How to organise your music , video to deejayshero

0:00 This is a video response going out to YouTube user DJsHero

Alright folks, this is a video response going out to YouTube user DJsHero. Can you do a video on organising your music for a gig? I'm starting to notice I'm bringing too much music with me, like I'm bringing CDs I don't really use. Is it best to put CDs in folders or CD boxes? Is it best to put them in order for different stages of the night, etc.? Any help would be greatly appreciated. OK, right now then. Again, this is I suppose in a sense targeted to all DJs who will take CDs or even records for that to any functions. Mainly really I suppose to mobile DJs. Now then, let me show you this first of all. That there is a pack, Case Logic, and it's a bit of an old thing actually, I've had it for absolutely blinking years. But if you look in the likes of that, you've got pages and pages full of CDs.

Now this one's quite an old one, alright? But if you, just to show you now, you could have, say, on one page, you can have four MP3s, let's say, and I mean, each MP3 could house, I don't know, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 songs, let's say. And then behind that, you can have all the relevant information on that CD. So just bear that in mind for a second, okay? Now then... Being a mobile DJ myself, what I used to do, I used to take loads of vinyl, loads of CDs and I never, like this guy here, I never used to use them. And it was almost like, I just felt like, it was like comfortable having all of this music around me, even though I didn't use 90% of it. But as time goes on, you know, you realise... What is the point of taking all that stuff? Because no one's going to ask for it. So, this is what I advise you, OK? Now then, of course with modern day gear, if you've got CD plays that can play MP3. Now then, say that particular pack I showed you there, that can house 100 CDs. Now, let's say that was 100 MP3 files. There would possibly be enough music to continually play the songs for like two months on that.

2:11 What you can do, you can have one or two pages with house music

Right, so this is what I would do. I would, let's say, the first page have 50s, best of 50s, let's say, and maybe the first couple of pages, then the 60s, 60s music, rock around the clock, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, that sort of stuff, rock and roll, on the next two pages. Then I'd have 70s on the next two pages, then 80s, then 90s, and then on the other one I'd have the noughties, OK? Then what you can do, you can have one or two pages with house music. You can have one or two with hip-hop, with soul, with reggae, with ragga. So what you're doing, everything is sectioned off, everything is there right in front of you in relevant areas. And then of course like you've got the Now CDs. You could have all of them in a certain area as well. Then, of course, there's best of. There's best of Michael Jackson, best of ABBA, best of Chic, best of Prince, best of Breast, best of The Cure, etc. So again, look at it on that basis as well.

Then you can have your party music, the Now Party, all this sort of stuff. There's collaborations of CDs where it's just like Tutti Frutti Little Richard and all that sort of stuff. So if you work on that principle, what you're doing then, instead of your rekordbox or your CD box being jam-packed... Full of all these cases, and I hate them, that fall apart. There is nothing worse than going to a gig and opening these gatefold CDs where you open it and then they flip over like that and the one CD falls on the floor and then the case falls apart and you're like trying to hold everything because it happens, believe me, it does happen. You think this is an absolute nightmare. Something like that is fantastic. You zip it open, you open it up, you take your CD out, you bung it in...

4:02 You're walking in with one small unit, alright?

Turn it over, all the information is on the back and of course there's no need to take the information from the actual CD. Because all you've got to do, maybe take a bit of time, but just type it out, print it out. I think possibly you might even be able to go on the web and get all of the track listing off the web, then you photocopy it, you put that in your bag and then away you go. So you're walking in with one small unit, alright? And again, the same really with the likes of, say, Serato Scratch Live. I mean, I think that's brilliant. All of those sorts of programs, because all you've got to do, you take your laptop, your hard drive, a couple of turntables, a couple of virtual vinyls or CDs, virtual CDs, and you're away again. But then logically everything's on the hard drive there. So going back to DJ's Hero, OK? If you need to organize your collection of music...

Well, I can't stress enough. Something like that, alright? There's a hundred in there. Now again, what you will need to do is you will need to... When I say work out a structure, what he's saying as well, is there a structure for the particular... Or what would it say? Different stages of the night. I think what he means there, or he or she, sorry, is should you put the CDs in here with regards to the stages of the night? Now I would say no. There's no need. Because if you have... On the front of there, you can have say, you know, page 1 is 50s, page 2 60s etc. So even if it's closed and someone says, can you play? You look on the front, page 17 is best of Prince. You can go dunk straight there, you see Prince, they want 1999 or Kiss, bang, CD in, three buttons and within about 10 seconds your cat's coughing worms.

And you're playing the music, alright? So I hope that's been a help. Yes, I do waffle. Thank you very much for watching. Practice and enjoy.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.