One of the big challenges that come with being a DJ is understanding your audience. For many, the concept of understanding an audience starts and stops with just making sure you have the right genre in play when performing.
The truth is that, while you do need to make sure you’re playing the right type of music to the right crowd, it’s also important that you play songs using a style your audience will appreciate while also not overstaying any one track’s welcome.
Understanding how long a song should go on for is largely determined by the crowd itself and how they are reacting to the track in question. For some well-liked songs, you may be expected to let it virtually finish out while others should only have around a few seconds before transitioning over to something else.
This is why it’s important to be able to read and understand your audience as it will let you know whether a track or mix should go for a minute or two, or something much longer like five or six.
How Long Should A DJ Play A Song For? (in short)
The length of time a DJ should play a song can vary depending on the type of event, the audience, and the DJ’s style. In general, a good rule of thumb is to keep each song between two to four minutes, especially if the audience is diverse and includes different musical tastes. However, for certain events or genres, longer mixes or extended versions of songs may be more appropriate. Ultimately, the goal should be to create a dynamic and engaging musical experience for the audience. It can be a varied open-ended answer to this question.
Read this next: The Mechanics of How to DJ Properly
In this DJ tips breakdown, we’ll determine the right and wrong amounts of time for playing a track across different genres. We’ll also go into ways to put together a YouTube mix as well as get into different song and genre structures.
This will all work to make you an expert at knowing how many songs will work for your specific audience in one area and what won’t with another audience in another environment.
How Many Songs?
“How many tracks do I need to play?” This is something of a trick question. As mentioned above, it isn’t as simple as determining some arbitrary amount of time. Rather, it’s about knowing your audience and gauging their interest in a particular song.
For example, if one audience loves that genre while another audience just thinks it’s “ok”, the first will expect the song to play for a lot longer than the second. This may result in fewer songs being played and vice versa!
It’s all about finding an acceptable balance between what you want to play and what your audience wants to hear. on the dance floor. This is especially true for DJs that plan on performing live for an audience or as a mobile DJ in front of others for a party or event.
To do that, you need to make sure you have a varied music library and that you’re constantly checking the crowd to see how well they’re engaging with your music. If people are rocking on, LET THE TRACK PLAY!
If people are swaying a bit or losing interest, cut off to the next track. The idea is that people are, more often than not, on their feet and having a good time. If they aren’t, it might be because the track being played just isn’t interesting.
If you want an average rule of thumb to go by the number of songs statistics below may be useful:
- Techno: 12 songs per hour
- House: 12 songs per hour
- Tech House: 12 songs per hour
- Commercial house: 20 songs per hour
- Trance: 12 songs per hour
- 80’s pop: 10 songs per hour
- Dubstep: 40 songs per hour
- Hip Hop: 30 songs per hour
But, this “how many songs” list is NOT meant to be taken as the definitive answer and can vary from DJ to DJ across different genres.
Read this next: Djing Guide (How To Start DJing from Your Bedroom)
Musical Structure
One thing worth considering is the fact that the type of song you’re playing during your DJ sets, as well as the type of genre you’re in, can have a big impact on how long you allow a track to run.
As an example, if you’re playing a DJ set with some high-energy dance music, these tracks tend to have massive breakdown sections at their center, particularly if they come with bass buildups and drops.
On the other hand, some pop or hip-hop songs may not have any anticipatory aspect making them worth sticking around to. This may mean that it’s easier to skip through them without too many people feeling like they’re missing out.
There are also some genres, such as Tech, which have fairly repetitive beats. On their own, they may be fairly bland or standard. However, these repetitive beats and bass are great for mixing other tracks in and out. Technically, this would mean that you’re playing the track through rather than cutting out a minute or even five minutes in simply you’re effectively jumping in and out of the track throughout its entire runtime.
Still, you’ll always want to gauge your audience. Even if you’re playing a track with a super hype anticipatory bass, if the crowd isn’t paying attention, or if the energy isn’t clearly showing people waiting for the drop, cut it prematurely for something that DOES get their attention.
