Custom CD mixtapes, burned from your playlist

What you get with a custom CD

Every custom CD starts the same way: your songs, in your order, burned to a standard audio CD and played back before it leaves us. What changes between packages is what the disc comes in and how many discs there are. A playlist of about 18 to 22 songs fits on one disc.

Prices can change, so we don’t list them here. Each package is an option on the same listing: see current prices on Etsy.

How it works: from playlist to CD

1. 01
   Pick a package on Etsy

   Choose a sleeve, a jewel case, a case with a printed tracklist, your own cover art, or a two- or five-disc set on the Etsy listing.
2. 02
   Paste your playlist and say clean or explicit

   At checkout, paste a public playlist link from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or type a numbered song list. Tell us whether you want clean or explicit versions.
3. 03
   We track down every song

   We find each song in its studio version, check the order matches yours, and check the total runtime fits the disc.
4. 04
   We burn it and test-play it

   Your playlist is burned to a real audio CD, then played back before it’s packed, so the disc that ships is one we know works.
5. 05
   It ships in 1 to 3 business days

   We post it by USPS. The Etsy listing shows an estimated delivery date for your address before you buy.

If a disc arrives damaged or won’t play, message us on Etsy and we’ll replace it.

What to send us: playlist links and song lists

You can send your playlist two ways. Most people paste a link; a typed list works just as well and is the better choice for songs that only exist in your head or on an old CD.

A public playlist link

We take links from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music. The playlist needs to be public, or at least viewable by anyone with the link. A quick test: open the link in a private browser window where you’re not logged in. If you can see the songs, so can we. Don’t change the playlist after you order, because we burn what’s there when we open it.

A numbered song list

Type one song per line with the artist, in the order you want them played: “1. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac”. If you want a particular version, such as a live recording or an acoustic take, say so next to that song. Otherwise we use the studio version.

How much fits

Each disc is filled to just under 79 minutes, which is about 18 to 22 songs of average length. Paste your list into the playlist length calculator to check it, or read how many songs fit on a CD for the math. Longer playlists suit the Two CD Gift Set (up to 160 minutes) or the five-disc Road Trip CD Set (about 6.5 hours). If an order comes in over the limit, we ask which songs to trim or suggest the two-disc set. We never cut songs on our own.

Making a Spotify playlist into a CD at home runs into a wall: Spotify downloads are locked to the app and can’t be burned. Our guide to burning a Spotify playlist to CD explains why and lists the routes that do work, and this one covers Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon Music. Sending us the link is the shortest of them.

Custom cover art and printed tracklists

Choose Case + Custom Art and upload a photo at checkout. We print it as the front cover of the jewel case and put a printed tracklist inside, so the person opening it can see every song and who sings it. Case + tracklist gives you the printed tracklist without a photo cover.

A few things help a photo look good on a CD cover:

• The front of a jewel case is close to square, so a photo with the faces near the middle crops best. Wide group shots lose people at the edges.
• Send the original photo, not a screenshot of it. Screenshots lose detail and print soft.
• A bright, simple photo reads better at CD size than a busy one taken at night.

If you’d like to design the cover yourself, our free CD cover maker runs in your browser. Stuck on a title? Our list of mixtape names has 150 to start from.

Custom music gifts by occasion

A custom CD is usually a gift. These guides cover the common occasions, with other gift ideas alongside, and the song lists are a place to start when the playlist is still empty.

Why a CD instead of a playlist link

A shared playlist is easy to send and easy to forget. A CD is something they unwrap, keep in the car and find again in a drawer years later. Here’s why a disc works as a gift.

• It plays where they already listen. A standard audio CD works in a car stereo, a kitchen boombox or a home system, with no app, account or phone signal. That matters most for older relatives and for people who drive a lot. Many newer cars have dropped the CD slot, so check theirs first, or pair the disc with a portable player.
• It can’t be deleted. A playlist disappears when someone cancels a subscription or a song leaves the service. The disc stays the way you made it.
• It’s a gift you can hold. The cover, the printed song list and the fact that someone chose the order make it feel like more than a link.

Physical media is having a moment again, including with people who grew up streaming. Our piece on whether CDs are coming back looks at who’s buying them and why, and what is a mixtape covers where the tradition came from.

What buyers say

The shop has 4.9 stars from 50+ reviews on Etsy. A few of them, word for word:

Read every review on Etsy.

Rather make your own CD?

You don’t need us to make a mix CD. If you have a computer with a disc drive (or an external one) and songs you own, you can burn one tonight. We burn CDs every day, so we wrote down how we do it:

• How to burn a CD, with separate steps for a Mac and Windows 11 and 10.
• CD-R vs CD-RW vs MP3 CD, so you buy blanks that play in a car.
• Where to get a CD burned if you don’t have a drive.
• How to make a mixtape that someone keeps: choosing songs and putting them in order.
• Free printables: a CD case template for a jewel case insert and a CD sleeve template you cut and fold.

One catch to know before you start: songs downloaded in Spotify, an Apple Music subscription or Amazon Music Unlimited are locked and won’t burn. Buy the tracks you need from a download store, or use CDs and files you already own.

No drive, or no time before the birthday? Send us the playlist and we’ll burn your custom CD mixtape, test-play it and post it to you.