DJ 101: Setting Up iTunes

With so much music available to us DJ's, organizing our collections can be quite a headache. One of the most popular programs for this purpose is Apple's iTunes.  iTunes works both on Mac & PC platforms and provides us with a number of ways to save and organize our music. In this guide, we will cover some of the most common settings most of us DJ's find useful.

Download and install the latest version of iTunes by clicking here

Changing your Import Settings 

1. Open up iTunes and click the down arrow in the upper left hand corner.
   
   
   
   
2. Select Preferences from the drop down menu.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Import Settings button.
   
   
   
   
4. Change the top drop down menu from AAC Encoder to MP3 Encode
   NOTE: You can also change the quality of the file as well. The higher the bitrate the better sounding it will be.
   
        
        
   
   

Choosing where your music is stored

If your using an external hard drive to store you music follow these steps to change the storage location in iTunes.

1. Open up the Preference menu as shown in steps 2-3.
   
   
2. Click on the Advanced tab.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the change button, then navigate to the folder you would like to save your music to.
   
   
   
   

NOTE: It is always a good idea to check off the Keep iTunes Media folder Organized & Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder. It copies songs to the selected directory and organizes them as well.

 Arranging songs by BPM

 A very useful tool for the DJ is BPM or Beats per Minute. The BPM is basically the tempo of the song. Arranging songs by BPM is one of the most helpful tools a DJ can have. Here is how to arrange your songs by BPM.

1. Right click anywhere on the toolbar in iTunes.
   
   
   
   
2. In the menu that pops up, select Beats per Minute.
   
   
   
   This adds the BPM viewing pane to menu bar.
   
   
3. Click on the BPM tab on the menu bar.
   
   
   
   

Now all of your songs are arranged by BPM!