometimes with times. If the list has no times, use position: a track at 1:12:30 in a two-hour mix will sit a little past the middle of the list. Play the previews of the candidates around that position on Beatport, Bandcamp or a streaming service and confirm by ear.

Look for links too. The description may point to the show's website or to the same set on another platform where a tracklist is published.

SoundCloud comments are tied to time. The SoundCloud Help Center's page on comments says that on the web you click the area below the waveform "to leave a comment at that exact timestamp". On a computer, move along the small avatars under the waveform near your timestamp and read what people wrote there. A "track ID?" question with a reply under it is what you are hoping for.

Use the website for this step. SoundCloud's page on comments in the mobile app says that mobile comments "are not visible directly on the waveform" and are listed in the comment section instead.

Two limits apply. A reply is one listener's opinion, so check it by ear. And some uploads show no comments at all: SoundCloud's guide to managing comments as a creator describes a Quiet Mode that lets an artist stop fans commenting and hide existing comments from the public.

Copy the mix title and search for it, with the DJ's name, in three places:

• 1001Tracklists, which calls itself "The World's Leading DJ Tracklist/Playlist Database" and is strongest on radio shows, festival sets and well-known DJs.
• MixesDB, a community-edited wiki of mixes that covers podcast series and older, more underground sets.
• The MixTracklist library at /explore. Reading a tracklist there is free with no account, and if someone has already identified this set you are done.

For a podcast or radio series, search the series name and the episode number as well as the DJ.

Go back to your timestamp and let Shazam or SoundHound listen. You do not need a second device:

1. In Chrome or another Chromium browser, install the Shazam extension. Apple's Shazam guide says the extension "scans and identifies music playing on a webpage", so it can listen to the SoundCloud tab directly.
2. On an iPhone or iPad, play the mix in the SoundCloud app with headphones on and use Recognize Music in Control Center. Apple's page on identifying songs says it identifies music playing on your device while you wear headphones.
3. Otherwise, hold a phone running Shazam or SoundHound near your speaker.

Try two or three moments in the track. If every attempt fails, the app is probably not broken. Avery Wang's 2003 paper on the algorithm behind Shazam, An Industrial-Strength Audio Search Algorithm, says it was designed to recognize "sound files that are already present in the database" and is "very sensitive to which particular version of a track has been sampled". A track the DJ has sped up, an edit, or an unreleased promo may not match anything.

If you want more than one track from the mix, or the app keeps failing, paste the SoundCloud link at /scan. SoundCloud is the one platform we accept, so this step works for mixes from 15 minutes to 5 hours long. Shorter links are treated as single tracks and refused before any charge.

You get a tracklist with a timestamp on every track, so you can jump straight to 1:12:30, plus a confidence level per track and store and streaming links where we find them. The badge shows a score from 0 to 100: lime is high (75 and up), amber is in between, and gray is low and worth checking by ear. A "Double match" label means two independent matches agreed. A typical 90-minute set takes about five to eight minutes; you can leave the page and an email arrives when it is done.

This step costs credits: one credit is $3.49 and covers a set up to 2 hours, with no subscription (pricing). If the run fails or nothing is recognized, the credit is refunded automatically.

If the comments are empty, the databases have nothing, and both the app and the scan leave the row unidentified, the track is probably unreleased, a private edit or a bootleg. No service can name music that was never released or cataloged.

Ask people instead. Leave a comment on the waveform at the exact timestamp, so the uploader and later listeners see the question, and any answer, in the same place. Post the link and the time in a track ID community, and message the DJ. Our how-tos on asking for a track ID and finding an unreleased track ID cover the wording. We think a polite timestamped comment is the most underrated tool on SoundCloud.