Crate digging used to mean physically flipping through records at a shop. Today it means spending your Saturday morning copy-pasting track names into Beatport search, one by one, for every set you heard at a festival or club.
If you buy music properly — and if you're playing it to an audience, you should — crate digging can easily consume hours every week. There's a better way.
A typical DJ set has 20–40 tracks. A festival set might have 50+. Here's what the old workflow looks like:
CratePilot is a free web tool that takes a DJ set URL — from 1001Tracklists or YouTube — and automatically matches every track on Beatport. You get a list of matched tracks with direct links, confidence scores, and buttons to open them all in Beatport at once.
No account required. No app to install. Just paste a URL and go.
CratePilot supports three input modes, covering every crate digging scenario:
Paste a 1001tracklists.com link directly
Paste a YouTube video link — description or 1001TL lookup
Copy-paste any tracklist text directly into the textarea
For most DJs, the workflow is: find the set on 1001Tracklists or YouTube → paste the URL → done. Paste Mode is the fallback when neither has a tracklist.
Step 1: Hear something you love. Could be at a club, festival, on YouTube, or from a SoundCloud mix. Anywhere.
Step 2: Find the tracklist. Check 1001Tracklists first — search by DJ name or event. If the set is on YouTube, the video description often has timestamps. If neither has it, check the comments section on the YouTube video (fans often post tracklists there).
Step 3: Paste into CratePilot. Copy the URL (1001TL or YouTube) and paste it at cratepilot.polsia.app. Hit Enter or click Convert. CratePilot starts working immediately.
Step 4: Review the results. 15–30 seconds later, you have a full list of matched tracks. Each track shows:
Step 5: Deselect what you already own. Uncheck tracks you have in your library. You only pay for what's new to your collection.
Step 6: Add to cart. Click Add All to Cart — CratePilot opens each track page sequentially with a 3–4 second delay so you can click "Add to Cart" in each tab. Or use Copy Links to save the Beatport URLs for later.
For high-confidence matches (green), use Add All to Cart. For yellow/low confidence matches, use "Open in Beatport" on each one individually to verify the right version before buying. A 30-second spot check saves you from buying the wrong mix.
The term comes from DJs physically digging through crates of vinyl at record shops — hours of hunting for gems. That tactile hunt has a romance to it, but the digital equivalent — searching Beatport track by track — has none of the romance and all of the tedium.
Modern crate digging should be about discovery, not data entry. Spend your time at Boiler Room livestreams, in the YouTube rabbit hole, at clubs hearing new stuff. Let CratePilot handle the mechanical part of getting those tracks into your library.
CratePilot works best with sets that have clean, complete tracklists. Here's what to expect from different sources:
Not every track ends up on Beatport. Some common reasons:
For these, CratePilot shows a search link pointing to the closest Beatport result. It won't be a direct buy, but it gets you close.
Want more detail on a specific workflow? We've written dedicated guides:
Yes, completely free. No signup, no subscription, no limits. CratePilot earns through Beatport affiliate links — the affiliate ID is automatically appended to track links, and we get a small commission if you buy. This doesn't change what you pay.
Open All in Beatport opens all selected tracks at once (or with a short delay for large sets). Use this when you want to quickly see all the tracks. Add All to Cart opens them sequentially with a longer delay — designed for when you're actively clicking "Add to Cart" in each tab.
Not yet — CratePilot currently only matches tracks on Beatport. This is the most-requested feature addition. Sign up for the email list on the home page to get notified when it's added.
CratePilot doesn't require an account. We store anonymous search data (the URL you submitted and the results) for analytics. No personal data is collected or sold.
On well-documented sets with clean tracklist data, high-confidence matches are typically 90–98% accurate. Accuracy drops for IDs, informal artist names, or sets with ambiguous track data. The confidence score system (High/Likely/Low) helps you know when to double-check.
Paste any 1001Tracklists or YouTube URL and have your Beatport cart ready in 30 seconds. Free, forever.
Open CratePilot →