Connect one source and every page on Crate starts arguing from what you own.
Your library goes straight from the service to this browser. No account and nothing to sign up for, and nothing is kept on Crate's side unless you choose to send it.
Once a week, when Settings opens, Crate re-reads a connected source so new records count. It runs here in your browser, only when you visit, and never on a server. Off unless you say so.
Scenes get written where crates point. Send an anonymous copy of your crate's demand signal — what matched, what sits in orbit, what went unfiled — and it feeds the writing queue and nothing else. No username, no titles you did not import, and a random id you can replace.
What goes: the records your crate matched, what sits in orbit and what went unfiled (artist, title, label, year) from each connected source, Spotify included if you connected it. No name, no username, no filename. Why: to choose which scenes get written next; Crate's own counting tools read it, and nothing publishes or sells it. Where, and for how long: stored with Cloudflare, Crate's host, for 12 months from your last send, then deleted automatically. To delete it sooner: press Withdraw once it is sent, or remove or disconnect a source that was in it and the donation is withdrawn at once. Pressing send is agreeing to this, and nothing is ever sent on its own.
Now and then a new scene is written about records you own. If you want, Crate can email you when that happens — only then, and nothing else. A scrubbed copy of your crate is kept to be matched against; unsubscribing deletes it and touches nothing here.
Default wears each scene as it was designed — dark house chrome, and every scene in its own skin. Light and dark override that into a single reading mode you prefer. Your choice is remembered on this device.
Crate reads what you own to argue from your shelves. Connect a source and the import runs here, in your browser — your library goes straight from the service to this device and nowhere else. Disconnect a source and its records stop counting, everywhere, live.
Your crate and want list are yours. Take them with you at any time — nothing here is locked in.
Download your crate (JSON)Leaving is one button. It removes everything Crate keeps in this browser, and the two things that may exist on Crate's side: the email-alerts subscription and a donation to the atlas, if you made them. There is no account to close because none was ever opened.
This removes your connected sources and the grants that fetched them, your crate, your want list, your reading mode and your first-run and sync preferences from this browser, and deletes your email-alerts address, the stored copy of your crate and any donation you sent from Crate's side. Your read-counting choice stays as you set it. This cannot be undone.
Scenes get written where crates point: the writing queue reads demand, and demand comes from libraries like yours. If you choose to, send a copy of your crate's demand signal. You see the exact bytes before anything moves, and it carries only a random id, so a re-send from this browser replaces your last one.
What goes: the records your crate matched, what sits in orbit and what went unfiled (artist, title, label, year) from each connected source, Spotify included if you connected it. No name, no username, no filename. Why: to choose which scenes get written next; Crate's own counting tools read it, and nothing publishes or sells it. Where, and for how long: stored with Cloudflare, Crate's host, for 12 months from your last send, then deleted automatically. To delete it sooner: press Withdraw once it is sent, or remove or disconnect a source that was in it and the donation is withdrawn at once. Pressing send is agreeing to this, and nothing is ever sent on its own.
Now and then a new scene is written about records you own. If you ask, Crate emails you when that happens — a mail only when a scene lands in your crate, never anything else, most weeks none. To match, Crate keeps a scrubbed copy of your crate (the same shape as the seed above: no username, no filename) with your address, and refreshes it from here when your crate changes. Unsubscribing deletes the address and the stored copy, and changes nothing in this browser — your crate, want list and settings stay as they are.
The site counts reads — which pages get read, for how long, whether a listen link was followed — so the writing queue knows what is read. The counts are anonymous by construction: no cookies, no persistent identifiers (one random token lives for a tab and dies with it), nothing from your crate but a single yes/no that one exists. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, nothing is counted without you touching anything. You can also switch it off here.
Crate is a reading of music history, not a database of facts. Every claim is an editorial argument with sources, and the corpus corrects itself in public — see the errata on the Contents page. Spot something wrong? The correction flow is coming; for now the errata list is the public record.