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User guide · 25 clips · 1 being recorded

The Spinstack guide, in motion.

Every feature, explained in plain words and shown on a real device. New to the app? Follow the first week below, in order. Already grade your records? Skip to the collector's path.

The lay of the land

Five tabs. Settings live behind your avatar.

StacksHome. Your shelves as shelves, recent spins, what to play next.
DiscoverToday's Pick, Crate Dig, Pressings. The shelf talking back.
InsightsVinyl DNA, Wax Timeline, Spin Reports, Price Watchdog, the Appraisal. The numbers behind the collection.
SearchYour library and the Discogs catalog in one field, plus the barcode and Vinyl Vision scanners.
ConditionRecord health: scans, Silent Sessions, grades, the check-these-first queue. Part of Pro.
New to Spinstack

Your first week

In this order. Each step is one clip and one reason. You need a free Discogs account; everything in the app is free for 30 days, the core stays free after that, and Pro is $9.99 once.

  1. One sign-in and every record you own is on the phone, cached, sortable, and there when the shop has no signal.

  2. Barcode, label or sleeve. Point the camera and the exact pressing comes up, then one tap adds it to the collection or the wishlist.

  3. One tap while the side plays. From here on the app knows what you actually listen to, which is what every later feature is built on.

  4. If you scrobble, connect Last.fm once under Settings. From then on each logged spin lands on your profile within seconds, matched to the exact release, and the Hub shows which records you own by the artists you stream most.

  5. Crate Dig and What to Spin pull from your own records and say why. The cure for staring at the shelf.

  6. Scan a bin. Records you already own say so, records you have been hunting get the reveal, and Ask Spinstack from Siri answers without opening the app.

  7. The Apple TV app pairs in one step. Cover grids on the big screen, Now Spinning while a side plays, Game Night when people come over.

  8. The B-Side is off by default and private. Turn it on to share spins with people you actually collect with, or start a crew.

You already grade your records

The collector's path

Condition as measurement, value at your grade, and the paperwork a sale needs. This is the 1.5 work, in the order the app expects.

  1. Camera reads the surface, LiDAR reads the depth of every mark. The scanner estimates a grade with a confidence pill; you set the final one. iPhone Pro and iPad Pro.

  2. The microphone maps the marks it hears, track by track, and says which ones you will notice over the music.

  3. The health card and the check-these-first queue, sorted by value, so the expensive unknowns get graded first.

  4. Not the cheapest listing. The plausible value of a copy at this grade, labelled as an estimate, and agreeing everywhere it appears.

  5. A shareable image of the scratch map, the grades and the value. The picture that ends a condition argument.

  6. A free Condition Receipt for one record, and the Appraisal PDF for the whole collection, both offline.

  7. An NFC tag on the sleeve opens that copy's card: pressing, grades, scan, value, history. Two copies of the same album stay separate.

  8. Plain-language questions answered from your own records, on the device, with a receipt of what it checked.

Every feature, one clip each

Filter by where you are in the app or by how far into collecting you are. Clips loop silently and pause when they scroll out of view.

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Condition1.5CollectorNew

Groove Vision

Hold an iPhone Pro a hand's width above the record. The ring turns green when distance, flatness, tilt and steadiness all pass, the camera reads the surface, and the LiDAR sensor reads the depth of every mark in four close-up quadrants. The result card leads with an estimated grade and a confidence pill, and marks the quadrant that set it. You decide the grade underneath.

LiDAR only on iPhone Pro and iPad Pro. The grade is Spinstack's estimate; you set the final one.

How Groove Vision works
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Collection1.0First week

Your collection, cached

Connect a Discogs account once and the whole library loads from a local cache: cover grid, decade sort, format filters. It opens instantly, works offline, and pulls new additions down when you refresh.

The collection features
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Discovery1.3First week

Crate Dig

Swipe through your own records the way you would flip through a shop crate. Each card carries a match score and says why it surfaced, More info flips it over, and the three buttons underneath are Pass, Wishlist and Find. Free on every tier.

More on the homepage
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Listening1.0First week

Spin Log

Log a listen with one tap: date, rating, mood and notes. Over time the log shows which records you actually play and which ones sit, and it syncs across your devices through iCloud.

The Spin Log in depth
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Apple TV1.1First week

Spinstack on Apple TV

Cover-art grids on the biggest screen you own. Browse the shelves, search Discogs, check what you played last, and let Now Spinning fill the screen while a side plays. Pairs with the iPhone in one step.

Spinstack on the big screen
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Condition1.5CollectorNew

Scratch Detection

Open a record's Scratch Map after a few Silent Sessions. Every mark the microphone heard sits on the disc where it happened, with the track and the timestamp, and becomes Confirmed once it shows up at the same place across plays. Each one is stamped against the music around it, so the list says which ones you will actually hear: prominent, noticeable, or under the music.

The loudness verdicts need the sonic analysis of the same play, which requires Apple Intelligence on a supported device.

