Library & files
History playlist
A history playlist is the list DJ software and club players record automatically as you play — every track, in order, with a timestamp. You do not create it; it is written whether or not you ask.
In practice
Import the history off the stick before you unpack. It is the only unedited record of the set you just played.
Club players write a history per session to the stick, and Rekordbox will import it as a dated playlist. Do it the next morning, before the stick gets reformatted for the next gig, and keep the playlists — a year of them is the clearest picture of your own habits you will ever have, including the records you rely on more than you think. Cross-referenced with play count, it is also the fastest way to see which purchases have never once made it into a room.
Automatic
You do not create it
Per session
How players file it
Before reformat
When to import it
Where these come from: How club players and Rekordbox record and import session history — documented behaviour, not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see what it feeds.
Why it matters
It is the only record of what you actually played, and memory is a poor substitute. The set you remember is the three transitions that worked; the history is the whole thing, including the twenty minutes you would rather forget and the record that saved it.
It is also the raw material for everything after the gig — the tracklist a promoter asks for, the recording’s cue sheet, the honest look at whether your warm-up really was a warm-up. Importing it back from the stick takes seconds and almost nobody does it.
Frequently asked
Where does the CDJ save my history?+
Onto the USB stick, as a session file the software can import as a dated playlist. It is there until the stick is reformatted, which is why importing before the next gig matters.
Can I use history to make a tracklist?+
Yes — that is the fastest route to one. The history is already in order with timestamps, which is most of the work of a cue sheet done for you.
Does history update my play counts?+
Only when you import it back. Plays that happened on a stick stay on the stick until the history comes home.
Related terms
Play count
Play count is the number the software increments each time a track is played past a threshold. It is the only field in a library that records what you actually did rather than what you intended.
Set list
A set list is the running order a DJ intends to play — the sequence rather than the collection. How long it needs to be is arithmetic: slot length divided by how long the records actually run.
Cue sheet
A cue sheet is a small text file listing what plays when inside one long audio recording — track titles, artists and start times. It is how a recorded mix is split into a tracklist without being cut into separate files.
Two USB sticks
Bringing two identical prepared USB sticks is the standard club precaution. Sticks fail, get left in players and get taken by mistake, and the second one turns any of those from a disaster into a pause.
Explore: Tracklist maker · Set list · Cue sheet · All DJ terms