How to identify a track in a SoundCloud mix or upload

The quick answer

Copy the SoundCloud link, paste it into ID Crate's Detect Audio and press Detect. The clip is fingerprinted through four recognition services, the frames are read for deck screens and overlays, the caption is parsed and the platform's own tags are checked, and the fused result is verified against Spotify and Apple Music. Most scans finish in one to three minutes. The free plan includes five a month.

If you would rather try by hand first, the free methods below work often enough to be worth thirty seconds.

Copy the link

Links look like soundcloud.com/artist/track-name.

1. Use Share, then copy the link, or copy the address bar.
2. Private links with a secret token work while the token is valid.

Try the free methods first

• Read the description. Radio shows and mix series often list every track.
• Scrub the timed comments along the waveform. Listeners drop IDs at the exact moment.
• Check the uploader's other tracks and reposts for the same tune under its real name.

What ID Crate does with a SoundCloud link

• Audio fingerprinting across the upload in long-mix mode, since most SoundCloud links are full mixes rather than clips.
• Caption parsing on the description and the title, which is often "Artist - Title" already.
• Platform metadata from the upload itself.

SoundCloud quirks worth knowing

• Uploads longer than a minute are treated as mixes. Long-mix mode is a Pro Plus feature; other plans get the first minute identified.
• Bootlegs and edits on SoundCloud are often not in any fingerprint database, because they were never released. The community wall is the place for those.
• Some uploads are geo-blocked or download-disabled and cannot be fetched.

When nothing identifies it

An unreleased track is not in any database, and that is the case for a lot of what gets filmed in clubs. When every signal draws a blank, the clip's audio is compared with every other unidentified scan so you find out if the same unknown ID has been heard elsewhere. From there you can share the hunt with the community, or add it to your crate as an ID and let the daily scanner check the stores until the day it is released.

Questions

Can it identify an edit that only exists on SoundCloud?

Not by fingerprint, because nothing in the recognition databases matches it. Share it as a community hunt and the crowd can name it, and the clip is compared against other unidentified scans so you learn if it has turned up elsewhere.