Five Steps of Any Good DJ Music Library System
- Feb 1, 2017
- 3 min read
This post is designed to empower you that as long as you follow the five steps of any good dj music library sytem, you can organise your library in any way you like, and with any tools you like (Traktor, Serato etc.).
If you're still feeling music library organisation is confusing you, read on...
The five steps of any good Dj music library system, here they are:
Only add to your DJ library the tunes you actually know and you want to DJ with - and do not add anything else; the rest of your music doesn't belong there
Make sure your files contain the metadata that's important to you - as a minimum the artist, title, bpm, key, year, genre, location etc.
Know how to sort and filter your files and how to listen to them day-to-day - When you're nit actuallu DJing or practising.
Have a way of choosing a set of possible tunes for any particular gig - and of getting that set of tunes into your DJ software (or to your gig with you in another way)
Have a way of regular Backing Up - not only your music files but any work done on them with any other software you use (Cue points etc.)
That's it.
If your music library "system" can tick all five boxes, it really doesn't matter how you do it or what tools you use. In fact, Djs do this all kinds of ways. Just from my recent Gigs, in real DJ booths and among people I know, I've seen DJs:
Doing it all using files and folders ( ex. in MacOS or Windows folders directly), with the track info listed in the filename itself; when it comes to DJing, they literally drag the tunes from an open file browser window directly onto the decks in their DJ software, bypassing the DJ software library. Usually most DJs does this if they were just inserting a thumb drive onto another DJs laptop without using any music organisation tools prior to the gig.
Doing the above , but dragging the files for "tonights set" onto a USB or two, to play from directly in a club (you'll be surprised how many big name DJs do this - no pre analysis, just MP3s or WAV files on a USB stick, dragged straight from a folder on their hard drive).
Using iTunes to sort, tag and playlist their music, but keeping all the files themselves in a single folder, and turning off the iTunes features that organises the music files; then, opening the iTunes section of their DJ Software and DJing from those playlists.
Doing the above, but then using Rekordbox (which can also show you your iTunes library internally) to put those sets onto USB Drives for DJing with in DJ booths on Pioneer Gear.
Throwing all their music into one folder, then tidying up the tags and doing all the play-listing directly in their music library.
Of course there are pluses and minuses to all of the above systems, but they all worked for each of those DJs. The reason why they work, though, is notdue to the system itself(whichever on they'd settle on), but that all DJs were - applying the five steps of any good Dj music library system listed at the start of this post.
That meant they were cool with their music collection. They were confident of finding what they wanted. And if they wanted to switch to a different way doing it for whatever reason (change of software, DJing on a different set-up, whatever), they would be able to do so with the minimum possible pain, due to understanding and applying the five steps.
How do you organise your music?
The comments below are all yours: Tell us how you organise your music...
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