DJ software should make managing your music library easier — in theory. In practice, the leading DJ apps have been pretty stuck in their ways for a while now. Serato is answering users’ pleas with a redesigned library in the new Serato DJ Pro 4.0 release, available in public beta.
I’ve had a few days to try this in advance, and I have to say, this is easily the DJ music library I’ve enjoyed using most.
There is stuff here that’s silly. There are now emojis you can use for ratings and labels — hmm, okay. But finally, crates start to make sense, enough that it might be time to give Serato a fresh look. New in the 4.0 beta, highlights:
- Search through crates easily (requires Pro)
- Organize, filter, color-code, and favorite crates
- From the Library, see the duration, size, and track count of crates
- Finally, right-click crates for options/actions (apparently the second mouse button has reached New Zealand at last!)
- Automatic track analysis on import — and analysis continues as your hardware is connected
- Crates can mix local and streaming tracks
On paper, that may not seem like a lot, especially if you haven’t spent much time with Serato. But Serato DJ to me remains a strong choice in DJ software for flexibility, advanced playback options including even visual features, and hardware interoperability. It’s a big deal that you have these management features now. The way crates and album covers work now is really what I always wanted out of DJ software.
The public beta is out now:
Of course, if you want stable functionality, stick to the current 3.x branch. It still has new stuff like macOS Sequoia support and Roland SP-404MKII integration.
https://serato.com/dj/pro/downloads
We need more activity in this space. I love playing on CDJs, especially now that they’re so ubiquitous. And I love Rekordbox’s ability to prep USB sticks; I’ve even written a comprehensive guide to how to make that go smoothly. But don’t get me started on doing anything else in Rekordbox, especially now with the subscription fees AlphaTheta is pushing.
The time is now for better software management of music libraries, not only for DJing but digging and listening more generally. If you do get into Serato DJ and want to then export to USB sticks for CDJs, there are various options; that’s a topic for another article. There are a few options, though many of these also have subscription fees. Lexicon is interesting in that it doubles as a player, a kind of “iTunes with cue points” that can then sync to anything. MusConv is a little cheaper per month and (yes!) offers a lifetime license, plus the ability to convert streaming services and whatnot. I will say, these look to me like a better value than Rekordbox even for sync/backup alone. I’ll try to test them soon.
Or for the hacky, free way to go, I’m intrigued by this Python script. That’ll appeal to a different crowd than the options above, but that crowd would be, like, a CDM crowd.
Let us know. Meanwhile – time to choose a weird emoji system for my music. (Skull and crossbones is industrial. Ambient gets a frog for some reason. Next…)