Crate Cruiser

Sweep your shelf.
Take it digging.

A free app for records. Pan your phone along a shelf and it reads your records from their spines. Then, in a shop, it buzzes when a sleeve in the crate is one you own or one you want.

  • Checks the crate with no signal
  • No prices, on purpose
  • Wantlist synced with Discogs
  • No account needed to scan or dig

Coming to the App Store Coming to Google Play

Free on iPhone and Android. In the stores as Crate Cruiser: Vinyl Organizer. More on getting it.

A sweep: each spine is read several times as the phone passes. The dashed one is a record it is not sure of -- it will ask.

What is it?

Two things you do with the camera. Sweep gets your shelf into the app once, at home. Dig carries it into every shop, fair and car-boot sale after that.

AT HOME · SWEEP

Pan along a shelf. It builds your collection.

Hold the phone up to one row of records and glide along it. The app reads the print on each spine as it passes, several times over, and matches it against a copy of the Discogs catalogue that lives on the phone.

  1. One row fills the screen, spines sharp.
  2. Pan slowly: about a screen’s width every two seconds.
  3. Tap Finish sweep. The ones it is sure of are ready to add; the ones it is not, it asks about.

Short sweeps are fine: a record already on your shelf is never added twice.

IN THE SHOP · DIG

Flip through a crate. Feel the answer.

Lift each sleeve until its cover fills the square, and hold it there for a second or two. The phone checks it against your shelf and your wantlist -- on the phone, no signal needed -- and buzzes the answer, so your eyes stay on the crate.

  • YOURS
  • WANTED
  • NOT YOURS
  • CHECK

A sleeve you have never listed it names from its cover, free and with no limit, no account needed. That part asks our server, so it needs a signal.

Afterwards your latest dig is kept: what you flipped, and what you meant to go back for.

What the buzzes mean

Learn four rhythms and you can dig without looking at the phone.

  • Two: you have this.
  • Two pairs: it is on your wantlist.
  • Three: not sure. Have a look.
  • One: not yours. Keep flipping.

Around the two

AT HOME · YOUR SHELF

A list you did not have to type

Every record, with a photo of its spine as you shot it -- wear, stickers and all. Search it, browse it as spines or covers, and fix any record it got wrong; it remembers your answer next time.

Records without a readable spine: scan the barcode, read the centre label, or bring in the collection you already keep on Discogs.

IN THE SHOP · BEFORE YOU BUY

Hear it, and check the pressing

For anything it can name: 30-second previews, track by track, while the sleeve is in your hand. Previews are provided courtesy of iTunes.

Which pressing is it? The barcode narrows an album to the exact pressing and says whether it is an original, a repress or a reissue. With Premium, the centre label and catalogue number do it too.

Two things it does not do

It will not tell you what a record is worth

No valuations, no price guide, no "what's it worth". That is deliberate: in a shop you are standing in someone's livelihood. Every record has an Open on Discogs link, where Discogs shows its own market.

It does not need a signal to check the crate

Reading spines, matching them, your shelf, and checking a sleeve against your shelf and wantlist all run on the phone. A record fair in a basement is fine. Naming a sleeve you have never listed, cover art, tracklists and previews need a connection.

Free, and Premium if you want it

Everything above is free: sweeping, Dig and its buzzes, naming sleeves by their cover with no limit, and, with a free account, Discogs and backup.

Premium adds three things. Look closer: tap it on a sleeve the app could not name, and it sends that one photo off for a second opinion. Nothing is sent until you tap. The pressing check by centre label and catalogue number, as well as the barcode. And every dig kept in your journal, not just the latest.

It is $19.99 a year with a 7-day free trial, or $2.99 a month (US prices; the store shows yours). Cancel any time in the App Store or Google Play; cancel at least a day before the trial ends and you are not charged. How to cancel.

For launch, Look closer is free for anyone signed in until 2 November: 3 a day, 10 in all.

What it gets wrong

  • Some spines. Worn print, bad light and tiny type defeat it. When it is not sure it says so and asks, rather than guessing.
  • Some sleeves in a crate. Two records by the same act can come back as one find. Naming a sleeve you have never listed needs a signal, and some sleeves come back “not sure”. It says so and asks you, rather than picking a wrong record.
  • The download is large, because the record database lives on the phone so that it can work with no signal.
  • Start with a shelf you know. Check what it says before you rely on it, and tell me where it falls over.

What leaves your phone

Stays on the phone

Your shelf, and every photo the camera takes but the one you tap Look closer on. Spines are read, and a sleeve is checked against your shelf and wantlist, on the phone.

When it looks a record up

To name a sleeve the phone cannot, numbers worked out from its photo, never the photo, go to our naming service, which answers and keeps nothing.

An album's id goes to Discogs for its tracklist; its name goes to Deezer for cover art and to Apple for previews.

Only when you tap or turn it on

Look closer sends the one photo you tapped it on to Google's Gemini, through our server, to say which record it shows. Nothing is sent until you tap.

Backup (your list of records, not your photos) and “Send matching data” both start off.

Crashes and usage counts

A crash sends a report with no name or account on it. Anonymous usage counts (a dig finished, under a random id, never your records) come to us. They are on unless you turn them off in Settings.

No ads and no tracking, and this site sets no cookies. The privacy policy lists everything that leaves the phone, and what the mailing list keeps.

Get it

Free on iPhone and Android. The app follows your phone's language: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Japanese or Brazilian Portuguese.

Coming to the App Store Coming to Google Play

It is not in the stores yet. These turn into links the day it is.

Questions, or something went wrong? See help and support.

Want an email when it's out on your phone?

Only about the launch: an email or two, no tracking, and your address goes nowhere else.

You are on the list. We will email you when it is out. To come off the list, write to makes@mackbrowne.com.

That did not go through. Check the email address, and tick the box to say we may email you.

Too many sign-ups from here today. Try again tomorrow, or email makes@mackbrowne.com.

Something went wrong on our side. Try again in a minute, or email makes@mackbrowne.com.

Help and support

Email makes@mackbrowne.com. A person reads it (me, Mack) and answers, usually within a day or two. If something went wrong in the app, say which phone and what you were doing.

Cancel Premium

  • iPhone: Settings › your name › Subscriptions › Crate Cruiser › Cancel Subscription. Or in the app: Settings › Premium › Manage subscription.
  • Android: Google Play › your profile picture › Payments and subscriptions › Subscriptions › Crate Cruiser › Cancel. Or in the app: Settings › Premium › Manage subscription.
  • Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. Cancel at least 24 hours before the end of a free trial or a paid period and you won't be charged for the next one.

Refunds

Premium is bought through the App Store or Google Play, so refunds follow that store's refund policy: ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com, or Google Play from your order history. Nothing here limits a right to a refund that the law where you live gives you (see the terms).

Restore Premium on a new phone

Premium belongs to your account, not your phone. Sign in with the same account (Settings › Account › Sign in) and it follows you, Android and iPhone alike. If it doesn't show, Settings › Premium › Restore purchases.

Delete your account

In the app: Settings › Account › Delete account, which deletes the account and everything held for it. Or see how to delete your account and data, including by email if you no longer have the app. Deleting the account does not cancel a subscription: cancel it in the store first.