The Perfect Wedding Reception Playlist

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No matter how you slice it, there are certain songs people just want to hear. Play the hits! That’s the reason people hear the same songs over and over again at weddings and corporate events- it’s because they work!  They accomplish the task of packing out the dance floor and keeping it there. Songs like Billie Jean and Shout or Yeah! by Usher. People aren’t interested in you playing your curated list of ‘Top 30 indie songs of the last 10 years on independent labels’. 

1. Play the Hits

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They don’t want to hear your exclusive recording of an acoustic Shins song. They want Motown, Top 40, 90’s pop, etc.

1. Play the Hits

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A good wedding reception playlist will have high moments and low moments- fast songs and slow songs. Times for people to dance close, times for people to slow dance, and even times for people to go get a drink so they can enjoy the dance floor even more. If I had to give you a ratio, I would advise playing about 90% upbeat/dance songs against 10% slow jams. Or maybe every 10-12 songs, throw in a slower one. People want them… just not 

2. Keep it 90% Fast Songs, 10% Slow Songs

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as much as the fast ones! So structure your playlist to have a lot of highs and upbeat tunes, but then add in some slow ones too to keep a flow going.

2. Keep it 90% Fast Songs, 10% Slow Songs

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Find out the top 5 pop songs of that month and play those, especially if they’re faster songs. Just look at the Billboard Hot 100 charts or listen to the radio for a few hours and you’ll know exactly which ones to hit. These songs will be fresh and new, but also familiar enough for people to sing and dance to.

3. Play the top 5 pop songs on the radio that month

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When you’re DJ’ing, even 2-3 seconds of silence between songs can make a room feel SUPER weird and crush the momentum. When you’re DJ’ing, you want to fluidly and seamlessly flip between songs so that there’s no silence or anything like that. This is the more ‘active’ part of DJ’ing, and one reason you can’t really “set it and forget it”. Silences are a little more acceptable for things like background dinner music or a cocktail hour, 

4. Don’t leave any silence between songs

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want to have ANY during the main dance time!

4. Don’t leave any silence between songs

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With the decline of CDs and the advent of streaming, building a song database has gotten tricky. On one hand, DJs have access to pretty much every song in the world. The downside of that is that we only have access to the songs if we have access to the internet, right? What happens if you set up a Spotify playlist and head to your event venue, only to find out it’s in the middle of the woods in Nowheresville? You switch on your phone and BOOM- one 

5. Download the songs before you get to the venue

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bar of service. Trust me, it’s a huge bummer to have your music cut off mid-song so your weak signal can ‘buffer’. It’s even more of a bummer if it happens every 30 seconds.

5. Download the songs before you get to the venue

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People usually don’t care to hear a whole song. The variety and unpredictability of a DJ playlist is part of the fun! Usually keeping the songs around 90-120 seconds is a good mark. However (and this is again where experience comes in), some songs DO benefit from being played all the way through. Think songs with classic bridges or last choruses. Songs like Don’t Stop Believin’ or I Want It That Way. So stick to a minute and a half 

6. Only play a song for about 90 to 120 seconds

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to two minutes to per song unless there’s a signature part of the song after that mark.

6. Only play a song for about 90 to 120 seconds

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