How do you organize your DJ Song Library?

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It would appear that the only golden rule is BE CONSISTENT. There are pros and cons to any method, but your life will be simpler if all your data directories (both internal and external drive based" are the same.

My structure is similar to USDJs, broken down by artist and album. Single cuts go into an album even by themselves (or into a Singles directory if they preceed an album). I wish there was a simple way of doing logical links in Windows or if all software handled playlists/tagging/etc. the same way, but they don't, so for me, this is the way that has worked since the dawn of mp3s (and wave files before that).
 
I have thought about this question many times, I run VDJ 7 Pro, I had a mess on my hands, I do a radio show on friday nights for 3hrs and all my tunes was messed up, I had DnB and House and Dubstep all in one big folder called "MUSIC"bad idea!

I could never find anything fast, so Today, I decided to re-arange all my tunes by Genrre and Artest and create seprate folderes for each, EG all Dubstep tunes in a perent folder DUBSTEP, then in another folder by Artest, This is just a simple Example of how some of my music folders are set up NOW.


EG: DUBSTEP DIR

D:\Music\DUBStep\Flux Provillion
D:\Music\DUBStep\Woo Bost
D:\Music\DUBStep\Bar9
D:\Music\DUBStep\AfroJack
D:\Music\DUBStep\ReidSpeed
D:\Music\DUBStep\100% Pure Dubstep Album


EG: HOUSE DIR

D:\Music\House\Tom Novy
D:\Music\House\AFROBROS
D:\Music\House\AfroJack
D:\Music\House\Club Bangers best of 2008\2009\2010
D:\Music\House\David Guetta
D:\Music\House\Biggy&Smalls

EG Drum n Bass Dir

D:\Music\Drum n Bass\High Contrast
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Pendulum
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Chase & Status
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Benny Page
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Camo krooked

think of this like a tool box with draws
where do you keep your screwdrivers? top draw? Dnb
where do you keep your wrenches/spaners? 2nd draw? House
where do you keep your socket sets? bottom draw? Dubstep

then you know where your 'Genre' files are
did you know that ka$ha has 3 types of genre, you don't put them in the same folder, would you?

In V.D.J there are two different ways to look for music eather by clicking on the main Genre perent folder or looking in each sub folder.

Note: Where D:\ is my 2nd Partition on my main 'C' Harddrive

hope this healps Dj~Ez.
 
DJ~eZ said:
I have thought about this question many times, I run VDJ 7 Pro, I had a mess on my hands, I do a radio show on friday nights for 3hrs and all my tunes was messed up, I had DnB and House and Dubstep all in one big folder called "MUSIC"bad idea!

I could never find anything fast, so Today, I decided to re-arange all my tunes by Genrre and Artest and create seprate folderes for each, EG all Dubstep tunes in a perent folder DUBSTEP, then in another folder by Artest, This is just a simple Example of how some of my music folders are set up NOW.


EG: DUBSTEP DIR

D:\Music\DUBStep\Flux Provillion
D:\Music\DUBStep\Woo Bost
D:\Music\DUBStep\Bar9
D:\Music\DUBStep\AfroJack
D:\Music\DUBStep\ReidSpeed
D:\Music\DUBStep\100% Pure Dubstep Album


EG: HOUSE DIR

D:\Music\House\Tom Novy
D:\Music\House\AFROBROS
D:\Music\House\AfroJack
D:\Music\House\Club Bangers best of 2008\2009\2010
D:\Music\House\David Guetta
D:\Music\House\Biggy&Smalls

EG Drum n Bass Dir

D:\Music\Drum n Bass\High Contrast
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Pendulum
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Chase & Status
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Benny Page
D:\Music\Drum n Bass\Camo krooked

think of this like a tool box with draws
where do you keep your screwdrivers? top draw? Dnb
where do you keep your wrenches/spaners? 2nd draw? House
where do you keep your socket sets? bottom draw? Dubstep

then you know where your 'Genre' files are
did you know that ka$ha has 3 types of genre, you don't put them in the same folder, would you?

In V.D.J there are two different ways to look for music eather by clicking on the main Genre perent folder or looking in each sub folder.

Note: Where D:\ is my 2nd Partition on my main 'C' Harddrive

hope this healps Dj~Ez.
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The spelling is D-R-A-W-E-R not D-R-A-W
 
Big Dan said:
All my music is MP3s in one huge folder unless I buy an album then I throw the album's folder in Music.
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that how I started out collecting music back in the 90'snd just sticking them in the MY Music folder, it just got all jumbled up lol
for 2 days now I have been re structuring my music DIR and getting all the tunes sorted out

Tunes are KooL :tritongue:
 
Bass ---------- No Bass
Hokie ---------- Pokie
Emotive --------- Could not care less....
 
I use very basic folder options for when I have a brain fade moment otherwise I know either the song or artist instantly as the thought crosses my mind. The rare case I have a song in my head that title or artist dont pop up for me I use the folder methods.
 
drzinc said:
Bass ---------- No Bass
Hokie ---------- Pokie
Emotive --------- Could not care less....
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I think the hokie pokie, is what it's all about... :)


On a somewhat darker note -- I don't think one quarter of the folks out there, even know how to work their software.
 
On a somewhat darker note -- I don't think one quarter of the folks out there, even know how to work their software.
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I think Rick may be giving a lot of folks more credit than they deserve......

