How to manage a DJ promo inbox without losing your weekend

A working system for the promos, demos and pool downloads that pile up every week. One place, one listening session, a decision that files itself, and numbers that tell you which sources are worth keeping.

Promos arrive from everywhere. Two or three pools, a dozen label mailers, SoundCloud messages, a Dropbox link from a friend, WeTransfer from a producer you met at a gig, and a WhatsApp voice note saying "check this one". Every one of them is a track waiting for a decision, and the decision never gets made because the tracks live in six places and none of them is the place you listen.

The fix is not more folders. It is a short system: everything in one inbox, one listening session a week, a decision that does its own filing, and a monthly look at which sources are actually worth it. This is the system, and it is the one The Cut is built around.

One inbox

Every source you use should end in the same list. Not the same folder on disk, the same list you review from.

Folders. A Promos folder in iCloud Drive or Dropbox. Anything that arrives as a file goes there, from any device, and the inbox picks it up.
Email. Most promos still arrive by email. Filter them into a Promos label so they leave your main inbox, then connect that label over IMAP so the attachments and SoundCloud links land in the same list. There is a five-minute setup in Gmail filters for DJ promos.
SoundCloud. Connect the account. Tracks and messages with links show up alongside everything else.
Direct demos. Give producers a Sendbox link instead of your email. They verify their address, add the artist and title, and the track arrives in the same inbox with their note attached. Nothing to download, nothing to rename, and a reply is one tap.

The point is that "I'll listen to that later" stops meaning "I'll go and find it later". Later is just the next session.

One session

Do not listen to promos as they arrive. Set a session: twenty to thirty minutes, headphones, phone or laptop, once or twice a week. A session is where decisions happen; listening as things arrive is where they get postponed.

In a session, each track gets the same treatment. The first thirty seconds, then scrub to the drop. If the waveform tells you where the drop is, use it; you are not obliged to sit through a two-minute intro to find out whether a track is for you. Decide, then the next one.

Three outcomes, and only three:

Accept. It is going in the crate.
Reject. It is not, and it is gone.
Pending. You genuinely cannot tell yet. Pending is allowed, but it comes back next session, and nothing stays pending for more than two weeks. A track you cannot decide on in two sessions is a reject.

Star ratings are for the accepts. One star is "could work", five is "opening with this on Friday". Rating on the way in means that when you build a set, the shortlist already exists.

The decision files itself

The reason inboxes rot is that a decision is followed by admin. Accept a track and you still have to move it to the right folder, name it, tag it, and delete the email. Multiply by two hundred tracks and the admin wins.

So make the decision do the work. In The Cut this is called auto-actions: accepted tracks move themselves to a folder of your choosing, rejected ones delete themselves, and a track from email or SoundCloud is downloaded on accept without you asking. You decide, and the filing is already done by the time the next track starts.

Two rules make this safe. Rejects can be undone, so a fast wrong swipe costs nothing. And deleted tracks keep their own list, so a clear-out is never a loss.

Filters, not folders

Folders answer one question, the one you had when you made them. Filters answer the question you have now. Genre, BPM range, key, star rating, source, date added, and any combination of those. "Tech house, 124 to 128, four stars or more, added this month" is a set list, and it is three taps rather than a folder tree.

Keep one folder for the crate. Let the filters do the rest.

Reply when it matters

Producers do not need a no. A no takes their time and yours and rarely helps either of you. A short yes, on the other hand, goes a long way: "Playing this Saturday, thanks" is the message every producer is hoping for and almost nobody sends.

With a Sendbox the address is already verified, so a reply is a tap, and you can keep two templates for the two messages you actually send. Everything else stays silent, on purpose.

Look at the numbers monthly

Once a month, look at what you accepted and where it came from. The pool you pay for that has produced two accepts in three months is not earning its subscription. The small label whose mailer you almost filtered out has given you half of your recent openers. You cannot see that from an inbox; you can from a count by source.

The Cut keeps those numbers for you: accepts, rejects and pending by source and over time, with a summary card you can share. But even a tally on paper beats a hunch.

Rules of thumb

Never review promos at the club. Decisions made at 2 a.m. with a monitor wedge are not decisions.
The same promo from three pools is one track. Merge duplicates rather than deciding three times.
If a source has not produced an accept in three months, drop it. Inboxes are subscriptions to other people's output; cancel the ones that do not pay.
Pending is a holding room, not a second inbox. Two weeks, then decide.

Where The Cut fits

The Cut is this system as an app: one inbox fed by iCloud Drive, Dropbox, SoundCloud, email and your Sendbox; swipe to accept or reject; star ratings, filters and auto-actions; statistics by source; iCloud sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro, and CarPlay for the drive home. It is on the App Store, and the features page shows each part on every device.