Building a DJ library takes years. Download one in minutes.

By The Cue Club.

It usually takes years to build a full DJ library. Download yours in minutes. The years are the collecting, cueing and sorting, and nobody has measured a single number that fits every DJ. The minutes are the download and the import, after a seller has already done that work for one set. You get their music and their hot cues, and it lands in rekordbox like it came straight off another DJ's USB.

How The Cue Club works

Our software packs a full set: the tracks and the cue points. Import it and rekordbox shows the playlists the way a booth USB would, pads already set, no weekend of clicking A to H.

Each download includes a file of mixing codes, so the cues are not a secret. A code tells you the blend in one line. Bring the new track in on its A cue when the track on deck 1 hits its D cue. That is the mix in. The next mark is the mix out.

The same door works the other way. If you have spent those years and the music is yours to sell, upload the set on the sell page. To start from someone else's, browse what is listed.

What the work is

A library is not a folder of MP3s. By the time a USB is ready for a gig, most DJs have done all of the following. None of it is optional if you want the player to behave.

1. Find the music. Digging through shops, pools, promos and other people's tracklists until you know what you play. Taste is the part you cannot buy in a hurry, because it comes from hearing songs next to each other.
2. Get files you are allowed to keep. Stores, pools and free legal promos are compared in where DJs get their music, with the Australian licensing bodies linked there. A ripped stream is not a library.
3. Analyse and grid. rekordbox reads BPM and key and draws a beat grid. You still check the downbeat. A wrong grid throws off sync and quantize.
4. Set cues. Hot cues, and often memory cues, so you can start on the first beat, hit the drop, and leave on time. Doing that for every track is the repetitive part. One common pad map is in template DJ set with hot cues.
5. Sort playlists. By gig, by energy, by genre, sometimes by key or era. A wedding USB and a club USB are not the same list.
6. Export a USB the player can read, with the playlists and the cue data on it. Then keep a backup. Stores close and laptops die. The music guide says the same thing: keep a copy off the machine you play on.
7. Replace what dates. A working library is never finished. Current records age out. New ones have to be bought, gridded and cued too.

That is why people say years. A crate for one genre can come together faster. A USB that covers several kinds of room is slow because each of those steps happens per track, then again when your taste moves. There is no published average. Treat "years" as the shape of the job, not a statistic.

What a pack skips

A Cue Club set is that shortcut. After checkout the zip is there to download: the audio, a rekordbox.xml with the grids and cues, and the mixing-code file that says where to blend. How long the transfer takes depends on your connection and the size of the set. The short part is that someone else already did the digging and the cueing.

Under the Terms of Service, sellers may only list original music and licensed tracks. The Cue Club does not verify those claims. Read the terms, and read the seller's description of the set.

Import it like this. Menus are from the rekordbox 7.1.4 manual. The file name is what Cue Club sets use.

1. Unzip. Keep the audio and the rekordbox.xml together.
2. Preferences, View, Layout: tick rekordbox xml under Media Browser.
3. Preferences, Advanced, Database: set Imported Library to that xml. The Cue Club's steps say to Browse for the file.
4. Restart if the tree is missing, then open rekordbox xml, then Playlists.
5. Drag the playlist onto your own Playlists.

Load one track and press the pads before a gig. You are checking someone else's preparation, not skipping the soundcheck.

What a pack does not skip

• Learning to mix. The cues show you where a DJ marked the track. They do not blend it. A practice order is in how to learn to DJ.
• Your own taste. A bought set is that seller's selection. Play it, keep what you like, and add records you buy. It is a starting library for that sound, not every gig you will ever do.
• Other people's USBs. A pack is not a copy of a stranger's stick or their rekordbox history. Why that download does not exist is in how to download another DJ's USB.
• A licence for music you add later. Tracks you drop in beside the pack still have to be ones you are allowed to have. The music guide links the official Australian pages.

After the import

Play the playlist in order once, without trying to be clever. Note three tracks you would actually open a set with, and three you would not. Then record a short mix and listen back. From there, add music the way every library grows: a few tracks at a time, gridded and cued before they go on the USB.

When you need a different room, look at another genre rather than stretching one playlist. Wedding nights in particular want their own order. That structure is in how to DJ your own wedding.

FAQ

How many years does a DJ library take?

People say years because the buying, cueing and sorting add up. There is no measured number that fits every DJ. A small crate in one genre can be fast. A USB for lots of different gigs is slow work.

What does a pack actually skip?

The collecting and the preparation of that set: audio, beat grids, hot cues and playlist order, in one zip. It does not skip learning to mix, and it does not cover every future gig by itself.

Is the download really ready in minutes?

After checkout, The Cue Club makes the zip available to download. How long the transfer takes depends on your connection and the size of the set. The short part is receiving a set someone else has already prepared, rather than building it track by track.

What is in the download?

The tracks, the hot cues, a rekordbox.xml for the import, and a file of mixing codes that names the handoff. One code is as direct as: bring the new track in on its A cue when deck 1 hits its D cue.

Can I add my own tracks later?

Yes. Import the set, play it, then add music you buy. A pack is a starting library for that sound, not a locked one.

Does a set pack include the music?

Yes. You get the tracks and the hot cues, plus a file of mixing codes that names the handoff. One code is as direct as: bring the new track in on its A cue when deck 1 hits its D cue.

Can I sell my own DJ sets?

Yes. DJs upload their own sets and sell them on The Cue Club. Open the sell page to list one. Sellers may only list original music and licensed tracks.

Download a prepared set

Browse every set, or pick a shelf on the genre page. If the library is one you built, sell it. Read the description before you pay. The cues are only useful if the music is music you wanted.

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