Using the Beatport cart as a wishlist: limits and options
Beatport offers several carts, a Hold Bin and buyable playlists. What each does, what the help pages don't say, and when a list outside the store helps.
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Using the Beatport cart as a wishlist is tempting: add anything promising, come back later, buy some of it. It works up to a point. Beatport's help center says you can create as many custom carts as you wish, plus a Main Cart and a Hold Bin for tracks you want to store for later, and you can move tracks between them. We didn't find a published limit on tracks per cart. For a longer-term holding pen, though, Beatport's playlists are the better tool: you can add whole releases with one click, share them, and buy a playlist with Buy All when it's under 150 tracks or $250. The real limit of any Beatport list is that it only sees Beatport.
What Beatport gives you to save tracks
| Tool | What Beatport's help says | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Main Cart | Your default cart; can't be deleted or renamed | The basket you're about to buy |
| Hold Bin | Listed under Pro Carts for storing tracks for later; can't be deleted, renamed or set as default | Tracks you're not ready to buy |
| Custom carts | Create as many as you wish, name them, set one as default, move tracks between them | Sorting by genre, gig or BPM |
| Playlists | Add releases with the + button, share publicly, buy with Buy All | A longer-term list you'll trim over time |
Custom carts and the Hold Bin
Beatport's article on multiple carts says you can organise purchases "whether by genre, style, BPM, or any category you desire." Click the down arrow next to any Buy button to send a track to a new or existing cart. In Account Settings under Cart Preferences, the Pro Carts section shows your Main Cart and Hold Bin, and My Carts lists the carts you've created.
Two details from the same article are worth knowing:
- Default cart. When you set a custom cart as default, any track you click Buy on goes into it. That's handy for a gig-specific basket, and easy to forget afterwards.
- Deleting carts. Beatport warns that a deleted cart can't be recovered. Move anything you want to keep before deleting.
You can move tracks between carts one at a time or in bulk, by ticking several tracks and using the Move To option, or Select All.
Playlists
Beatport's playlist tools suit a wishlist better than carts do:
- Adding. The + button on an EP adds the release to a new or existing playlist, and you can create a playlist from the Beatport Top 10 the same way. Beatport says those playlists are then available in its mobile app.
- Buying. Playlist Purchasing lets you buy a whole playlist with Buy All, for any playlist under 150 tracks or $250 in value.
- Sharing. A toggle on the playlist page makes it public, with a link you can share.
- Repeats. Beatport's Duplicate Track Detection reminds you when you add a track to a playlist twice.
The Beatport app listing also describes creating playlists and adding tracks on the go, so a playlist is reachable from your phone when you hear something in a shop or club.
The limits that matter
Size
The help pages we checked don't publish a per-cart track limit. The practical limit is attention: a cart with hundreds of tracks stops being a basket and becomes a pile. The Buy All threshold of 150 tracks or $250 is a useful size for a playlist you intend to buy from.
It's a store tool
A cart is designed to lead to checkout. That's fine for a basket, less so for a list you're still judging. A Hold Bin or playlist is calmer, but it's still inside the store, next to the Buy button.
It only sees Beatport
This is the main limit. Finds from Bandcamp, Traxsource, a Shazam in a club or a friend's link can't live in a Beatport cart. If you buy from several stores, each one ends up with its own half-list. That's how tracks get forgotten, or bought twice. How to avoid buying the same track twice covers the checks, and the Bandcamp wishlist guide covers the same problem on the other side.
A setup that works
- Keep one master list outside any store for tracks you haven't judged yet, from every source. A spreadsheet, a notes file or a dedicated app all work.
- Listen on a set day and keep or reject each track.
- Move Beatport keepers into one playlist named for the week or month.
- Check the version of each track against what you heard.
- Buy with Buy All if the playlist fits under 150 tracks or $250, or move tracks to the Main Cart.
- Mark them bought in your master list, and clear the playlist.
Use custom carts for sorting a basket, such as one per gig, rather than as long-term storage. The pillar guide on where DJs buy music covers how Beatport fits next to other stores, and Is Beatport worth it? covers prices and plans.
A worked example: how big a buyable playlist gets
Buy All has two limits, 150 tracks and $250, and at current prices the money limit usually arrives first. Using the Top 100 prices we saw in the US store on 3 October 2026, as an illustration:
| Price per track | What stops Buy All first | Most tracks that fit |
|---|---|---|
| $1.49 | The 150-track limit | 149 (about $222) |
| $1.69 | The $250 limit | 147 (about $248) |
| $2.49 | The $250 limit | 100 (about $249) |
If most of what you buy sits at the higher price, plan on about 100 tracks per buyable playlist. A weekly or monthly playlist of keepers rarely gets near that, which is one more reason to buy in batches instead of letting a single list grow for months.
After checkout
Bought tracks move to your Beatport Collection, where the purchase date shows beside each track. Beatport's support center says you can download a purchased track up to 20 times without a streaming subscription, and that a purchased MP3 can be upgraded to a lossless format by paying the difference, listed as 0.70 units of your local currency. Download the files straight away into your music folder, so the Collection stays a receipt rather than your only copy.
Doing this with CatchIt!
CatchIt! is a Mac app with a free iOS companion whose Wishlist works as that master list, outside any store.
- Everything in one Inbox. Shazam captures, shared links, tracklists, imported playlists and followed Beatport charts land together. Return keeps a track and Space rejects it.
- Store links per row. Kept tracks show search links for Beatport, Bandcamp, YouTube and Google, and a copy button for a clean "Title Artist" line. CatchIt! doesn't add tracks to a Beatport cart or playlist for you; you open the link and add it yourself.
- Done when bought. Mark tracks Done, filter by Pending or Done, and export a selection as TXT or CSV.
See Core concepts.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a limit to the Beatport cart?
- Beatport's help article on custom carts says you can create as many carts as you wish. We didn't find a published limit on the number of tracks in one cart in the support pages we checked. For playlists, the Buy All button works for playlists under 150 tracks or $250 in value.
- What is the Beatport Hold Bin?
- Beatport's help article lists the Hold Bin next to your Main Cart under Pro Carts, describing it as a place where you can store tracks for later. You can't delete or rename it, and you can't set it as your default cart.
- Should I use a Beatport cart or a playlist to save tracks?
- A playlist is the better long-term holding pen. You can add whole releases with the + button, share playlists publicly, and buy a playlist in one click with Buy All. Carts are better for a basket you mean to check out soon.
- Can a Beatport cart hold tracks from other stores?
- No. A cart or playlist only holds Beatport tracks. If you also buy on Bandcamp or Traxsource, keep a separate list that covers every store and use Beatport's tools for checkout.
Sources
- Beatport Support: How do I use multiple custom carts?
- Beatport Support: Playlist Purchasing
- Beatport Support: New Add to Playlist Button
- Beatport Support: Public + Shareable Playlists
- Beatport Support: Duplicate Track Detection
- App Store: Beatport: Music for DJs App
- Beatport: Top 100
- Beatport Support: How do I re-download my tracks?
- Beatport Support: Upgrading purchased tracks from MP3 to lossless