I thought I’d share my method on how I organise my digital music collection as when I first switched over from vinyl it wasn’t really something I properly thought about. Since I’ve started sorting tunes properly it has made it much easier for me to find the tracks I want on the fly mid set. I’ve seen a few articles online about how to organise your music library, but not so many that are aimed towards DJ’s so thought I’d share my process as simply as possible.
Firstly I am using Pioneer’s Rekordbox software, but the principle is the same for Serato, Traktor or even iTunes.
The secret to organisation is playlists! Every month I create a new playlist and name it with the month & year, for example March 17. Every track I buy or get sent in March 2017 will go straight into that folder, that way I will be able to skip back easily to find all tracks from that month.
I will also spend about and hour each week making sure all the info for each track is correct; Artist, Title, Album, Record Label. This helps me when I’m DJing, if I want to play a track by a certain artist I can easily find it. I’m not so fussed about the Genre or Key but if you are then be sure to update these fields. I will also make sure my beat grids & cue points are all set up during this time. It’s best to stay on top of this and do a few each week, if you leave it a few weeks then it becomes a bit time consuming!
Each time I play a gig I will set up a playlist. I’m not one for pre-planning sets, but it does help to think what tracks I’d like to play and put them in one place so I have easy access to them. I compare it to when I used to go through my vinyl and put what I wanted to play in my record bag.
Unless you have way too much time on your hands I wouldn’t bother going back through your digital collection, it’ll take forever, concentrate on keeping it in order going forward. I do find myself wanting to play old tunes now & then so will catalogue them in small batches as & when I need them.
And that’s pretty much it…. Simple! I would also recommend backing up your collection (including cue points) regularly. I do mine every 6 weeks. That way if a USB stick or hard drive dies on me I haven’t lost everything. I may do an article on how I do that in the next couple of weeks. Any other DJ related tips you want to know? Let me know
