Library & files
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.
Measured in our catalog
Of the 110,237 tracks whose true first-release year we have researched, 10,237 carry a store date at least two years later — a median of 10 years later.
5,339 of them are at least a decade adrift and the widest gap is 109 years, so a store’s release date is a publishing event rather than a record’s age. 5,532 of the same set were first released before 2000. That is the digging problem in one line: sort by date and you sort by upload, which is exactly the ordering everyone else is also seeing.
10,237
Store date 2+ years late
9.3%
Of the researched set
10 yrs
Median gap
109 yrs
Widest gap
Measured on 11 August 2026 across the 110,237 public tracks of 443,460 for which we hold a researched original release year alongside the store’s own release date.
Why it matters
Digging is what separates two DJs with the same subscriptions. The front page of every store is identical for everyone; what is behind it is not, and a set built entirely from the first page sounds like everybody else’s.
The obstacle is that a digital catalog hides age. Sorting a store by date sorts it by when a file was uploaded, and the numbers below say how often those two dates are not the same thing.
Frequently asked
What does crate digging mean?+
Searching for records outside what is being promoted to you — back catalogue, reissues, B-sides and things filed under a genre you do not usually browse. It is the part of preparation that makes two DJs sound different.
How do you dig for records in a digital store?+
Move sideways rather than down the chart: follow labels and remixers rather than artists, browse by tempo and key rather than by genre, and treat the release date with suspicion — plenty of it is an upload date.
Is the release date on a digital store accurate?+
Often not the record’s. Of 110,237 tracks where we know the true first-release year, 10,237 carry a store date two or more years later, with a median gap of 10 years.
Related terms
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.
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.
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.
Open Key
Open Key is a second notation for the same wheel Camelot describes. It numbers the positions differently — C major is 1d rather than 8B — and uses m and d for minor and major, but the mixing rules are identical.
Explore: Browse by tempo · Browse by key · Deep cuts near popular artists · All DJ terms