Extensive Vs. Small Song Libraries
Question for everyone on here, which “strategy” seems better:
Having a large catalog of songs to chose from but you dont have as deep knowledge of every track with lots of songs that you “like” and find usable?
Or:
Having a much smaller catalog of songs, but you love every song in it and know each song inside and out?
I have a playlist for both (:
Depends if i’m playing out, at home / what mood i’m in etc.
Why limit yourself?
I’ve read three articles over at Digital DJ Tips regarding library size.
http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/04/get-minimal-with-your-music-collection/
http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/09/your-questions-how-to-tidy-up-44000-mp3s/
http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/07/why-i-just-threw-away-nearly-all-of-my-music/
They all promote having a more personal library that you know through and through. I’m all for a smaller library, although shrinking mine is still an on-going process. 
yeah i have been meaning to start doing this. right now my collection is incredibly bloated.
It’s definitely a frustrating middle zone for me. I spend as much time as I can staying on top of new releases and getting unique tracks first but definitely don’t know a lot of the songs I get as well as I’d like and don’t end up playing some of them. With so many sources for music (lots of it being free from soundcloud, artist FB’s, etc), it really is a full time job, and personally, I have to be in the right mood to listen and sift though tons of new music.
This.
Also, it’s something I really make use of the “rating” system in itunes with. I rate tunes on how much I particularly like them, with lower energy usually hitting the ones around 3 stars.
I rate them while listening on my iphone as well in the car, and so it gives me a lot more control I’ve found going back and trying to put together solid stuff.
i really don’t understand having so much music that you don’t know your tracks…
why the need to have a million tracks?..most of which you will never play…
unless you are just torrenting tons of tracks…then shame on you…
if you don’t have the time to properly listen to and sort your music…what are you doing?
carpet bombing isn’t a suggested style of DJing…
You’re assuming that the only reason to buy a tune is to play it in a DJ set.
I’ve bought more than a few tunes that I’d be very, very unlikely to play, simply to show support for the artist’s work. That’s putting entierly to one side buying stuff for just listening to.
Personally, I feel a need to get more separation between my “DJ” tracks and my “I love music” tracks. I think I need to buy a MacBook Air to put my DJing stuff on.
Now to convince my partner that this is a sufficient use-case for a new MBA …
pretty sure the OP’s post was from a DJ-ing standpoint…
because what you are talking about is an easy way to sort things…two folders…
one folder says non-DJ music…the other one says DJ-music
Concerning my original post; I am mostly a trance DJ. Amongst my collection includes legit copies of many classic trance albums a good friend of mine gave me and modern trance tunes that i have purchased or downloaded for free from soundcloud. Some of these are tracks that I truly love, tracks I can listen to over and over while some were merely out of necessity to fill out a set, so give myself more options, etc… . I do like these tracks aswell, but do i know them completely? No, do I like them? Yes.
Essentially what i was asking is what is the ideal library size. Is it a very extensive list with many options ( so most every mix sounds different ) or is it a smaller list of tracks you can truly call favorites.
there is no right answer for you…it’s from whatever workflow set of folders or playlists you are comfortable pulling from…
try to rid yourself of the idea of playing “fillers”…i can honestly say i buy tracks that i like and want to share with other people…i dont play or buy “fillers”…
With proper organizational techniques it’s possible to to maintain a big library. Having everything organized by key, genre and BPM in addition to using the iTunes rating system makes it pretty easy to find what you’re looking for.
It comes down to proper cataloging. If you have this, library size doesn’t matter. Then it’s easier to sort through the types of music you have. Then, it’s a matter of packing your “record case” every night before a gig. That’s how I handle it.
I have several thousand records. Back in the day before CDJ’s became standard fare, I’d prep before a gig by digging through my own crates. First I’d pull some new tracks that I’d bought that week. From there, I’d dig through older stuff that I thought matched up or worked well with them. In the end, I’d pack about 3-4 hours of music for a 1-2 hour slot. It gave me enough leeway to have more than enough if the next DJ was a no-show/late, and change direction if the crowd wasn’t feeling it.
I think doing the same thing is important now. With the price of tracks at such a low price, it’s easier to build a collection of great music, and it gets large VERY quick. Prep before a show is vital as far as track selection. Even if you play extended sets that go several hours, it’s still important to have some sort of idea of where you want to go ahead of time. A large collection just allows you the freedom to change direction 180 degrees if things are going wonky.
I like having a big library and having it well categorized. The last few months or so when I know all songs I have, I keep in a structure like month → week → style, and after a while the weaker tracks I haven’t played goes away, and the good ones go to old → style → substyle → swing → feeling, sorta’ (swing and feeling often goes in the ID3 comments). That way I have a good sense of the songs, and a greater chance of being able to play requests. (I love the feeling when someone have a really awkward request and think you can’t play it, then when you see them dancing along you sneak it in and watch that music geeks reaction 
…)
You need to separate your listening library from your djing one. Helps a lot.
Well, I don’t usually have more than like, around a 100 songs which I play “alot” during any given moment, but sometimes I get the urge to just mix in that song there, that would sound so great etc. Then due to the tedious work of sorting everything I mostly can (sometimes I forget titles/artists though, which kinda sucks, I wish you had a Traktor function where you could hum any part of a song and it would find it for you . Maybe our minds work in different ways… )