diff --git a/main.rb b/main.rb
index 73b1669..516441e 100644
--- a/main.rb
+++ b/main.rb
@@ -3,6 +3,36 @@ require 'uri'
 require 'optparse'
 require 'shellwords'
 
+def parse_songs_from_string(mpd,message)
+  urls = URI.extract(message)
+  if urls != ""
+    puts "Found #{urls}; downloading"
+    urls.each do |url|
+      res = `youtube-dl --ignore-errors --output \"spool/%(title)s.%(ext)s\" --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 #{url}`
+      if res 
+        puts "Downloaded #{url}"
+      else
+        puts "error downloading #{url}"
+      end
+    end
+    if mpd
+      puts "telling mpd to refresh"
+      new_songs = Dir["spool/*.mp3"]
+      system("mv spool/*.mp3 tracks/")
+      system("mpc update")
+      new_songs.each do |song|
+        s = song.split("/")[1]
+        res = system("mpc add #{Shellwords.shellescape(s)}")
+        if res
+          puts "added #{s} to mpd"
+        else 
+          puts "error adding #{s} to mpd"
+        end
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
+
 options = {}
 OptionParser.new do |opt|
   opt.on("-t", "--token DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN") {|o| options[:bot_token] = o}
@@ -65,36 +95,18 @@ bot.command :skip do |event|
   nil
 end
 
+bot.command :initialize do |event|
+  event.respond("loading last 20 songs from channel")
+  channel  = bot.channel(options[:channel_id])
+  messages = channel.history(20)
+  messages.each do |msg|
+    parse_songs_from_string(mpd,msg.content)
+  end
+end
+
 
 bot.message(in: options[:channel_id],contains: "youtube.com") do |event|
-  urls = URI.extract(event.content)
-  if urls != ""
-    puts "Found #{urls}; downloading"
-    urls.each do |url|
-      res = `youtube-dl --ignore-errors --output \"spool/%(title)s.%(ext)s\" --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 #{url}`
-      if res 
-        puts "Downloaded #{url}"
-      else
-        puts "error downloading #{url}"
-      end
-    end
-    if mpd
-      puts "telling mpd to refresh"
-      new_songs = Dir["spool/*.mp3"]
-      system("mv spool/*.mp3 tracks/")
-      system("mpc update")
-      new_songs.each do |song|
-        s = song.split("/")[1]
-        res = system("mpc add #{Shellwords.shellescape(s)}")
-        if res
-          puts "added #{s} to mpd"
-        else 
-          puts "error adding #{s} to mpd"
-        end
-      end
-    end
-  end
-
+  parse_songs_from_string(mpd,event.content)
 end
 
 bot.run