How to use your Apple Music library in rekordbox, and what happens to ratings

rekordbox can show the songs and playlists of your Music library next to its own collection. It does this through a library file that Music exports. Here are the steps from the rekordbox manual, and the question the manual leaves open: do your star ratings come along

Import the library

1. In Music, choose File, then Library, then Export Library, and save the file
2. In rekordbox, open Preferences, then Advanced, then the Database tab. Under iTunes, click Browse next to iTunes Library File and select the file you saved
3. Tracks and playlists from Music appear under iTunes in the tree view
4. To work with a track in rekordbox, drag it to Collection. rekordbox then shows its own analysis for the track: waveform, BPM and key

If iTunes is not shown in the media browser, turn it on in Preferences, View, Layout, with the iTunes checkbox of Media Browser. These steps come from the rekordbox 7.2.3 manual, and the older 6.6.2 manual has the same route. Menu labels can differ in your version

What the manual says about ratings

• The track list has a Rating column
• The track filter can narrow the list by Rating, together with BPM, key, colour and My Tag
• Ratings changed on a DJ player can be loaded back into rekordbox from the USB drive
• Right-clicking a track in the iTunes list and choosing Get info from iTunes updates the track from Music, and the manual warns that this replaces information you changed in the Information window

What the manual does not say

It does not say whether the stars you set in Music come across with the file, or how they map to the rekordbox rating. We did not test this in rekordbox, so we do not claim either answer. Test it on one song:

1. Rate one song in Music, for example, 4 stars
2. Export the library again, because the file is a copy made at that moment
3. Load the new file in rekordbox and look at the Rating column for that song

If the stars arrive, rate in Music and re-export before a gig. If they do not, rate in rekordbox, where the Rating column and the track filter work on its own value

Rate in Music faster

Likeit sets the star rating of the song that is playing in Music from the menu bar: a Rate shortcut, then a digit from 0 to 5. The way to sort a library with those stars is in how to organise a DJ music library in Apple Music