If you tag tracks in Rekordbox, you have three places to put that information: MyTag, the Comment field, and the regular file tags like Genre and Grouping. They look interchangeable in the track list, but they behave very differently the moment you export to USB, switch to Serato DJ Pro or Engine DJ, or rebuild your library. Pick the wrong home for your energy levels or vocal flags and you either lose them or end up with a comment column full of noise.
Here is how each option works, what survives where, and a simple rule set for what to store in each.
The three places your track info can live
MyTag is Rekordbox's own tagging system. You get four tag categories (out of the box they include presets like Genre, Components and Situation, which you can rename) and you click tags on and off per track. It is fast, structured and filterable. The catch: MyTag lives in the Rekordbox library, not in your music files. Other DJ apps do not read it, and even the Rekordbox XML export does not carry it. As the Lexicon manual puts it, MyTags are not exported over XML "because the XML does not support MyTags."
The Comment field is free text. Every DJ app has it, it can be written into the file's ID3 tags, and it shows up on CDJ screens. That makes it the most portable field you have. The downside is that it is unstructured: "deep, vocal, peak" and "Deep / Vocal / Peak-time" are two different things to a search box.
Standard file tags (Genre, Grouping, Label, Year, and so on) are portable and well supported, but each holds one kind of information and most DJs already use them for their intended purpose. Stuffing vibe tags into Genre breaks genre sorting everywhere.
What survives a USB export or a move to Serato
This is where most tagging systems fall apart. A quick reality check:
- USB export to CDJ/XDJ from Rekordbox. MyTag does make it onto the stick. The CDJ-3000 manual describes a Track Filter with a MYTAG tab, with an And/Or setting inside a category and And between categories. Filtering only works while browsing the rekordbox library on the player.
- Older players. Not every CDJ or XDJ has a Track Filter. On those, the Comment column is your only way to see tag info on the deck. Rekordbox has a preference to add MyTag to the Comments so it shows up there.
- Moving to Serato DJ Pro, Traktor Pro 3, Engine DJ or VirtualDJ. MyTag does not come along. Comment and standard file tags do, because they are either in the file or a field every app shares.
- Rebuilding or switching computers. If you rely on the XML, MyTag is gone. Comment and file tags survive as long as they are written to the files.
So the honest answer is: MyTag is great while you stay inside Rekordbox and on CDJs that support the Track Filter, and nowhere else.
A decision table for what to store where
Use this as a starting point, then adjust to your own workflow.
- Energy level. Store it as structured data, not in Genre. In Rekordbox-only setups, a MyTag category works. If you want it on any deck and in any app, put it in Comment (for example "07 Energy") so it sorts correctly.
- Vibe / mood (dark, uplifting, groovy). Best as tags in a dedicated category. Mirror into Comment if you play on gear without a Track Filter.
- Vocal / instrumental. A simple tag. Keep it in the same category as other "components" so you can filter "vocal AND peak-time" in one go.
- Set position (warm-up, peak, closer). A tag category of its own. This is the one you will filter on most during a gig, so give it a short, consistent vocabulary.
- Request-friendly / crowd pleaser. A tag, and worth mirroring to Comment, because this is what you scan for in a hurry on an unfamiliar setup.
- Genre. Keep the Genre field for genre. Put subgenres or cross-genre flavour in tags instead of turning Genre into a comma-separated list.
- Personal notes ("mix out at the second breakdown"). Comment, plain text. These are not tags and should not pollute your tag list.
The common thread: keep structure in tags, keep portability in Comment, and do not ask any one field to do both jobs.
How Lexicon treats tags as first-class data
Lexicon sidesteps the "pick one" problem by keeping tags as their own data and then mapping them to whatever each DJ app understands.
Custom Tags are Lexicon's tagging system. You organise tags into categories (Mood, Genre, Set Position, whatever you want), give categories a colour, and drag tags between categories. You can assign tags from the Tags column in the track browser or in bulk with tag recipes (right click tracks, Edit, then switch to recipes). You can then find tracks via the Track Browser filters, a smartlist, or the Custom Tags page. Custom Tags are available on the Essential and Ultimate plans.
Coming from Rekordbox. MyTags are imported automatically as Custom Tags when you import a Rekordbox 6/7 library, so you do not have to rebuild anything.
Syncing back to Rekordbox. With the Rekordbox Direct sync method, Lexicon writes your Custom Tags back as real MyTags. Rekordbox's limits still apply:
- A maximum of 4 MyTag categories. With 4 or fewer tag categories in Lexicon, nothing changes. With more than 4, all your tags are merged into a single MyTag category called "Lexicon Tags".
- A maximum of 128 MyTags.
If you want clean categories on your CDJ Track Filter, keep your Lexicon library at four tag categories, or at least the four you care about on the decks.
Putting tags into Comment for everything else. On the Sync page, open the field mappings with Edit mappings and map All Custom Tags to Comment. Lexicon then writes the tags into the DJ app's Comment in the hashtag style, for example #Techno #Vocals. You can also pick a single tag category as the source, so you could send only Set Position to Comment and keep the rest structured. Field mappings can be set per DJ app and for writing file tags, so your Serato DJ Pro comments and your Rekordbox comments do not have to match.
Two details worth knowing:
- When Overwrite is off, the mapped value is appended to the existing Comment instead of replacing it, so your personal notes stay intact.
- Mapping several sources to the same target combines them, separated by a comma. Energy is always written as a two-digit number plus the field name, like "08 Energy", so it sorts properly.
Writing tags into the files themselves. Sync already updates Rekordbox, Serato DJ Pro, Traktor, VirtualDJ and Engine DJ. If you also want the tags inside the audio files (for a music player, a backup, or an app Lexicon does not sync to), use right click Write tags with your field mappings, or the Copy field recipe with Custom Tags as source and Comment as target to put them in Lexicon's own Comment field first.
Using tags in smartlists. Tag rules convert to Rekordbox 6/7 MyTag rules, but only Has all these tags and Has none of these tags carry over (as "contains" and "does not contain"). Other tag rules turn the smartlist into a normal playlist in Rekordbox, which keeps the right tracks but stops auto-updating there.
Already have tags stuck in your comments?
Plenty of DJs used the hashtag-in-comments system before switching to MyTag, or lost their MyTags and only have the comment copy left. Lexicon's Import tags from text recipe converts text like #Techno #Vocals back into Custom Tags. It reads from Comment by default, uses # as the default separator, and is safe to run multiple times because existing tags are kept. New tags land in an "Imported Tags" category so you can drag them into the right place.
From there, arrange your categories down to four and do a Full Sync to Rekordbox to get real MyTags back. The full walkthrough is in our guide on restoring your Rekordbox MyTags from the Comment field. If you are still designing your tag set, our post on the 8 custom tags every DJ should use is a good place to start.
The short version
- MyTag is the best filtering experience inside Rekordbox and on CDJs with a Track Filter, and it stays there.
- Comment is the most portable field you have, so use it as the export format, not the source of truth.
- Standard file tags should keep their real meaning. Do not overload Genre.
- Keep your tags structured in one place, and let the sync do the copying into MyTag and Comment for each app. That way you tag once and every deck, USB and DJ app gets the version it can actually read.
