What are Gems?
Gems are a community music-discovery feature in Crates where users share tunes they believe the community should discover. The internet is full of noise, so Gems are designed to help focus on quality discoveries, not quantity.
Users post tracks they consider special, and the community decides whether they are worth revealing.
How Gems Work
Each user starts with a limited number of tokens that allow them to post tunes they find worth sharing.
- A user posts a Gem from a track.
- Other users see the Gem in the Gems feed.
- Users can choose one of three actions:
- Reveal – upvote the Gem, unlock the track information, and optionally import it to your Collection.
- Pass – skip the Gem without voting.
- Downvote – mark it as not a good fit for those tags.
- If enough users choose to Reveal your Gem, you earn reputation points and receive more tokens to post additional Gems.
- If not, you can always try again with another discovery.
What a Gem Contains
A Gem is a track recommendation that includes:
- Tags that help match the recommendation to interested listeners
- A short blurb or comment from the recommender
- Preview URL information
Before a Gem is revealed, important metadata such as the track title and artist is hidden from other users, to focus on the listening experience and give a touch of ritual to the process.
Viewing the Gems Feed
Click the Gem icon in the sidebar to view the latest Gems posted by the community.
Users interested in the tags of a Gem will see it in their feed and can decide whether to reveal it, pass, or downvote.
Posting Your Own Gems
You can post a Gem directly from a track:
- Press
MODIFIERKEY+G - Or right-click a tune and select Post as Gem
If the community validates your Gem, it increases your visibility and reputation within the associated tags.
Availability
Gems are currently available only to Crates Supporters.
To become a supporter and access Gems and other exclusive features:
Summary
Gems are Crates’ social recommendation system: users share strong track picks, the community validates them, and the best discoveries rise to the surface.