How Scratch Detection works
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Condition1.5CollectorNew

The Condition tab

A fifth tab for record health. The card at the top counts how many records are graded and what the ungraded ones are worth, with the Collection Appraisal one tap away. Worth checking first sorts the unknowns by value so the expensive ones get graded first, then Most spun, To clean with a Mark All Cleaned button, and Recent scans.

Part of Spinstack Pro.

Everything new in 1.5
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Condition1.5CollectorNew

Your copy, at its price

The Collection Appraisal opens on an estimated value for the whole shelf, adjusted for media condition on every graded record, with the lowest-listed total beside it so you can see what the grades change. Values marked rough est. use the standard collector percentages by grade rather than sales data, and the card says when it was last updated. Below it, the condition breakdown and the most valuable copies, each priced at its own grade.

Values are estimates, always labelled, not professional appraisals.

Everything new in 1.5
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Condition1.5CollectorNew

The Condition Card

Tap Card on a graded record and the sheet slides up: the artwork, the media and sleeve grades with who set them and when the Groove Vision scan was taken, a drawn disc with every detected mark where it sits in the grooves, then the confirmed-mark count, the spins logged on this copy and the last play. Three styles, Classic, Dark and Color, then Save to Photos or Share.

Everything new in 1.5
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Condition1.5CollectorNew

Condition Receipt and Appraisal

From the Condition tab, the Collection Appraisal opens on the estimated value, then one tap on share renders it as a PDF: artwork, the value with its record and grade counts, the condition breakdown and every copy priced at its own grade, ready to open or send. The Condition Receipt is the same idea for one record, a one-page document for a buyer or an insurer, and it is free for everyone. Both export offline.

The Appraisal is part of Pro; the Receipt is free. Values are estimates and carry an as-of date.

Everything new in 1.5
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NFC1.5CollectorNew

The Tap Card

Tap a tagged sleeve with the phone and the card slides up with everything the app knows about that copy, offline. Your Copy: the media and sleeve grades, the Groove Vision result and its date, the value, and whether it is flagged for cleaning. The Story: spins, first and last play, recent moods. The Sound: tempo, key and loudness measured from this copy, with its scratch marks. Five buttons along the top, Spin, Session, Log, Play Next and Open; tap Spin and the play is logged on the spot.

NFC tags are bought separately. Tags written by older builds keep working.

Setting up NFC tags
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On-device AI1.5CollectorNew

Ask Your Collection

Ask about your records in your own words. The sheet opens with a few starters, What do I own on Blue Note, How many records am I missing from the 70s, What have I played most, and the answer is built from your own shelves: it counts the records, reads the listening history and says so underneath, with a receipt of what it checked. Follow-up questions work. Nothing about your collection leaves the phone.

Requires Apple Intelligence.

Everything new in 1.5
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On-device AI1.5New

Ask Spinstack from Siri

Every Spinstack shortcut answers with a card, whether you run it from the Shortcuts app or say it to Siri. Here How Many Records comes back as a spoken line and a tile: the size of the collection, the wishlist count, and an Open Spinstack button. Say "Ask Spinstack about my collection" and the same on-device model behind Ask Your Collection answers a question in your own words, for the moment you are in a shop holding a record and want to know whether it is already on your shelf.

The Ask Spinstack question requires Apple Intelligence; the other shortcuts do not. No audio and no question text leaves the device. Every phrase is translated.

Everything new in 1.5
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Listening1.5CollectorNew

Sonic Fingerprint

A Silent Session measures the record as it plays, from the copy on your turntable rather than a database. The Sonic Fingerprint card on the record page shows the key, the tempo and how steadily it held, the structure, pace, instrument balance and loudness, all stamped measured on this device while you listened. Tap Analysis for the full read, with the confirmed and tentative scratches marked on the structure strip, and records that truly match connect in Sonic Connections with the reason stated.

Requires iOS 27. Rides the same microphone session as Scratch Detection; audio is processed in memory and discarded, only the numbers are kept.

Everything new in 1.5
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Scanning1.5New

Find It With the Camera

Point the iPhone's visual intelligence camera at a record in a bin and Spinstack appears in the results beside Google, TikTok and Amazon. Its tab lists the records in your own collection that match, on the artwork itself as well as any text, so stylised sleeves and pressings with no words on them still work. One tap opens the record page in the app, with the grades, the value and the Log Spin button. Vinyl Vision finds a record to add; this one tells you what you already own, without opening the app first.

Requires iOS 27 visual intelligence. No account, no internet, no API key.

Everything new in 1.5
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Scanning1.5First weekNew

Vinyl Vision

Point the camera at a cover, a spine or a label and tap once. The text is read on the phone, the On-Device OCR badge says so, and the match comes up with the strings it used as chips. Not the pressing you meant? Pick text from the photo opens the picture with a box around every word the camera read, sitting where it sits on the sleeve: tap the artist, the title or a hand-stamped catalogue number, tap more than one to search for them together, and the results narrow to that. Move in close on a 45 and iOS hands off to the macro lens so the small print stays sharp.

