Hopefully you know that you should be backing up your DJ software’s database – in other words, the information it knows, the info you’ve told it, and what it has calculated about your music, playlists and so on – as well as the music files themselves. Should catastrophe strike and you need to start again from scratch, if you’ve backed up both these things, you can get your DJ software up and running quickly with everything as it was.
But did you ever wonder exactly how your DJ software handles all that information about your music? Things like the waveforms? The beatgrids? Your cue points? When you dig a little bit deeper, DJ platforms all handle these things slightly differently. So if you’ve ever been curious, in this article we’ll look at how Serato, Traktor, Rekordbox, VirtualDJ, Djay Pro, and Engine DJ deal with that extra information that isn’t standard to music files.
Rekordbox: A database approach
Rekordbox by AlphaTheta stores nearly all of your DJ prep information in its internal library database and folders, some of which are hidden away from its visible folder. That includes beatgrids, cue points, loops, waveform data, key and BPM analysis, phrase analysis, ratings, and more. None of that gets written to the music file itself by default.
When you analyse a track in Rekordbox, the results are kept in a database file that Rekordbox uses behind the scenes. This database is what gets exported to USB drives when preparing playlists for CDJs or used when DJing with a controller in Performance mode, and is essential for preserving your work.
You can edit standard metadata like artist and title, and those edits can be written back to the files manually. But Rekordbox avoids embedding performance data (like cues and grids) into music files. Why? Because not all audio formats support complex metadata tags, and Pioneer prefers to keep everything centralised to avoid compatibility and corruption issues.
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Rekordbox behaves the same way across MP3, WAV, AIFF, FLAC and other formats. It does not embed DJ-specific metadata in the files, even if technically possible. If you move your files outside of Rekordbox, that information doesn’t come with them unless you also move the database or export via the correct method.
Serato: A file approach
Serato DJ Pro takes the opposite approach. It writes all of your performance metadata directly into the music files, even into WAV files (which officially don’t allow this), by using its own proprietary method. This includes BPM, key, waveform data, cue points, loops, and even auto-gain information. This means if you move a music file to another Serato system, all that data comes with it. There’s still a local database (the Serato folder), but it’s more for indexing, crates, and backups. For most practical purposes, your Serato tracks are self-contained.
When it comes to your playlists (or “crates”), Serato saves this info based on the location of the audio files. For files stored on the internal drive, crate data is saved in the usual Serato folder. For files on external drives or other volumes, crate data for those tracks is stored in a Serato folder located at the root of each corresponding drive or volume.
Traktor: A hybrid approach
Traktor Pro from Native Instruments does both. It stores all your DJ performance data in its internal collection database (collection.nml) and also writes most of it to the music files themselves. This includes BPM, beatgrids, cue points, saved loops, key analysis and autogain. Traktor writes its metadata into the files using a proprietary block, and uses appropriate tagging systems for formats like FLAC or AIFF.
This dual-storage method means that if Traktor loses access to the database, it can re-import the data from the file tags. Conversely, if the file’s metadata is lost but the database remains, the track’s metadata is still preserved. Traktor will always use the most recent version if there’s a conflict.
Traktor even embeds waveform preview data (the stripe) and cover art into the files where possible. This includes formats like MP3, AIFF and FLAC, and even WAVs to some extent by injecting an ID3 block into the file. This makes Traktor’s metadata portable – you can copy a file to another Traktor system and keep all your cues, loops and grid markers.
VirtualDJ: File-centric with external backup
VirtualDJ stores performance metadata such as cue points, loops, beatgrids, key, play count and more directly in its own XML database files located per drive or folder, but by default, VirtualDJ also reads cue points and loops from Serato. So if you add a track to the VirtualDJ collection and it shows cues automatically, those are actually from Serato, not ones set in VirtualDJ. However, as soon as you set even one cue or loop in VirtualDJ, it stops reading the Serato data for that track.
Like Serato, VirtualDJ places its database file at the location where the audio files are stored – look in your Documents folder or even your hidden Library if you can’t find it. For formats that support embedded metadata (such as MP3, FLAC, M4A, and AIFF), VirtualDJ can write cue points, BPM, and other tag data directly into the files. However, waveform data (used to display coloured waveforms) is not embedded – it remains in the database. VirtualDJ offers preferences to control whether it writes tags back to files or not – useful if you’re concerned about keeping files untouched.
Algoriddim Djay Pro: Mostly cloud & OS-Based
Algoriddim’s Djay Pro (on macOS and iOS, at least) stores most of its metadata in a local application container (macOS/iOS sandbox) or in iCloud when syncing is enabled. This includes beatgrids, cue points, loops, waveforms, and analysis data.
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While some track info (like BPM and key) can be written to standard file tags when using Djay Pro’s editing features, most DJ-specific metadata, like cue points and loops, are not embedded into the files themselves.
Instead, Djay Pro relies on syncing via iCloud or local backups. The iOS/macOS version stores data in app-specific folders that are not easily accessible but are preserved with Time Machine or iCloud backup. This design works well for users fully inside Apple’s ecosystem but can make moving libraries manually more complicated, or should you want to use another way to get your music into Djay’s ecosystem.
Engine DJ: A database approach (like Rekordbox)
Engine DJ uses an internal database to store all analysed data – BPM, beatgrids, cue points, loops, key, and waveform overviews – rather than embedding it into your music files.
All DJ-specific info (such as beatgrids, cues, and loops) lives in the Engine library or exported USB/SD drive libraries. None of this data is embedded in the audio files themselves. Waveform data is also stored in the Engine database. Engine OS hardware can read this data from exported drives, ensuring fast waveform loading.
Basic Tag Editing: You can edit standard tags (like artist, title, genre, comments) in Engine DJ, and these will be saved to files for supported formats such as MP3 and FLAC. However, analysed BPM, key, cues, and loops are not written to file tags. Engine leaves WAV files unmodified. All metadata remains in the database.
Why All This Matters
So why should you care where your DJ software stores this information? The main reason is that it affects portability. With Serato, Traktor and VirtualDJ, if your files are properly tagged, you can move them to another laptop and retain your cues and loops. With Rekordbox, as another example, unless you export the library or database correctly, those settings don’t come with the files.
Also, it affects backups: If you use Rekordbox or Djay Pro and only back up your music files, you’re not saving any of your performance prep. You must also back up the Rekordbox database. With Serato and Traktor, backing up your music files also preserves your prep, at least for supported formats. However, if you want your playlists, history and so on to also be remembered, you still need to back up your database for Serato and Traktor – which is why we always recommend you do just that.
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And finally, it may affect compatibility and long-term preservation. Tags written directly into files are arguably more likely to survive across software updates, file transfers, or hard drive migrations. But at the same time, if you convert formats, you may lose embedded metadata. Knowledge is power, as they say!
In short, the way your DJ software stores metadata is worth understanding. It affects how you prepare, how backups work, and what steps you take when you migrate to new platforms. Know how your software handles metadata, and plan accordingly – your future self will thank you.
Phil Morse
