Turn an old mix CD into a Spotify playlist
Rip the CD to one MP3, upload it to ryser.id and you get its tracklist with the time each song starts, even when the CD only says Track 01, Track 02. Fix what is off, then Send to Spotify and more makes it a playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL and other services. One CD fits in the 120 free minutes a month; sending the playlist comes with Opener, €2.50 a month.
ryser.id is a tracklist finder that works from the audio itself: upload a mix CD as one file and every song it can name comes back with the time it starts, ready to send to Spotify as a playlist.
- Works on
- Mix CDs, DJ mix compilations, mixtapes and radio shows on CD, ripped to a file. No tracklist or CD text needed.
- Files
- MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, WEBM or AAC, up to 500 MB and 4 hours per file. One file per CD.
- Free
- 120 minutes every month with a free account. A CD runs up to 80 minutes, so one CD fits.
- To Spotify
- Send to Spotify and more, via Soundiiz: Spotify, Apple Music, Beatport, TIDAL, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, Amazon Music or Qobuz. Comes with Opener, €2.50 a month.
- Unnamed songs
- Songs nobody has named stay in the set as ID - ID and do not go into the playlist.
- Private
- Only you see the tracklist until you choose to make it public.
Read next: What ID - ID means in a tracklist · Minutes, plans and passes: what a set costs
The CDs nobody wrote a tracklist for
Mix CDs from club nights, DJ mix compilations, a mixtape a friend made you, a radio show somebody burned years ago. Most play as one continuous mix, and in a computer they show up as Track 01, Track 02 and so on, without a single title.
For a released album or a known compilation, the tracklist is usually on the sleeve or on Discogs. For a mix CD there often is no list anywhere. ryser.id takes it from the audio: it works through the whole file from start to end and names every song it can, with the time it starts.
A phone app such as Shazam names the song that is playing, one at a time; for a CD of 80 minutes that means playing it through and tapping for every song. With the file, the whole list comes back at once.
Rip the CD to one file
Make one MP3 of the whole CD, not a file per track: that gives one tracklist, with times that run from the start of the CD to the end. The three ways below take a few minutes.
Upload it
Sign in, open New run and choose Upload file. MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, WEBM or AAC, up to 500 MB: a whole CD as MP3 is about 180 MB.
Get the tracklist
ryser.id cuts the mix at its transitions and names the songs it hears, each with the time it starts, its BPM and its key. You can close the tab; a mail tells you when it is done.
Check and fix the rows
Every row carries a mark that says how sure it is. Open a row to correct it, or type the artist and title yourself; Check every track walks you through the set one row at a time, free on your first set.
Send it to Spotify
Press Send to Spotify and more, pick Spotify or another service, and confirm the playlist on Soundiiz with your own account. Songs nobody has named stay in the set as ID - ID.
Three ways to rip a CD to one file
One file per CD keeps the mix in one piece. Choose MP3 at 320 kbps or AAC (.m4a): a whole CD as WAV is about 810 MB, over the 500 MB limit, while MP3 at 320 kbps is about 180 MB.
Apple Music on a Mac, or iTunes on Windows
Insert the CD and do not import it yet. Sort the list by its number column, select every track (Cmd+A or Ctrl+A), choose Join CD Tracks from the menu in the CD view, then import the CD: it comes in as one track. In Import Settings you can pick the MP3 Encoder; the default AAC (.m4a) works too.
Windows Media Player
In the rip settings, set the format to MP3 and the quality to the highest, then rip the CD. It saves one file per track, so join them: open them all in the free Audacity, put them one after another with Align End to End, and export one MP3.
Exact Audio Copy
Choose Action, Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet, Compressed, with an MP3 encoder (LAME) set in the compression options. You get one audio file for the whole CD and a CUE sheet with the CD's own track marks. Upload the audio file; keep the CUE sheet for yourself.
Already ripped as Track 01, Track 02? Join the files in Audacity the same way, in their order, before you upload.
A box of several CDs: one upload per CD
Upload each CD as its own file: each gets its own tracklist and its own playlist. A CD uses its length in minutes, so a CD of 80 minutes uses 80.
The 120 free minutes a month cover one CD. A second CD in the same month starts all the same: what your minutes cover shows right away, and the rest is found too and waits locked, to unlock with a plan or for that one CD. Or upload the next CD next month, when your free minutes are back.
A box of 4 CDs is about 5 hours of audio. Opener gives 6 hours a month for €2.50, enough for 4 full CDs, and comes with sending to Spotify; Headliner gives 10 hours for €5, about 7 CDs. Or buy minutes that never expire: 3 hours €2.99, 10 hours €7.99 or 25 hours €19.99.
You only pay for what we find: when a CD is done and the songs we found add up to fewer minutes than it used, the difference comes back. And a rest of 2 minutes or less past your minutes is given free.
How do I find out what songs are on a mix CD?
Rip it to one file and upload it to ryser.id: it lists the songs from the audio, each with the time it starts. For a released album or a known compilation the tracklist is usually on the sleeve or on Discogs; a mix CD, a mixtape or a radio show on CD often has none.
Can I Shazam an MP3 file?
A phone app such as Shazam names a song while it plays, one song at a time. To get every song in an MP3 of a whole CD, upload the file to ryser.id: it works through it from start to end and lists every song it names, with timestamps.
How do I turn an MP3 into a Spotify playlist?
Upload the MP3, check the tracklist, then press Send to Spotify and more. ryser.id hands the list to Soundiiz, where you log in to Spotify and confirm the playlist; Apple Music, TIDAL, Deezer and the others work the same way. Sending comes with Opener, €2.50 a month.
Is it free?
Identifying is: a free account gets 120 minutes every month, and one CD of up to 80 minutes fits. Sending the tracklist to Spotify and the other services, and exporting it as text, CSV or M3U8, come with Opener at €2.50 a month. No card is needed to start.
What happens to songs nobody can name?
They stay in the set as ID - ID: an unreleased track, a private edit or a part too blended to name. They do not go into the playlist. If you know one, open the row and type the artist and title; it goes along the next time you send.
My CD is ripped as Track 01, Track 02. Can I upload the files one by one?
You can, but each file then becomes a set of its own, with its own tracklist and playlist. Join them into one file first (Audacity does it for free) and the whole CD becomes one tracklist and one playlist.
Which files work, and how big can they be?
MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, WEBM or AAC, up to 500 MB and 4 hours per file. A whole CD as MP3 at 320 kbps is about 180 MB; as WAV it is about 810 MB, too big, so convert it to MP3 or AAC first.
Who can see my CD's tracklist?
Only you, until you choose Make public and copy link. On the free plan the uploaded file is deleted after 7 days and the tracklist stays; on a paid plan, uploads are kept.
Your old mix CDs, as playlists.
120 free minutes a month: one CD fits. No card.