What is a crate and how is it different from a playlist?

This is one of the most common questions in Crates — and understanding the difference helps you structure your music intentionally.

TL;DR

• A Playlist is a list of tunes meant for playback in that specific order.
• A Crate is an organizational unit that helps you structure your music.

Playlists are about sequence and interoperability.
Crates are about structure and hierarchy.

What is a Playlist?

A playlist is a defined, ordered list of tracks.

In Crates, a playlist can be:

• A playlist you created in Crates
• A local playlist originating from an m3u, pls etc file from your computer.
• An imported playlist from an external service (Spotify / YouTube / SoundCloud etc)
• A public, curated, or collaborative playlist you discovered and imported from the Crates website.

Playlists are about:

• Ordered playback (a specific sequence)
• A theme, mood, journey — a coherent selection
• Interoperability with services
• Sharing with other users

They are portable, exchangeable. You can import them, export them, share them, collaborate on them, or sync them across platforms.

If you’re thinking:
‘This is what I want to press play on’
or
‘This is something I want to share’

— that’s a playlist.

What is a Crate?

A crate is a structural container.

It’s more abstract and more flexible than a playlist.

A crate can:

• contain playlists
• contain tunes (but not two instances of the same tune)
• contain other crates (sub-crates)
• mirror a folder from your file system
• automatically reflect the combined contents of its sub-crates
• represent a long-term theme or collection (e.g. ‘2014 downloads’, or ‘imported from iPod nano’)

Crates are primarily about organizing your music world in a way that scales over time.

You can create hierarchies like:

• Crate
  • Sub-crate
    • Playlist
    • Playlist
  • Another sub-crate

This makes crates powerful for complex libraries, DJ preparation, research, long-term archiving, or multi-platform organization.

How they work together

Most users use both:

• crates to create structure
• playlists for a specific listening set

For example:

• Crate: ‘Athens Gigs’
  • Sub-crate: ‘Warm Ups’
    • Playlist: ‘Early Energy 01’
    • Playlist: ‘Ambient and organic’
  • Sub-crate: ‘Peak’
    • Playlist: ‘Warehouse Pressure’

Crates hold context.
Playlists hold sequence.

What about ‘smart’ crates?

Smart crates are crates that update automatically based on rules you define (genre, rating, year, source, etc.).

Instead of manually adding tracks, you define criteria and the crate populates itself dynamically.

Learn more here:
https://crates.app/knowledge-base/smart-crates-how-to/

What about the ‘default’ crates?

When you install Crates, you’ll see some default crates. These are structural helpers built into the system.

They are not just regular playlists — they serve specific organizational purposes.

Learn more here:
https://crates.app/knowledge-base/what-are-the-default-crates-and-what-are-they-for/

To sum up:

• Use crates for structure and context.
• Use playlists for ordered listening and sharing.
• Use smart crates when you want automation.