How to find a song in a SoundCloud mix
Four routes, in the order to try them: recognition on your own Mac or iPhone, a tracklist someone wrote, a whole-set scan, and a trail for unreleased IDs.
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To find a song in a SoundCloud mix, start where the audio already is: your Mac or iPhone can listen to the mix it's playing, so a recognition attempt takes seconds. If that comes back empty, look for a tracklist that someone has already put together for the mix. If you want a dozen tracks rather than one, scan the whole set in a single pass. And if a clean passage still matches nothing and no list names it, treat it as a probable unreleased ID and keep a trail, so you catch the track when it comes out. The table puts each route next to the situation it suits.
Choose your route
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| One track, and the mix is playing now | Route 1: recognition on your own device |
| Recognition failed, or the mix comes from a known show or event | Route 2: a tracklist someone wrote |
| You want most of the tracks in the mix | Route 3: identify the whole set |
| Nothing names the track | Route 4: keep a trail for an unreleased ID |
Keep two details in a note while you work: the mix's link and the minute mark where your track sits. They let you check any answer against the mix by ear, and they're what you'll need to find the track again weeks later.
Route 1: let your own device listen
The mix is already playing on the computer or phone in front of you, and Apple's recognition can listen to that device's own audio, so there's nothing to set up beyond a control.
- On a Mac. Apple's support page explains that you can put the Recognize Music control in Control Center or in the menu bar and use it to identify songs "playing around you or on your device when you're wearing headphones." Play the mix in your browser with headphones on and click the control.
- On iPhone or iPad. Put the Recognize Music control in Control Center; Apple's support page shows how. Apple's iPhone User Guide, in its list of actions for the Action button, describes Recognize Music as a way to find out what song is "playing nearby or on your iPhone" with Shazam. Start the mix in SoundCloud and tap the control while it plays. Shazam in Control Center covers the setup.
- The Shazam app. According to Apple's support page, Shazam keeps listening when you move to another app and sends a notification once it has a match. Apple's Shazam guide adds that the Control Center control identifies music playing in other apps without opening Shazam at all.
When the first attempt comes back empty
A miss usually says more about the passage than about the track. Change one thing and try again:
| What you hear at that point | What to change |
|---|---|
| The previous track is still bleeding in | Skip ahead until only your track is playing |
| A filter sweep, echo or loop on the track | Wait until the DJ releases the effect |
| A vocal or acapella layered on top | Try a section where that vocal drops out |
| Clean audio, but still no match after a few tries | Stop retrying and move to Route 2 |
The last row matters most. When clean passages keep failing, the recording you're hearing may not be in Shazam's catalogue at all: a DJ's own edit, a version pitched well away from the original, or a track that hasn't been released. Routes 2 and 4 are built for that case.
Route 2: find a tracklist someone wrote
Tracklist sites file mixes by what they are, not by what's in them, so work out the mix's identity before you search. The SoundCloud title and description often carry the terms you need: a show name and episode number, or an event, a stage and a date.
- Search a tracklist site with those terms. On 1001Tracklists, a festival set is filed under the DJ, stage, event and date. The Skrillex set from the T-Mobile Stage at Austin City Limits on 2 October 2026 is listed that way, with 70 of its 76 tracks identified when we checked, and most rows on that page carry a cue time, so you can jump to the row nearest your minute mark. The site's Advanced Search, added in 2022, filters tracklists or tracks by date, genre and more.
- Read what came with the upload. Some uploaders type out the tracks; others link to a show page or a longer post elsewhere. A partial list still narrows things down.
- Look for another copy of the same mix. SoundCloud's search help describes a DJ Sets & Podcasts tab in the mobile app, and Duration and Tag filters on the web. Searching for the DJ's name with the long-duration filter can turn up the same set posted by a promoter or a station, sometimes with fuller notes.
A name you find this way is somewhere to start, not the final answer. Lists are typed by hand and can be wrong, so play the preview against the mix at your minute mark before the track goes on your buy list.
