Beatport track keys vs Mixed in key
I was messing around and compared 30 tracks between them and 6 matched.
Some weren’t too bad, MIK would say the track is in A Minor where Beatport would say it’s A Major.
Just wondering which one you would go by.
I’m pretty sure Beatport’s keys are specified by the artist. Can’t say for sure though because it’s been a while.
Hmm this is interesting as they both come from “reputable places”
I’m keen to know who to believe… 
Beatport analyzes them, but I don’t know with what. It’s also crowd sourced so if they get several reports that one is wrong they’ll change it.
MIK has been around for several years, pefecting their algorithm.
BP still does not write the key to the mp3 tags, and when asked why, they say it it because they are still working on the algorihythm. (source: beatportal faq if i remember correctly).
So trust mik over bp for now, but hopefully bp will become good enough and write them to tags so we dob’t need mik.
MIK is FAR from perfect. Grab a keyboard and learn to key by ear. It is not that hard.. I tried doing it for a bit, but realized my mixes were WAY better when I was not relying on a key to put two tracks together.
Agreed.
I used to detect keys with RapidEvolution, back when an article on DJTT put it slightly above MIK in terms of success rate. RE was wrong often enough that it became faster to just fire up RE for its piano w/chords and manually find keys 
One of the first batches of tracks I purchased off the new beatport was mostly Am/A#m, and that kinda struck me, so obviously I double checked the keys during the usual re-tagging routine. It turned out their analysis wasn’t THAT far off - most of these tunes were actually in compatible keys, for instance D#m or Fm instead of A#m.
What’s more obvious though is the major/minor thing - that seemed to be wrong on most of the tracks (the vast majority of my house/techno is minor)
im guessing that consistency is more likely to yield useful mixes. e.g. a track “10A in mixed in key” is almost always going to mix in well to a “9A, 10A, 11A or 10B in mixed in key”.
i have no real reason to believe this. but this is the internet, so I might as well just proclaim it as fact. BOO YA.
p.s. I use mixed in key a lot and using the camelot system with MIK i haven’t had any train wreck clashes in key
i just bought mixed in key … waste of money it is then.. no?
I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of money. As bumtsch pointed out, the keys it gives you might not be the right ones 100% of the time, but they will be in compatible keys.
If you use it as a tool and a guide and don’t rely on it too much then it can be of great help.
bust out a keyboard and do it yourself..
takes about 3-10 seconds a song.. well worth it.
put the actual key as well.. I find this whole 10A 8B 35Q to be a complete joke.
hmmm i just assumed Beatport got their keys from the artists as well, guess not, i’ll stick with RE for now then as well
MiK ftw
There is now a way to search beatport tracks by key, tempo (bpm), and much more. Take a look at http://www.katasonov.com/beatport-key-search
Yes sure now that everyone is a DJ everyone also has keyboards laying around. You do know that not all DJ play instruments right?
And if it’s so easy there should not be any need to bring out a keyboard you should be able to do it by ear right?
Just because you don’t understand somethink does not make it a joke.
It is by far easier for not musisians to understand that 12A works with 12B and can go to 1A or 11A insted of saying C#m works with E and can go to F#m or G#m.
MIK is totaly worth the money IMO
i use this KeyFinder
did 500 songs in it, checked with a keyboard and all of them were right. good enough for me
Beat port key detection is terrible and even worse it’s inconsistent.
MIK is far more accurate, but it is also consistent, even when it’s wrong. So if you do soley rely on it (which I doubt people do) it will still work nearly every time. For example, you can build a deck with an incorrect tape measure as long as you only use that tape measure.
Most amateur (or even pro) DJs won’t have a musical ear, so telling them to key it themselves is sort of misleading and unfair. If you’ve never played an instrument or have a musical background, keying a song is not something you can just pick up learn. A majority of people will never have an ear that is more accurate that MIK. That’s not saying that MIK is super accurate, but it means that most people don’t have a talent for hearing keys no matter how hard they try. Heck, most DJs can’t even tell when something is out of key, let alone key a song.
please explain the advantage of using the actual key name vs the camelot system for a DJ. you’re just giving yourself something extra to memorize despite there being a system that makes it unnecessary.
Why do so many DJs have the philosophy that the more difficult method is always the better one?