Phones without a macro lens fall back to the wide camera. Reads happen on the iPhone first; Google Vision is optional and only a fallback.

Everything new in 1.5
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Scanning1.5First weekNew

Will not scan? Read the numbers

Shrink wrap, a sticker or a worn print can stop the bars reading. When the scanner cannot lock on, a Won't scan? Read the numbers button appears under the viewfinder. Tap it and the scanner reads the printed digits instead, checks them against the check digit before it searches, so a misread never becomes a search, and the exact match floats to the top of the results with a blue Exact barcode badge. Code 128, ITF-14 and GS1 DataBar are recognised too, for box sets and distributor stickers.

Everything new in 1.5
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Scanning1.5First weekNew

The wishlist reveal

Scan a record you have been hunting and the screen goes dark. The sleeve rises out of a crate, straightens, and light rakes across it. Underneath: the title, the artist, and Wanted since April 2024, taken from your real wantlist date. It fires across pressings on purpose, because the reissue turning up in a bin is the find. Two haptics and no sound, because this happens in a record shop.

Everything new in 1.5
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In the shop1.5New

The record shop App Clip

Scan the code on a partner store's counter and a store-welcomed mini-Spinstack opens, no install and no account. A gift from Easy Street Records: scan any record's barcode, or snap the cover of one that has none, and see exactly which pressing you are holding. Below it, the shop's staff picks, each opening as a real record page with the pressing details, the ratings and music previews. What you scan is saved for the app, and the store's own card carries its blurb, hours, phone and links.

Six partner stores at launch, including Big Love Records in Tokyo. The clip works in all sixteen languages.

The record shop workflow
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Insights1.5New

Never Spun

Under Your Journey in the Insights tab, Never Spun surfaces the records you own and have never once played, with a count of how many are waiting for a first spin. Open one, tap Log Spin, give it a rating and a mood, and it is logged on the spot, scrobbled to Last.fm if you have it connected, with a share card ready. Its companion, Your Spinstack Story, turns the collecting history into something worth reading.

Everything new in 1.5
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Collection1.5First weekNew

Replace Cover Art

Discogs covers are often a seller's photo, so the main image can carry glare or a crooked angle. From the record's menu, choose Replace Cover Art and pick a photo of your own copy. It becomes the cover everywhere that record appears, including the Apple TV shelves, and one tap restores the original Discogs cover. Your photo stays on your devices and syncs through your own iCloud; nothing is sent to the developer.

Everything new in 1.5
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Listening1.5New

The watch keeps up

Start a session from Apple Watch and the iPhone keeps the count without being unlocked. A Live Activity sits on the Lock Screen with the record, the artist, the listening mode, and a timer for the side that ticks every second. Nothing to open, nothing to tap. Complications on the watch face update by push, so the record you are on is current there too.

Everything new in 1.5
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Social1.5First weekNew

The B-Side, refreshed

One private feed of what the people you collect with are doing: spins with their ratings and notes, records added, records wanted, with an Active now row along the top. React to anything with a tap. The For you tab collects reactions to your spins, records friends recommend and crew invites. Crews are circles of up to eight collectors with their own feed, a Crew Spin the whole crew tries to play that week at their own pace, and a shared crate you build together.

Opt-in, private, and off by default. Shared activity fades after seven days and you can wipe it with one tap.

Everything new in 1.5
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Apple TV1.5New

Now Spinning on Apple TV

Open a record on the Apple TV and press Spin. Now Spinning takes the screen: the sleeve, a disc turning at a real 33 1/3 rpm, and a running clock. Finish logs the spin with its true listening time, counting toward Stylus Hours like a spin logged anywhere else; Cancel leaves without logging. Collection Appraisal and Price Watchdog reach the TV too, and agree with the iPhone and the PDF to the dollar.

Everything new in 1.5
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Apple TV1.5New

Game Night

A pass-the-remote quiz built entirely from your own records, in the Discover tab on Apple TV. Pick how many are playing, two to eight, and the night runs three rounds: Guess the Year, Zoomed Cover and Heavy Rotation. The screen tells you whose turn it is, asks which record has the most spins or which sleeve is hiding in the close-up, and owns up when you get one wrong. Nobody types anything.

Everything new in 1.5
Listening1.4Clip coming

Scrobble to Last.fm

Log a spin and the tracks land on your Last.fm profile within seconds, matched to the exact release rather than a typed-in album title. If Last.fm is unreachable, the scrobble waits and goes out later with its original time, so a listen never double-counts. The Last.fm Hub runs the other way: lifetime stats, the artists you stream most cross-referenced with the records you own, Wantlist Candidates you stream but do not own on wax, and Forgotten Favorites you own but have not played in months.

Free on every tier. Sign in with your Last.fm account; there are no API keys to register.

How vinyl scrobbling works

$9.99 once. No subscription.

Try everything free for 30 days. No credit card. Every clip on this page was recorded from the version you would download today.