Route 3: identify the whole set
If a mix is full of tracks you want, one-at-a-time recognition gets slow. Identifying the whole set gives you every track you can name in one pass, which you can then sort through. How to Shazam a whole DJ set covers the options, including running a full SoundCloud link through recognition. Expect gaps: unreleased tracks and heavy edits stay unnamed whatever tool you use.
Route 4: keep a trail for an unreleased ID
When neither recognition nor a tracklist names a track, it may be music that isn't out yet: a promo, a private edit or a producer's work in progress. You can't buy it today, but you can set things up so you hear about it when it lands.
- Log it with context. Save the mix link, the minute mark, the DJ and the date of the mix in the same place as the rest of your finds, so it doesn't live only in your memory.
- Follow the ID across sets. On 1001Tracklists, an ID row can be linked to the same ID in other sets. In that Austin City Limits set, the second track, credited to Skrillex, Flava D and Taichu with no title yet, is linked to a Navy Pier Chicago set from 11 September 2026, and a later ID on the page shows 44 linked positions. Each link is another set where the track has been played, and another page to check later for a name.
- Let a pre-save wait for you. 1001Tracklists' Spotify integration, added in 2019, lets you pre-save tracks, ID tracks included. Once the site has a Spotify ID for the track, it goes into your Spotify collection automatically.
- Contact the source, briefly. If you message the DJ or the label, include the link and the minute mark so they can tell which track you mean without listening through the whole mix.
- Set a recheck date. Come back in a few weeks: look at the linked sets again, and run recognition on your minute mark in case the track has since been released.
Once you have the name
Naming the track isn't the end. Before you buy, confirm the version: an extended mix, a dub, an edit or a specific remix can sound quite different from what you heard. Then add it to one list with the rest of your finds and decide on a set day whether it earns a place in your crate. How to find and buy the tracks from a DJ set covers that whole route, and finding DJ music on SoundCloud covers using SoundCloud for digging more generally.
Doing this with CatchIt!
CatchIt! is a Mac app with a free iOS companion with a whole-set route built in.
- Shazam the whole mix. Paste a SoundCloud (or Mixcloud) mix URL into the Mac app's Add Tracklist sheet. CatchIt! fetches the set and Shazams it from start to finish, with live progress and a stop button.
- Single tracks too. If you only need one track and have its SoundCloud link, share it to Save to CatchIt! on iPhone or paste it into the Mac Inbox.
- Decide and buy. Identified tracks land for review. Return keeps a track and Space rejects it; kept tracks get search links for Beatport, Bandcamp, YouTube and Google.
Unreleased tracks won't be identified this way either, so Route 4 still applies. See Importing tracklists.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I identify a song in a SoundCloud mix without a second phone?
- Yes. Apple's support page says a Mac with headphones connected can recognize songs it is playing itself, and Apple's iPhone User Guide describes Recognize Music as finding out what song is "playing nearby or on your iPhone". Play the mix in the browser or app and use the Recognize Music control.
- Why can't Shazam identify the track?
- Recognition needs a close match with a released recording. Two tracks overlapping, a filter or loop the DJ is riding, a heavily edited or pitched version, or a track that isn't out yet can each leave it with no answer. Test a different passage; if several clean passages fail, look for a tracklist instead.
- Where do I look for a SoundCloud mix's tracklist?
- Start from what the mix is, such as a show and episode number or an event, stage and date, and search for those terms on a tracklist site. 1001Tracklists' Advanced Search filters results by date and genre. The text the uploader posted on SoundCloud is worth reading too.
- What if the track turns out to be unreleased?
- Log the mix link, the minute mark and the DJ, and set a date to check again. On 1001Tracklists, an ID can be linked to the same ID in other sets, and the site's Spotify pre-save adds a track to your Spotify collection once it has a Spotify ID for it.
Sources
- SoundCloud Help: Search on SoundCloud
- Apple Support: Use your Apple device to identify what song is playing
- iPhone User Guide: Use and customize the Action button on iPhone
- Shazam User Guide: Identify songs with the Shazam app on iPhone, iPad, or an Android device
- 1001Tracklists: What's New
- 1001Tracklists: Skrillex @ T-Mobile Stage, Austin City Limits Music Festival, 2026-10-02