How to organize new music before it hits your DJ library
Move each track through four stages, found, kept, bought and ready, and let only prepared tracks into rekordbox or Serato. Checklists for each step.
On this page
- The four stages a new track passes through
- Why stages work better than folders
- Found and kept: stay outside your DJ software
- Bought: a file-handling checklist
- Ready: define what "prepared" means
- Finding new tracks inside your DJ software
- File crates by the job a track does
- Fixing a library that's already a mess
- How often to do all this
- Doing this with CatchIt!
- Summary
Organize new music by stage, not by folder. Every track you come across sits at one of four stages: found (you know it exists), kept (you've listened and want it), bought (you own the file) or ready (it's gridded, cued, tagged and filed in your DJ software). Give each stage its own place, and only let ready tracks into the playlists and crates you DJ from. Found and kept tracks stay outside rekordbox or Serato entirely. A messy library is usually what happens when all four stages share one space.
The four stages a new track passes through
| Stage | What's true about the track | Where it lives | What moves it on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Found | You know it exists | One capture list, outside your DJ software | A proper listen |
| Kept | You've listened and want it | The same list, marked keep | A second cut, then a purchase |
| Bought | You own a file | One central music folder, plus a backup | Preparation |
| Ready | Gridded, cued, tagged and filed | Your DJ software's playlists or crates | Playing it, or pruning it later |
The stages only run one way. A track can drop out at any point: rejected after a listen, cut before checkout, pruned after a few months. What it shouldn't do is skip a stage. The track that reached your crates without being prepared is the one that catches you out mid-mix, with a drifting grid or no cue on the drop.
Why stages work better than folders
Will Lynch, writing for Pioneer DJ about managing music, puts the case for all this work in one line: "the better you know your tunes, the better you'll play." A folder structure can't make you know a track. A stage can, because each one asks for a decision or a piece of work before the track moves on: a listen, a purchase, a grid check.
There's also a search cost. Every unheard or half-prepared track in your DJ software is one more line to scroll past in the booth. A library that only holds ready tracks is smaller, and every search result in it is something you've chosen and prepared.
Found and kept: stay outside your DJ software
Found tracks come from everywhere: a Shazam in a club, a friend's link, a tracklist, a chart, a promo email. Kept tracks are the ones that survived a listen. Neither belongs in your DJ software yet. You don't own them, and you haven't committed to them.
What works for these two stages:
- One list for both. A notes document, a spreadsheet or an app; the tool matters less than the rule that every find goes into the same place and gets a keep or reject mark once you've listened.
- Rejects stay on record. When a track you passed on turns up again from another source, you want to see that you already said no, not judge it a second time.
- Write down the version at capture time. Note the mix name (extended, dub, a particular remix) when you save a track. It's much harder to work out at checkout which cut you heard.
- Streaming playlists aren't a decision. They're fine for listening, but a playlist with no keep or reject mark is one more pile.
The capture side is covered in How to keep track of every track you hear, the listening session in the weekly triage routine, and the final cut before checkout in How to decide which tracks to buy.
Bought: a file-handling checklist
The minutes after checkout are where files go astray. They sit in a downloads folder, get imported straight from there, and go missing when you tidy up months later. Run the same checklist after every purchase:
- Pick your format once. Decide whether you buy WAV, AIFF or MP3 and stop deciding track by track. Traxsource's help center says "Most Pro DJ's choose AIFF files", because AIFF keeps uncompressed audio and also stores tags and artwork. Where do DJs buy music? compares the formats.
- Fix the tags before you import. Artist and title the way the store lists them, the mix name kept in the title, and label or year if you search by them. Your DJ software reads these fields, and every search, playlist rule and smart crate depends on them.
- Move the files into one central music folder. Choose a single location (subfolders by month of purchase work well) and never import from Downloads. Lynch makes the case for a central location too: files that stay where your DJ software expects them don't come back later as a "file missing" error.
- Back up the same day. A store account isn't a backup. Beatport, for example, lets you re-download a track "up to 20 times without a streaming subscription". A second copy on another drive or in a cloud folder is cheap insurance against re-buying a crate.
- Mark the track bought in your list, so it leaves the shopping list for good.
Ready: define what "prepared" means
A track is ready when you could load it in the booth without checking anything. Write that standard down once, so preparing a track is a checklist rather than a judgment call each time:
- Analyzed. Your DJ software has detected tempo, key and the beat grid.
- Grid checked. The first downbeat sits on the grid, and the grid still lines up at the last chorus or the outro. Fix drift now; the booth is the wrong place to find it.
- Cues set. Use the same cue layout on every track so your hands learn it. One example: cue A on the first downbeat you'd mix in on, B on the first drop or main groove, C at the breakdown, D at the start of the outro.
- Tagged. Add what the software can't detect: energy, vocal or instrumental, the kind of room it suits.
- Filed. In at least one playlist or crate where you'll actually look for it mid-set.
- Played once. Mix it in and out of something you know at home before its first gig.
How detailed you go is up to you. What matters is that every track gets the same treatment, so "ready" means the same thing everywhere in your crates. How to prepare tracks for a DJ set walks through each of these steps in rekordbox.
Finding new tracks inside your DJ software
Ready tracks need a shelf where you'll see them while they're still new, before they disappear into a big library. Both major DJ apps can build that shelf for you.
- rekordbox: an intelligent playlist on date added. Intelligent playlists fill themselves from rules on track fields such as tempo, key, genre and your own tags. Lynch suggests one specifically for new music, with a date-added range covering the last few weeks. At your next prep session, go through it, listen more closely and tidy any grids or cues you rushed. rekordbox playlists vs folders explains how intelligent playlists, ordinary playlists and folders fit together.
