Tools for managing a large digital music library, designed for DJs
I built these tools to support my music library management workflow as an electronic music DJ. They are designed to work with my particular system of music management on macOS, so they might not fit your use case exactly. Feel free to file an issue or send an email (address in my GitHub profile) if you'd like to see additional features implemented in raga.
Rekordbox is the de-facto library management software DJs; it's a necessary part of any DJ's workflow to be able to perform on CDJs. Like most DJs, I use it to analyze tracks, set cue points, and export to USBs. However, Rekordbox is often slow and clunky to use; I prefer listening to music and creating playlists in a more performant and user-friendly app, namely one called Swinsian for macOS (previously, I used Apple's Music app).
Swinsian is pretty good at a few things: watching folders for new audio file downloads, fixing track metadata & tags, organizing tracks into playlists (manually and with smart playlists). It's a great replacement for Apple's Music app. However, it lacks some important functionality for DJs:
- it can't export its playlists directly to Rekordbox
- it can't analyze track tempo/BPM
- its smart playlist system could be a lot smarter
- it lacks any meaningful tag management features (genre-based or otherwise)
raga aims to solve these problems and more. One day, it may even be able to subsume all of Swinsian's or (gasp) Rekordbox's functionality as the all-in-one app for DJ music library management 🔮
Here's a wireframe diagram which roughly illustrates the workflow at a high level:
Most raga users will use the Electron-based desktop application. Its releases are available for download here. With the Raga app, you can:
- import a Swinsian library and browse its playlists
- analyze track tempo/BPM and save the value to audio file ID3 tags
- play tracks with adjustable tempo +/-10%
- rate tracks (1-5 stars)
- export a Swinsian library to a format which can be imported by Rekordbox
The source code for the app lives in the
raga-app package.
The web UI components of raga have been extracted into a separate package called
raga-web-app.
This allows the UI to be:
- Run as a standalone web application for testing and development
- Deployed to static web servers for preview and demonstration
- Embedded within the Electron app for the full desktop experience
The web app provides a limited set of features when running outside of Electron due to browser security restrictions, but it's useful for UI development and testing.
Much of raga's data management functionality lives in a separate Node.js library called
raga-lib.
There is also a CLI called
raga-cli
which provides a command-line script to transform a Swinsian-exported library XML to the
Rekordbox-compatible Music.app XML format.
Requirements:
- Node.js v20.x (see version specified in
.nvmrc) - Yarn v4.x (see version specified in
package.json) - Deno v1.x (see installation docs)
Getting started:
corepack enable- configures the Yarn package manager- Set up Discogs API credentials, add your key & secret to
packages/raga-app/.envwith the following keys:DISCOGS_CONSUMER_KEYDISCOGS_CONSUMER_SECRET
Dev tasks:
yarn dev:web- runs the web app in standalone mode at http://localhost:3000yarn dev:electron- runs the full Electron app with all features enabledyarn build- builds TypeScript sources and bundles up the Electron appyarn dist- creates the Electron app distributable package
Releasing
yarn lerna version- bumps package version numbersyarn build && yarn dist- builds sources, bundles app, produces distributable package- Draft a new GitHub release
- Upload the binaries produced in
packages/raga-app/out/to the GitHub release
What does raga mean?
rāga is a Sanskrit word which roughly translates to: a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music.
The art of DJing is largely one of improvisation within the personal framework of one's music collection. DJs who invest more time in studying, organizing, and tagging their library are better equipped to deliver their best performances. The scale and complexity of this practice in the digital medium necessitates advanced tools and frameworks like raga.
Who created raga?
raga was created by Adi Dahiya, a UI engineer, new media artist, and DJ based in Brooklyn, NY.