Shazam for DJ Mixes
Apple Music uses Shazam to name the tracks in DJ mixes on its own service. For a mix anywhere else, paste the link here and get the complete tracklist, timestamped, in minutes.
Identify my mixShazam and DJ mixes in Apple Music
Since late 2021 Apple Music has used Shazam's technology to identify the tracks inside DJ mixes on its service, including sets from Boiler Room, Tomorrowland, Cercle, Mixmag and the DJ-Kicks series. Apple built it so the artists in a mix and the DJ who made it get paid.
That identification covers the mixes Apple Music carries. A set that lives on YouTube, SoundCloud, Mixcloud or another site is outside it. setlist.id works from a link on any supported platform and returns the full tracklist, each track with the timestamp where it starts in the recording.
Why the Shazam app struggles with a mix
Shazam is built around a snapshot: it samples a few seconds of whatever is playing and matches that one moment against one song. For the radio or a TV ad, that is the right design.
A two-hour set holds thirty or forty tracks, blended into each other with no clean boundaries. Tracks are pitched up or down to match tempo, EQ'd to make room for each other, and layered two or three deep through transitions. A snapshot taken during a blend catches a hybrid of two records that matches neither, and a snapshot taken mid-track still only answers for that one moment.
Even a perfect snapshot tool would leave you doing the work: standing over the speaker for the whole recording, firing it at the right instant between every transition, and writing down the results yourself.
| Feature | Shazam app | setlist.id |
|---|---|---|
| Identifies | One song at a time | The whole set in one pass |
| Input | A microphone sample | A link to the recording |
| Timestamps | None | One for every track |
| Works on | Music playing live in the room | The recording, any time afterward |
What identifying a whole set takes
Last updated
Paste a link from YouTube, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, TikTok, or any of more than 100 supported platforms, and the complete audio is pulled from the source. Nothing is recorded on your device and no app has to stay open.
The recording is cut into overlapping segments and each segment runs through our own recognition algorithm, which draws on partners including ACRCloud and Shazam. Overlap is what survives transitions: somewhere in every blend there is a window where each track shows enough of itself to match. The segment results are then assembled into one tracklist, in play order, with the exact timestamp where each track enters.
A one-hour mix typically processes in under five minutes, and anything with a commercial release is fair game. Every identified track carries links to YouTube, Spotify, Deezer, and Beatport, and the finished tracklist exports to your clipboard, a text file, a YouTube-ready chapter format, or a playlist.
When Shazam is still the right tool
If a song is playing around you right now, in a shop or on the radio, Shazam is free and instant. setlist.id does not listen through a microphone, so live ambient audio is not its job.
Music playing in the room right now: use Shazam. A recording that exists at a link (a two-hour Boiler Room set or a fifteen-second club clip): use setlist.id, and get every identifiable track at once. The price difference follows the same line: Shazam is free and right for the room; setlist.id is paid, works on the recording, and refunds any time it cannot identify.
See what one pass returns on that kind of recording: a real 35-track Boiler Room set, every track timestamped.
Browse the sets identified so far, or the festivals, club nights and radio streams they came from.
Frequently asked questions
Can Shazam identify a DJ mix?
Inside Apple Music, yes: Apple uses Shazam's technology to identify the tracks in DJ mixes on its service. The Shazam app itself identifies one song at a time from a short sample, so for a mix elsewhere you catch individual tracks by running it repeatedly at the right moments, and blended transitions and layered tracks defeat that single-snapshot approach.
Can I Shazam a YouTube video or SoundCloud mix?
You can hold your phone up to the speakers or use on-device audio recognition to catch the track playing right now. For a two-hour set that means dozens of manual attempts, each timed to land between transitions. setlist.id processes the whole recording from the link in one pass instead.
How is this different from Auto Shazam?
Auto Shazam listens continuously through your device while the music plays, which helps in real time but still misses blended and pitched sections, gives no timestamps against the recording, and requires the set to play out loud from start to finish. setlist.id works after the fact from a URL, analyzes every second server-side, and stamps each track with its position in the mix.
Does setlist.id listen through my microphone?
No. setlist.id is link-based: paste the URL of a mix on YouTube, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, or any of 100+ supported platforms, and the audio is pulled from the source directly. Nothing is recorded on your device.
Can it identify unreleased tracks?
No tool can, including Shazam. Fingerprinting matches against released catalog, so unreleased edits and dubplates come back as timestamped gaps.
What does it cost?
setlist.id is priced by the hour of audio, not by the song: 1 hour of identification time covers 1 hour of mix, with a 15-minute minimum. Bundles start at 5 hours for $6, hours never expire, and anything that cannot be identified is refunded automatically.
Identify the whole set
Paste a link from any of 100+ platforms and get every track with timestamps.