- Serato: a smart crate on Added. Serato's support center explains that smart crates update themselves from rules on fields including Added (the date a track entered the library), BPM, genre, key and label. A rule on Added does the same job as the rekordbox playlist.
Rules like these only work if the tags behind them are right, which is why tags get fixed at the bought stage, not later.
File crates by the job a track does
How you file ready tracks decides how quickly you find them with a crowd in front of you. Sorting only by genre or store tells you what a track is, not what it's for. Try sorting by job first, then add genre or tempo crates where they help. Some examples:
| Crate | What goes in it | When you reach for it |
|---|---|---|
| Long blends | Tracks with long, sparse intros and outros you can layer for minutes | Slow, smooth transitions |
| Quick cuts | Tracks with a hard, immediate start | Fast changes and surprises |
| Vocal moments | Tracks with a strong, recognizable vocal | Sparingly, when the room needs a lift |
| Tools | Loops, drum tracks and acappellas | Bridging keys or tempos, layering |
| Tempo movers | Tracks at the edges of your usual range | Taking the BPM up or down |
| Proven | Tracks that have worked on a floor more than once | When you need a sure thing |
Serato's support center notes that "any given track can be placed in multiple crates", so a track can sit in a job crate and a genre crate at the same time. Keep the job crates few and obvious. If you can't decide where a new track goes, that's often a sign it isn't ready, or wasn't worth buying.
Fixing a library that's already a mess
Most DJs start with a library that already mixes everything. Don't try to fix it in one weekend.
- Freeze the old library. Make a playlist or crate called something like "To review" and put every track you don't recognize in it. Leave everything else alone for now.
- Run the stages from today. New finds go to your list, and only bought, prepared tracks enter the library.
- Review the old crate in small batches. About twenty tracks per session is a reasonable start. For each one, ask whether you'd load it at your next gig. If yes, bring it up to your ready standard and file it. If not, take it out of the library; the file can stay in your archive.
- Empty the downloads folder. Anything still there is either an unprepared purchase (move it to the central folder and prepare it) or a forgotten candidate (put its name on your list and delete the file if you never bought it).
For the rekordbox tools that help with missing files, duplicates and pruning, see how to clean up a DJ library.
How often to do all this
Prepare new purchases in the same week you buy them, ideally the same day, while you still remember why you bought each one. Lynch's warning is about exactly this lag: "Leave it too long and your crate will get chaotic and overgrown." In practice, a weekly rhythm covers all four stages: one listening session for new finds, one shopping slot, one prep session. The weekly triage routine covers the listening session in detail.
Doing this with CatchIt!
CatchIt! is a Mac app with a free iOS companion. It covers the found and kept stages and the shopping list that leads to bought. It's not a Rekordbox or Serato plugin and doesn't manage your files; your DJ software stays in charge of the ready stage.
- Every find in one Inbox. Captures from the iPhone (Shazam button, Shortcut, Save to CatchIt! share extension), tracklists from 1001tracklists, TrackID.net, set79 and Djooni, Spotify and Apple Music playlists, followed Beatport charts and whole SoundCloud or Mixcloud sets all land in the same Inbox. See Importing tracklists.
- Keep or reject, on record. Return keeps a track (green) and Space rejects it (red). Rejected tracks stay on record, and a repeat find shows its previous decision.
- A shopping list that stays honest. Kept tracks collect in the Wishlist, the Greens, with Bandcamp, Beatport, YouTube and Google search links, a copy action for a clean "Title Artist" line, Demote → Red for a second cut, and a Done flag for what you've bought.
- Synced between devices. Captures and decisions sync between the phone and the Mac within seconds. See Core concepts.
Summary
- Four stages: found, kept, bought, ready. Tracks only move forward, and only ready tracks enter your crates.
- Found and kept: one list outside your DJ software, with rejects on record and the version noted.
- Bought: one format, tags fixed before import, one central folder, a same-day backup.
- Ready: a written standard for grid, cues, tags and filing, plus a date-added playlist or smart crate for new tracks.
- Crates: sorted by the job a track does, then by genre or tempo where it helps.
Guides in this series:
- A weekly new-music triage routine for DJs
- How to keep track of every track you hear
- How to decide which tracks to buy
For first steps in CatchIt!, see Getting started.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the best way to organize a DJ music library?
- Organize by stage. Keep found and kept tracks in a list outside your DJ software, move bought files into one central folder with a backup, and only file a track into playlists or crates once it's gridded, cued and tagged. Then sort those crates by the job each track does in a set.
- Should unbought tracks go in your DJ software?
- It's cleaner not to. A DJ library full of tracks you only meant to check makes every search slower. Keep candidates in a separate list until you've decided and bought them.
- How do you organize new tracks in rekordbox?
- Import them from your central music folder, check the beat grid, set cue points, tag them and add them to playlists. Will Lynch, writing for Pioneer DJ, suggests an intelligent playlist with a date-added rule, so recent additions sit together for your next prep session.
- What are crates in Serato?
- Crates are Serato's playlists. A track can sit in several crates, crates can be nested as subcrates, and smart crates fill themselves using rules on fields such as date added, BPM, genre, key and label.
- How often should you organize your DJ library?
- Prepare new tracks in the same week you buy them, ideally the same day. If you buy regularly, weekly is a sensible minimum; the longer the gap, the bigger the pile of unprepared files.