How It Started…

Initially, I used iTunes/Apple Music to manage playlists and organize my file structure. I would then import these playlists into Traktor or Rekordbox as needed. This approach provided a centralized place to organize everything and made it easy to listen to my DJ playlists. However, over time, this method became unreliable. Apple’s solution started losing files from playlists or failed to save changes. Despite attempts to fix this, including rebuilding the entire library, the issues persisted, especially with my large file collection. Eventually, I had to abandon this setup but still wanted an easy way to listen to music and keep my playlists organized across all platforms.

How It’s Going…

That’s when I discovered Rekordbox’s “My Tag” feature. This system allows you to tag your music within the Pioneer platform, which can be accessed by clicking on the tag icon in the browser.

There’s a hidden setting under Preferences -> Advanced -> Browse called “Add ‘My Tag’ to the ‘Comments’” that saves your tags directly into the file’s “Comment” tag, making them platform-agnostic.

With this setup, you can import your files into any music program that supports intelligent / smart playlists and recreate your playlist structure using the information stored in the “Comment” tag. This eliminates the need to back up anything beyond the music files themselves.

“My Tag” also has another great advantage: it’s fast! Clicking on a tag checkbox is quicker than dragging and dropping a file into multiple playlists. While it requires some initial setup to create the tags and intelligent playlists, adding and tagging new music becomes fast and easy, with playlists automatically updated.

On Storing and Naming Files

By default, iTunes stores files in a folder structure like [artist_name]/[album_name], but I find this inconvenient when dealing with lots of singles from different artists, especially for a DJ library. I’ve tried various structures, like organizing by genres or music styles, but it gets complicated when a track fits multiple categories. The simplest solution has worked best for me: I store all my DJ music in one folder and take care to name the files properly with the artist, track, and remix name. Then, I use the methods described above to organize everything on the platform I’m using.

File Name to Tags / Tags to File Name

I love automating mundane tasks. Tagging music styles or vibes is the “artistic” part of the process and hard to automate, but renaming files is time-consuming. For this, I use a handy app called Kid3, which is great for editing file tags. It allows for two-way conversion: Tags from File Name or File Name from Tags. You set the format, and everything updates automatically with the click of a button. Another tool I use is Better Finder Rename (Mac), which can read tags and apply the file name format you want. You can even create a droplet—a small app with an icon—so you can drag and drop files onto it for automatic renaming.

File Formats Headache

There are countless audio file formats to suit every use case and audiophile need. But for DJing, especially with most of the market’s equipment coming from Pioneer, three formats are safe: WAV, AIFF, and MP3. If you stick to CD-standard sample rates (44.1 kHz, 16-bit depth for WAV and AIFF, and 320 kbps for MP3), you’ll be compatible with even older CDJ models. These file types are also available from most digital music shops, like Beatport and Bandcamp. My format of choice is AIFF because it offers the same uncompressed audio quality as WAV but with easier and more compatible tagging capabilities. If you’re unsure which format to use, consult the DJ player manual.

The Best Way to Tag and Organize

This is the tricky part—there is no best way. It all comes down to your preferences. Want to catalog by BPM? Go for it. By genre? That works too. Or maybe with something more unique like “wooping ass techno folk”? Absolutely! The key is to use whatever system helps you quickly and efficiently identify tracks from your collection. You’ll thank yourself later during a busy DJ gig when you can’t remember the name of a track but do recall its vibe.

To get you started, here’s how I tag my tracks: I tag by year, but not the release year—the year I acquired the music. I tend to remember what I was into during different years, so this gives me quick access. For this, I use the “My Tag” feature while leaving the original “Year” tag as provided by the shop. Then I tag the genre, like Techno, House, Deep House, Minimal, etc., sometimes adjusting it to what I feel the music is (since shops like Beatport can mislabel genres). Next, I add descriptive tags like Acid, Breaks, Deep, Dubby, Groove, Hypnotic, Melodic/Uplifting, Old School Vibe, Psy, Warmup, and Wpierdol (which means “Beating” in Polish 😊). Tracks can have multiple tags, so a track with Acid elements that’s also Groovy and has Dub techno vibes gets all those tags. Each tag has a corresponding smart playlist that updates automatically when tags are applied, so a track with multiple tags will appear in multiple playlists.

Note that higher-end CDJs have an extensive search/filter menu that lets you specify exactly what you want to filter by, including “My Tag”. While I prefer browsing through smart playlists in the heat of the moment, if you’re into filters, go for it!

One special tag I use is called PREP. This is my current gig bag—a collection of tracks I’ve selected for a specific gig. These are tracks I plan to play but don’t have to, as I can always explore other tracks using my tags and playlists. Once again, the “My Tag” option is helpful for quickly assembling your playlist and being ready to go, you just click on the checkboxes.

I hope you find this information useful!

And last thing, I’m not sponsored or endorsed by any company here; the sole intention of this article is to help my friends and followers with friendly advice All described here is my own experience after using the products. Decide on your own what would be the best fit for you. Check the product sites, descriptions and manuals if needed.