OneLibrary to rule them all? AlphaTheta hopes so, with a new library format that works across software and hardware without conversion, and with all your playlists, cue points, beatgrids, and so on intact. That may sound like a tall order, but it’s already launching with support for Pioneer hardware, Rekordbox, Traktor, and djay Pro.
Remember that Device Library Plus that Rekordbox suddenly started talking about, and you probably wondered what the heck it was about? Well, it’s quietly evolved into OneLibrary as AlphaTheta (née Pioneer DJ) reached out to other manufacturers. (They’ll even migrate the name gradually.)
The USB drive isn’t on its way out: it’s stronger than ever. Here’s the idea: export once to a USB drive, and you can play it in other software and other hardware. You can also bring it into Rekordbox, meaning from there you can make your library compatible with a wider range of Pioneer CDJ hardware, for instance. But crucially, there are a bunch of scenarios where you won’t even need Rekordbox as a bridge — the USB stick will just work.
I mean, frankly, this may change how I listen to music, not just how I DJ with it, because I can just use a compatible player as my player software and maintain a single set of playlists. I’ll be curious how they open this up; it’d be great to have an open source music player capable of doing that, for instance. It could be like the iTunes and Winamp of old.
Anyway, here’s what works:
What’s supported: Playlists, music files, cue points, beatgrid information, music waveforms, etc.
USB Export: latest versions of djay Pro (right now), Rekordbox (right now), Traktor (“coming months”)
Playback: djay Pro, Rekordbox, Traktor, and hardware:
- CDJ-3000X
- CDJ-3000 (requires firmware version 3.30 or later)
- XDJ-AZ
- OPUS-QUAD
- OMNIS-DUO
Now, CDJ-2xxx series you’ll notice isn’t there, and there are a lot of those devices (and XDJs and so on) out in the world. But even in that use case, this is useful. I have a bunch of USB sticks anyway, so now you just do the export from Rekordbox and maintain both libraries — the difference being you can DJ in djay and Traktor without a converter.
Serato and InMusic/Numark are two elephants not in the room. Serato support soon seems a no-brainer, given AlphaTheta has acquired them. That same acquisition might now give inMusic pause about embracing a format driven by their market rival. iMusic has good reason, just like the rest of us, to feel jittery about AlphaTheta’s already-dominant position growing into a full monopoly. That can ultimately stifle growth and innovation. But here, we have a chance to make DJing more open and fluid and remove barriers and frustrations for users. So I hope the industry moves forward together on this, just as they have on formats like MIDI.
While this is an AlphaTheta-driven project, Algoriddim are doing a great job explaining how it works and giving a demo. Pri yon Joni did this nice explanation with Algoriddim — but it applies to everything else, too, as that’s the whole point:
djay even works on iOS as well as macOS and Windows, though read-only for now.
Karim Morsy, Algoriddim’s CEO, tells CDM a little more:
OneLibrary is essentially a shared database format that acts as a bridge on the USB drive. The great thing is you can add content from djay, rekordbox, or CDJs, and everything seamlessly carries over within the same library on the stick. And it’s a great way to move playlists to iOS devices which has been a tedious process so far. Since djay also integrates with various 3rd-party DJ software libraries, it offers a seamless way to move your playlists onto CDJs regardless of where you built your library.
I’m in.
And mark my words. Despite all the AI DJing and talk of streaming — they have their place, to be sure — it looks like human playlists, prepping files, and USB sticks remain very much on top.
https://alphatheta.com/en/onelibrary
“A World of Possibilities” sounds like an inspirational book (because it is, “Unleashing The Power Within You”) or … this song.
Think of it as “Not A World of Hurt Each Time You Deal With Moving Your Library.” Fixed it for ‘ya.