Length of each song for a set?
Hi guys, I’m new to DJing… I’ve just been messing around with mixing and I LOVE IT.
I was just wondering when DJing live, how long does a song usually run for before you mix in something else? I don’t want to bore my audience with a 6 minute song, but a lot of times there is more than one drop or maybe the vocals are only in the middle of the song.
I usually average about 4-5 minutes per song ( not including transition times ) a bit long but i feel that the entire song should be appreciated.
do as you feel sounds right, I like to make my sets very progressive. Hence the close to 8 min songs (although I do happen to make my transitions very long, but interesting 
) in the sets, but you are right keep it interesting!
Don’t look for a rule when there’s none. The flow, building an atmosphere, managing the energy is the key.
Average for me is usually somewhere between 12 seconds and 12 minutes.
have cue points to avoid the boring long portions. Or mix two tracks while a track has a downtempo to bring the beat up. Or use effects to heighten a build up. Honesly its not the track length that should concern you its how you should be arranging your music. Sure you can change tracks every 3 mins, but honestly a lot of tracks are not 3 mins long most are 4-8 mins long. Its your job to know your tracks, mix in new tracks, two tracks, effects, and transition out when you have to.
This, unless I’m playing Rapper’s Delight
As long as the set sounds good it doesn’t matter if you use 10 seconds of a track. Have fun and enjoy the music!
Read the crowd..
I usually don’t let songs go over 2-3 min.
It really depends on your style, the genre, the audience, etc.
There’s a trick with music compositions to vary the length of each passage. The same could be applied to a DJ mix, use longer and shorter passages. Makes things more interesting than let’s say locking down to a constant 4-minute-per-track mix.
PS: And of course if a track clears the dance floor, better to make that a short one.
I stick to around 2 mins on average but it depends on if the crowd are feeling the song or not 
but remember you can use different effects on a track to really boost another, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Joe.
Omid 16B’s “Rain” is that track for me. Gotta have something ready when a long trip from the decks is needed.
if you do just short transitions you will sound like an ipod shuffle.
if you do just long transitions you will sound like a jukebox.
change it up. do a good measure of short transitions, medium transitions, long transitions on all different measures of a song.
play songs for just 10 seconds, play some for their full length.
that’s where you can get really creative.
That song is a DJ’s best friend! A bathroom break track that fills the dancefloor.
Great track!!
Pretty much this. There are songs that work best when slammed in, there are those that have nice long intros that can be woven into another song. There are no rules. I would just say if you want to keep the energy up don’t just play an entire song, loop the last 2 bars and mix into the intro of the next. Or do. If that’s what’s best.
Surprised nobody has asked what genre you are playing?
Playing 4 minutes of a loopy minimal techno track is unlikely to go over well, whereas playing 4 minutes of a progressive psy track is… how you play progressive psy. I know that I mix much more quickly when playing techno than when playing deep house.. because there’s less in the music, I have to be more active “in the mix” …
True if you are playing trance or something like that, you probably are letting that track to go for about 5-6 mins. Trance tracks are long and have build ups that take forever. Cutting it short or cutting out the bang can really ruin some trance tracks.
^ for sure.
I play top 40’s/Electro/Dirty Dutch so anywhere from 30 seconds to essentially the entire song. There just aren’t very good - or there are very predefined - mix points in a lot of these songs. I find myself swapping drops during dutch house tracks a lot. Sometimes I’ll just string drops together. Electro is pretty much the same thing. It’s very frenetic mixing with less blending and more cutting from track to track. Finding interesting and new ways to mix is actually one of the more fun parts of what many would consider shitty genres to DJ.