Library & files
Crate
A crate is a folder of tracks inside your DJ software, named after the boxes vinyl DJs carried. A track can sit in as many crates as you like without being copied, because a crate holds references rather than files.
Measured in real DJ libraries
26.9% of a real DJ library sits in no crate at all, and the median track sits in exactly one.
Build crates around situations rather than genres: the software already knows the genre, and it does not know that a record works at 1am in a small room. The busiest track in this data is filed in 43 crates, which is roughly the point at which filing stops being navigation and becomes another thing to maintain.
26.9%
In no crate
1
Crates, median track
43
The busiest track
Updated daily from Rekordbox collections DJs have imported to Mixgraph. Method: crate against playlist.
Why it matters
Crates are how a library stops being a list. Ten thousand tracks sorted by artist is a database; the same ten thousand split into "warm-up", "peak", "records that work at 6am" is a set of decisions you already made, which is what you need when the room is waiting.
The mistake is building crates around genres, because that is the one thing the software already knows. Crates earn their keep when they encode something no field holds — a feel, a room, a night that worked.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between a crate and a folder?+
A crate lives inside the DJ software and holds references, so one track can appear in many crates at once. A folder lives on disk and holds the actual file, so moving it breaks every reference pointing at it.
How should you organise DJ crates?+
By situation rather than genre — openers, peak, exits, one per regular room. Genre is already a field the software can sort on; the room a record works in is not.
How many crates is too many?+
When you start searching instead of browsing them. Two levels of nesting is about the limit at which a crate structure is faster than the search box.
Related terms
Playlist vs crate
A crate is a collection of tracks you might play; a playlist is a running order you intend to play. The distinction is order — a crate is a box, a playlist is a sequence.
Crate digging
Crate digging is the search for records nobody has handed you — going past the charts and the promo mail into back catalogue, reissues and things filed where you were not looking.
Library database
Your DJ software keeps its own database of everything it knows about your collection — file locations, beatgrids, cue points, crates, play history. The audio files sit elsewhere on disk; the database is what turns them into a library.
Tag
A tag is a label you attach to a track so you can find it by something other than its name — a genre, a mood, a situation. A track can carry as many as you like.
Explore: Crate to tracklist · Mixgraph Bridge · Tag · All DJ terms