How Can We Help?

How to Create and Share a Public Playlist

PostedApril 25, 2026
UpdatedApril 25, 2026

This guide walks you through creating a playlist in Crates and publishing it so others can discover and listen to it.

1. Create a Playlist

You can create a playlist anywhere in your library, but a Playlists crate is a good place to start.

  • Right-click on Playlists (or any folder)
  • Click Add New → Playlist
  • Give it a name (you can change it later)

2. Add Music to Your Playlist

You can add tunes in multiple ways:

  • Right-click on the playlist → Import files or folders
  • Drag and drop files into Crates
  • Use the browser extension to import from online sources (Bandcamp, YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.)
  • Drag and drop or copy-paste supported links directly into Crates
  • Use Online Search to search for tracks online

A useful tip is to open the playlist in the right side panel: right-click → Open in side panel. This makes it easier to drag and drop tracks from the main panel while browsing your library.

You can then use Search, or right-click a tune and select Add to… the playlist. This sub-menu contains the playlists open in the right side panel.

3. Organize and Edit

  • Reorder tracks via drag and drop
  • Right-click a track → Edit to update metadata (genre, title, artist, album, year, etc.)
  • Use the Get Info action to automatically fetch metadata from connected sources

4. Add Audio Sources (Important)

For others to listen to your playlist, each track needs a public audio source.

  • Crates will try to auto-find sources when publishing
  • If it does not find a public audio source for a track, you’ll be prompted to add one

You can also add sources manually in advance:

  • Invoke the Find Audio Source action: right-click a track → Actions → Find audio source
  • Open Edit → check the Audio Sources section
  • Drag and drop a supported URL directly into Audio Sources

5. Add Timestamped Comments (Optional)

  • Right-click on the waveform area at the time you want the comment to appear → Add comment
  • To add a link, highlight the text and click the link icon, then enter the URL
  • Each comment appears as an icon on the waveform
  • Right-click a comment to edit or remove it

6. Share Your Playlist

  • Click Share playlist
  • Review the title, description, and tags (used for discoverability)
  • Tip: Start with Unlisted first if you want to test before the playlist appears on the crates.app/playlists page.
  • Click Share 

Your playlist is now published on Crates.app and can be discovered by other users in their Crates installation.

7. Update Your Playlist

You can update your playlist anytime:

  • Change the order of tracks, add or remove tracks, update metadata or comments
  • Click Share again → Update

Notes

  • Publishing sends your playlist data to Crates servers so others can discover it
  • Tracks without valid audio sources won’t be playable by others, but they can search for a public audio source themselves based on the track’s metadata
  • Advanced: It is recommended to populate the ISRC of a tune to improve discoverability. The ISRC is the unique identifier of the track across streaming platforms. A useful way to do this is to pull metadata through the Get Info action, after connecting as many sources as possible.
Tags: