Your Questions: Should I Organise My Music In My DJ Software?

Digital DJ Tips forum member Bryan Douglass writes: “I am just getting back into the DJ game after many years. After looking at all of the software, I have decided that Virtual DJ will fit my needs. My question is, it better to download MP3 files on your hard drive and organise them in Virtual DJ, or use an outside program?”

Digital DJ Tips says:

Virtual DJ won’t “organise” your tracks at all, insofar as it won’t make copies of them, move them and so on. It’ll just make a note of where you already have them on your computer. So where you keep your files is still something you have to decide. We’d suggest keeping them in one place, for ease of backup – so there’s a starting point.

The next part is how to organise them once you’ve decided where to physically keep them. If you value being able to keep your music on your iPhone as well as your computer, or you have other reasons to use iTunes, that is worth considering, although due to its place at the heart of the video / streaming / podcasting / app / musical life of the typical Apple user, it can get mighty complex, mightily quickly.

For simplicity’s sake, consider keeping your DJing music separate from any other music you have “in your life” – organise your “other” music however you like (Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, whatever), but keep your DJ music scrupulously apart.

If you decide to do this, organising that DJ music (that is to say, updating its artist, title, genre, year and other tags, and making DJ playlists) can be done from inside Virtual DJ completely satisfactorily – remember, however many playlists you make or ways you organise it inside the software, Virtual DJ will never actually move your music around on your hard drive.

How do you store and organise your music? Like to share experiences and tips? Please do so below…