Library & files
Artwork
Artwork is the image embedded in a track’s tags and shown in the browser and on the player display. It is stored inside the file, so it travels with the track and adds to its size.
In practice
Artwork on everything, at around 500 pixels. It is the fastest thing to recognise in a dark booth and the easiest to oversize.
Embed rather than relying on a folder image, because only embedded art survives the trip to a USB stick. Fix missing covers in a batch rather than one at a time — a metadata editor will fill most of a library in one pass and flag the ones it cannot find. Watch for the opposite failure too: a store supplying a 3,000-pixel JPEG in every file is adding more per track than a lot of DJs realise.
~500 px
Enough for any player display
Embedded
The only kind that travels
In a batch
How to fill the gaps
Where these come from: Player display resolutions and standard tagging practice — not catalog figures.
Why it matters
It is a navigation aid rather than decoration. Under club lighting, at speed, a sleeve you recognise is faster to find than a title you have to read, which is the same reason record shops face artwork outward. A library with artwork on everything browses noticeably faster than one without.
The cost is size, and it is larger than people expect. A 3,000-pixel cover embedded in every track adds up quickly across a collection and slows the analysis and export steps that have to read each file. Something around 500 pixels is indistinguishable on a player display and a fraction of the weight.
Frequently asked
Does artwork show on a CDJ?+
Yes, if it is embedded in the file and the export included it. Art referenced from a folder rather than embedded does not survive the journey to a stick.
Does artwork make files bigger?+
Noticeably, if it is oversized. A large cover in every file adds up across a collection and slows every process that has to read the whole file.
How do I add missing artwork in bulk?+
Use a metadata editor that can look covers up and write them in a batch, then check what it could not find by hand. Doing it track by track is how it never gets done.
Related terms
ID3 tags
ID3 tags are the metadata written inside an audio file — title, artist, album, genre, year, comment, and on DJ files often BPM and key. They travel with the file rather than with the software that read it.
File naming
File naming is the convention behind the filenames themselves — usually artist, title and mix name. It matters because the filename is the one piece of metadata that survives when tags are missing, stripped or wrong.
USB prep
USB prep is exporting the tracks, grids, cue points and playlists you need onto a drive a club player can read. What is not exported does not exist once you are behind the decks.
Search filter
The search filter narrows the browse list on a player by typed text or by field — genre, artist, key, BPM band, rating, colour — so you can find a track on a stick of thousands without scrolling through them.
Explore: MP3 metadata editor · ID3 tags · USB prep · All DJ terms