Find a Track in a DJ Set by Timestamp

This is the quick version of the routine in our guide to identifying a track in a DJ mix. Write down two times: when you first notice the track coming in, and a moment a minute or two later where it clearly plays alone. A DJ blends tracks, so the first time often still belongs to the previous record.

The players help you hold on to the moment. On YouTube, the Share panel has a Start at box; YouTube Help says you check it and enter the time, such as 2:30, before you copy the link. On SoundCloud's website, SoundCloud Help says clicking the free space below the waveform leaves a comment at that exact timestamp.

Open the MixTracklist library. Reading it is free and needs no account. The page lists identified sets and has tabs for mixes, artists, tracks and genres, with a search box. Search for the DJ's name, or for words from the set's title exactly as it appears on SoundCloud, such as the club, the event or the date.

Every set that anyone identifies joins this public library, so it grows with use. It is young, and many sets are not in it yet. If yours is missing, go to the last step.

The set's page is a tracklist in playing order with a timestamp on every track. Each row shows when that track starts and when it ends, so you are looking for the row whose range contains your timestamp, not the row that starts nearest to it.

• If your time falls in the first or last half minute of a row, you are in a transition. Read the neighboring row as well and use your second, later timestamp to decide.
• If your time falls in a gap where nothing was recognized, that stretch stayed unidentified. Skip to the section below.

Every track carries a confidence score from 0 to 100, shown on a colored badge at the end of the row.

• Lime (75 and up): a strong match. If the row also says "Double match", two independent matches agreed; treat it as the answer.
• Amber (45 to 74): probably right. Play the track and compare it with the set before you buy.
• Gray (below 45): we are not sure. Check it by ear, and keep looking if it does not sound right.

A wrong row is most likely where the DJ played an edit, a bootleg or a remix: the row may name the original release. That is still a lead.

Beside the track you will find links to wherever it was found: Beatport, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, Traxsource, Bandcamp, Deezer or Tidal. Not every track has every link.

Open one and listen to the same passage you heard in the set. Remember that the DJ probably changed the tempo, so the store preview can sound slower or faster, and lower or higher, than the set did. If you DJ, Beatport, Traxsource and Bandcamp sell downloads you can play out; the streaming links are for listening.

Every track in the library has its own page listing the sets it was played in, with the timestamp in each. Under the tracklist, open "Every track in this set" and choose the track, or search for it under Explore, Tracks. If you doubt the match, hearing the same track inside another set settles it quickly. If the match is right, the other sets are a shortcut to DJs with similar taste.

Copy the set's SoundCloud page address and paste it at /scan. Only SoundCloud links are accepted today; YouTube, Mixcloud and file uploads are not supported. The set must be between 15 minutes and 5 hours long. A shorter link is treated as a single track and refused before any charge.

Identifying a new set costs credits, with no subscription: one credit is $3.49 and covers a set up to 2 hours, two credits cover up to 4 hours and three cover up to 5 hours. Bundles are cheaper per credit and are listed on the pricing page; credits never expire. A typical 90 minute set takes about five to eight minutes. You can leave the page, and an email arrives when it is done. If the run fails or nothing is recognized, the credit is refunded automatically.

MixTracklist cannot identify music that has never been released or cataloged anywhere, so those rows stay unidentified. It also cannot take a YouTube or Mixcloud link. In both cases the timestamp you wrote down is still your best tool.

• Community tracklists. 1001Tracklists and MixesDB hold tracklists written by listeners. MixesDB's own tracklist help page shows how they are written: a minute cue such as [61] or a clock cue such as [61:20] in front of a row, and a question mark for a track nobody has named.
• Comments. Look at the SoundCloud comments that sit around your timestamp on the waveform, and search YouTube comments for the time.
• Asking. Post the link with the exact time in a track ID community, or ask the DJ. Our how-to on asking for a track ID covers the etiquette. DJ Mag's 2025 feature on the track ID debate recounts a listener posting a clip to a Facebook ID group in 2014 and getting the answer within minutes; it also explains why some DJs keep certain tracks to themselves.

For a set that only exists on YouTube, see finding a song from a YouTube DJ set. Our view: a timestamp turns "what is that tune" into a question other people can answer, so always lead with it.