Mixxx DJ Software

This software is normally used for DJ-ing, but it's also a very capable playlist and library management tool for large music libraries.

Building a playlist for running

You'll need to know what BPM your run cadence is. Mine is right around 160BPM. You'll be using Mixxx's beat detection to scan your music library, and then exporting those songs to something like an MP3 player or phone for local playback.

  • Import your library into Mixxx
    • It won't modify your files, so this is safe to do and to regularly update
  • In the left hand nav, choose Analyze
  • By default, only tracks w/o analysis are visible. You can show all tracks in your library via the All radio button
  • Select the tracks you want to analyze
  • Click Analyze
  • When it's done, tracks will have a very accurate BPM
  • Go back to Tracks
  • Sort by BPM
  • Select all the tracks roughly +/- 2 BPM of your ideal speed, so for me that's 158-162 BPM.
    • Also try the tracks that are +/- 1 BPM of (your ideal speed / 2), so if your BPM is 160, you could also try tracks that are 79-81 BPM.
  • Create a new playlist of those songs
  • Right click the playlist and choose Export Track Files. Select a folder to put te files into.
  • Drop that folder onto your MP3 player or phone and hit shuffle and run