Best,

Paul
 
ahoustondj said:
Some answers above in Red. By correctly Tagging and adding songs/files to my Software's Collection, anyone can come up to my Booth and use the software to find or play a song. I have had other DJs do just that and they were able to immediately tell whether or not I had a song. By the way, my playlist History goes back al the way to 2006. I can pick a date and see exactly what I played on that date and at what times. Amazing!
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A music Library is only complete when everything is tagged and properly stored.
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I don't understand this answer. What makes a library "properly stored"? Every song in my library is tagged and easily findable. I just find it much easier when I'm browsing through a genre to just look at songs that I have any chance of picking. Disco Duck by Rick Dees is a disco song, but the odds of me playing that when i'm looking for a disco song is Zero, so I don't put it in my genre list of disco. If, in the rare chance that someone really wants that song, my software and my tag will help me find the file, regardless of where the song actually is on my hard drive or hard drives. I don't need to duplicate files anywhere.
 
SoftJock Rick said:
I don't think one quarter of the folks out there, even know how to work their software.
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Well, thanks to RockIt's ease of use, your web site and the manual contained therein and quick response to emails, I count myself in that percentage who DO know how to work it.
 
Scott Hanna said:
I don't understand this answer. What makes a library "properly stored"? Every song in my library is tagged and easily findable. I just find it much easier when I'm browsing through a genre to just look at songs that I have any chance of picking. Disco Duck by Rick Dees is a disco song, but the odds of me playing that when i'm looking for a disco song is Zero, so I don't put it in my genre list of disco. If, in the rare chance that someone really wants that song, my software and my tag will help me find the file, regardless of where the song actually is on my hard drive or hard drives. I don't need to duplicate files anywhere.
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Many times I have had people come up to me and ask questions such as what do you have in Classic Rock or Blues etc. Its easy for me to show them what I have by simply clicking on the particular Genre in Traktor, I don't have to search though a bunch of songs or go to windows explorer to sort. In other words, the person is not looking for one song, they are looking at a specific group of songs.

Setting up a Music Library is no different to any filing system or City Library for that matter. You still have to have your groupings so you can individualize. The specific song search is speeded up by the DJ software having it stored in its memory.
 
Im not a public library if a guest has no clue what they want atleast artist or title or genre all they are doing is clogging up my work area and my time to search out that one elusive song. 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a song that absolutely wont work. If they know the song it likely has significance. I find less and less of this these days with folks owning smart phones and apps etc.
 
Jon Tuck said:
Im not a public library if a guest has no clue what they want atleast artist or title or genre all they are doing is clogging up my work area and my time to search out that one elusive song. 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a song that absolutely wont work. If they know the song it likely has significance. I find less and less of this these days with folks owning smart phones and apps etc.
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Here it is that all the time I thought you folks were putting people first. I bring people behind my Booth all the time and they love it. I sometimes will pick out a person and have them come up and play a set. They go ape over that. Would you ever make an announcement like this?...... "Put $5.00 in the Bartender's Tip Jar and I will let you play a 3 song set." They fork over the $$, they come up, I show them what to do and they are elated. The Bartender is happy, the Customer can't believe the DJ has allowed them to touch his gear and the customer's friends are applauding.

I don't know about ya'll but I have fun at my gigs. Yeah, this may not go over well at a Wedding but I still have people coming up behind my booth, especially the pretty redheads! :triwink:
 
DJ_tMMPo said:
I was wondering how you all organize your Song library?

Currently, I have all my music in random folders, iTunes separates all your songs into individual folders which is not beneficial to pulling up your library in software. I want to organize all my music on my harddrive in a way that I can pull it up and see it all in ITCH.

1) Is there an easy way to do this? 2) What is the best for using viewing in ITCH? Thanks!
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I haven't been on the forum in a while and came back this AM to look up this very thing. I've recently started spinning again after 12 years or so, am adjusting to using MP3s with ITCH and am looking to be more efficient. A buddy of mine who has used ITCH since its release has his folders setup by genre then bpm. It works for him. Not so much for me though.

Mine are categorized by event type and I use the PREPARE feature to select songs for my set. My goal is to not touch my laptop so often and use the Serato controls on my NS6. I'm still researching but do post your thoughts on what you come up with.
 
TheOlogee said:
I haven't been on the forum in a while and came back this AM to look up this very thing. I've recently started spinning again after 12 years or so, am adjusting to using MP3s with ITCH and am looking to be more efficient. A buddy of mine who has used ITCH since its release has his folders setup by genre then bpm. It works for him. Not so much for me though.

Mine are categorized by event type and I use the PREPARE feature to select songs for my set. My goal is to not touch my laptop so often and use the Serato controls on my NS6. I'm still researching but do post your thoughts on what you come up with.
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Once your songs are tagged, installed on your HD in Folders (By Genre), into the memory of your DJ Software's Collection like it is in the HD (This is not a Copy of the HD)...then your software should be able to find and sort in any fashion you want..by BPM, Song, Artist, Date Imported, Hot Songs (*)(Place an asterisk in the Comment Field), Genre etc.
 
Pubs and clubs are a different entity and I will allow them up more willingly. I too can grab my files via genre etc. At weddings its often the ones who have no clue what they want but want to search your hard drive and backup ending up hanging at your booth for an hour. This is the one I am referring to. I make it fun as long as one has a clue.
 
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