What Is a rekordbox XML File and How Do I Import It?

A rekordbox XML file is a plain-text description of a DJ collection in the format Pioneer DJ's rekordbox uses to exchange libraries. It lists each track's file location, title, artist, BPM, key, duration, comments, beat grid tempo markers, hot cues and memory cues, and the playlists they belong to. rekordbox can import it, which is how cues and grids from other tools get into rekordbox without re-analysis.

What is inside

The root element is DJ_PLAYLISTS. Inside it:

• PRODUCT: the application that wrote the file.
• COLLECTION: one TRACK element per file, with attributes for name, artist, album, genre, kind, total time, average BPM, tonality (key), comments and location. The location is a file URL.
• TEMPO elements inside a track: the position, BPM, time signature and beat number of each grid marker. One marker at 0.000 describes a fixed-tempo track.
• POSITION_MARK elements inside a track: each a named cue with a type, a start time in seconds and a number. Numbers 0 to 7 are hot cue slots A to H; -1 is a memory cue.
• PLAYLISTS: a tree of NODE elements, each a folder or a playlist listing track keys.

Because it is text, the file can be inspected or generated by any tool, which is why Club Ready Music writes one.

Importing into rekordbox

1. Place the audio files where the XML expects them. Club Ready Music's XML references files inside a folder named Club Ready Music, so create that folder and put the MP3s in it.
2. Open rekordbox, go to Preferences, then Advanced, then Database, and set the "Imported Library" path to the XML file.
3. In the browser tree, expand rekordbox xml. The playlists from the file appear.
4. Right-click a playlist or a track and choose Import to Collection. rekordbox copies the metadata, grid and cues into its own database.
5. If rekordbox cannot find a file, use relocate and point it at the Club Ready Music folder.

Imported tracks arrive with BPM, key, comment, a grid anchored at the tempo marker and hot cues in the slots given by the position marks. rekordbox may still analyse waveforms but it will not move the grid or the cues.

What Club Ready Music writes

Two XML files are available:

• Per track in the DJ pack zip, alongside the tagged MP3, the WAV, the cover and a cue sheet.
• For the whole crate at the rekordbox.xml link in the Studio, covering up to 500 ready tracks in one Club Ready Music playlist.

For each track the XML carries the title (with an Extended Mix suffix when set), artist, album "Club Ready Music", genres, duration, average BPM, the musical key as tonality, a comment with the Camelot and Open Key codes and the intro and outro lengths, a single tempo marker at 0.000 in 4/4 on beat 1, and position marks for intro end, first drop and outro start (and vocal in where present) as hot cues in slot order, up to eight.

Exporting from rekordbox

rekordbox can also export its own collection as XML from the File menu, which is the usual route for moving a library to Engine DJ or through a converter to Traktor or Serato. If you import Club Ready Music's XML and then export your collection, the Club Ready Music cues travel with it.

Limits

The XML does not carry waveform data, Pioneer's phrase analysis or My Tag entries, and it cannot be loaded directly by a CDJ. Import it into rekordbox first, then export to USB.