Make YouTube chapters for a DJ mix
Prepare YouTube chapters for a DJ mix or music compilation from the song starts in a supported project or session file. Check the list before pasting it into your description.
Build the list from the file your DJ software already made, and have the rules checked before you paste.
Drop your project or session file here
Ableton .als, FL Studio .flp, rekordbox .cue, Traktor .nml or Serato .session.
Your file is read in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
No file to hand?
Run a real mix through it and see exactly what comes out. A twelve-track recording running an hour and a quarter.
On your phone?
Your project file is probably on another computer. Send yourself the link and pick this up there.
What you get back
A list ready to paste into a YouTube, SoundCloud or Mixcloud description.
0:00 Kestrel Lane - First Light 6:12 Ardent Fields - Paper Harbour 13:15 Nomi Vale - Slow Transit 19:48 The Quiet Wire - Understory
The three rules YouTube actually enforces
The first chapter must start at 0:00. Not 0:01, and not the moment your first track drops — the very beginning of the video.
There must be at least three chapters. Two will not do, however long the video is.
Each chapter must last at least ten seconds. One quick transition anywhere in the list is enough to disable chapters for the whole video.
Break any one of these and YouTube does not warn you or show an error. It simply treats your list as ordinary description text, which is why a correct-looking tracklist so often does nothing at all.
What gets checked here
All three, every time, against the actual list you are about to copy. If the first entry does not start at zero you are told, and switching on the opening entry fixes it without moving any of your real timestamps. If a transition is too tight, you are told how many are affected.
The YouTube preset also sets the formatting YouTube expects: a plain time, a space, then the track. No bullets, no brackets, no dashes before the time.
It works from whatever you already have
If you built the mix in Ableton Live or FL Studio, the markers you placed become the chapters. If you played it out through rekordbox, Traktor or Serato, the software already recorded what played and when, and there was never anything to mark up.
Either way the chapter list is derived from a record of the mix rather than from you scrubbing through it with a stopwatch.
Where else the same list works
SoundCloud and Mixcloud both take a plain time-and-title list in the description, which is the default format here. For a video edit that needs sub-second precision instead, switch the output to tenths or milliseconds, or export CSV or JSON with the raw seconds alongside the formatted time.
Questions
- Why are my YouTube chapters not showing?
- Almost always one of three things: the first entry does not start at 0:00, there are fewer than three entries, or one chapter is shorter than ten seconds. YouTube gives no error when a list fails these — it just treats it as ordinary text. This page checks all three and tells you which one is failing.
- What format do YouTube chapters need?
- A timestamp, a space, then the chapter title, one per line, starting at 0:00. Times are written as M:SS or H:MM:SS. The YouTube preset here produces exactly that.
- Can I use the same list on SoundCloud and Mixcloud?
- Yes. Both accept a plain timestamped list in the description, and it is the default format here, so the same copy works in all three places.
YouTube’s official chapter requirements
Using something else?
Chapters not working
Your chapter list is in the description and nothing happened
OpenAbleton Live
Turn Ableton locators into a timestamped tracklist
Openrekordbox
Turn a rekordbox recording into a timestamped tracklist
OpenThere is also a full tutorial covering all five programs and what to do when the times look wrong.