Live Mixes Vs. YouTube Mixes
At first glance, it’s easy to assume that a mix you find on YouTube is just as applicable as a live mix played in front of an audience. In fact, it’s not out of the ordinary for starting DJs to pull their playlists from different YouTube mixes they find.
Unfortunately, these mixes, taken solely on their own, are more likely to cause you problems than help resolve them.
The truth is that YouTube mixes aren’t meant for anything outside of YouTube.
Often, these DJs create mixes on YouTube solely to help build up their careers on the platform. This means the songs they’re using are specifically meant to help increase their views and subscriber count.
And while this is all well and good, it does mean that these same mixes may have little to no real-world viability in an actual DJ live performance.
The good news is that, while your live mixes will be different from what you’re putting out on YouTube, that doesn’t mean your YouTube mixes can’t go to other places.
If you want to dig into YouTube further check out our article on Youtube:
HERE: Can DJs Make Money On YouTube? (Get Paid to DJ on YouTube)
In addition to the video streaming site, DJs often post their music on SoundCloud, and Mixcloud, as well as their website, to drum up interest in their skills. Again, just don’t expect to do exactly that when you’re actually on stage performing.
Using multiple platforms is SMART! Especially in this day and age.
Read this next: Sync Button (Using Beat Sync Whilst Djing)
Beat Matching – Traditional Vs. Software
One very, very important part of DJing is beatmatching. Not only is beatmatching important for your performance in general, but it’s a great way of cutting into a track after only a few seconds in a way that isn’t jarring or throwing people for a loop.
There are two methods of beatmatching available. One method is the traditional “by ear” method while the other is through the use of either a software or hardware utility.
Traditional (by ear)
Traditionally, DJs have beat matched entirely by ear. While certainly the more difficult of the two, traditional beatmatching also offers the potential for some of the cleanest and most lined-up beats for a pair of tracks. This ultimately will result in you mixing fewer tracks, unless you have the raw ability of DJs like Jeff Mills.
In the beginning, it does take some time and you’ll likely find yourself getting through nearly all of a track before finding the opportune time that the tracks are properly matched with one another.
As you get better and more skilled, this process will take less and less time until you’re able to put together super quick mixes between a pair of tracks, throwing one in for the other whenever you want to and whenever you feel the audience will appreciate the change of pace.
Read this next: How To DJ With Vinyl (5 Steps to DJing Records)
Software (SYNC)
The easier, albeit less effective method, is by using some time of DJ software to effectively beat matches for them. Some of the different examples include the use of the SYNC button, which is more or less just a button press, as well as the “quantize” function.
Both of these methods allow you to align a set of beats together almost instantly without too much effort on your part. In exchange, the matches may be a bit disordered and uncentered.
What makes this feature great, however, is that you not only can mix a pair of songs without much difficulty on your end, but you can even add in additional songs, blending all of them at once.
This can allow you to, in theory, have a song playing every minute or so before almost seamlessly mixing in the next track.
All in all, both methods have their strengths and weaknesses and should ideally be considered if you want to excel in beatmatching and setting a second song up to be mixed in.
Read this next: How to Beatmatch properly: The Ultimate Guide
How Long Should A DJ Play A Song For? The Verdict
So as you can see there is no definitive answer to how long should a DJ play a song for. It is a very grey area. So, if you’re a DJ and you’re not sure how long you should allow a track to play, remember that first and foremost it is always going to depend on the audience. The more they’re into a track the more you’re going to want to let it rock.
In truth, when you take time to think about it, the whole point of being a DJ is to keep that excitement and energy building so people are having a great time. You don’t want to cut a track too early to prevent that energy from the building but you also don’t want to hold on too late and let it dim over time.
Gauge your audience, and see how they’re enjoying themselves. Make sure you’re using compelling music from a compelling genre. Then, once you know your audience loves you, try to capitalize on that hype by playing more songs in that music style. Perfect your beatmatching and switching back and forth between tracks before giving them the perfect drop and having the crowd screaming. nA sure way to get more DJ gigs.
Do that and you’ll know how to make an audience love your tracks, their length, and when you’ve decided to cut them off.
