Planning a DJ set doesn’t have to mean strictly figuring out every beat of each track you’re going to drop before you even get behind the decks. It’s all about giving yourself the confidence so that when you step behind the decks, you’re not guessing, panicking, or scrolling endlessly through your library.
This guide walks through how DJs actually plan sets in real life, with some must-know tips, whether you’re a beginner DJ heading into your first live gig, or you’ve been DJing for years and just want a better way to approach sets. In fact, many of our own weekly DJ Mix videos have been created using these tips!
How to Plan A DJ Set – Video Tutorial
Start by listening to more music
This may seem obvious, but to make a great mix, you need great tunes. Before you even open your DJ software you need to make sure you’ve got a whole library full of
Use streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music to discover new tracks. Shazam things when you hear them on the radio, or out somewhere. Listen to DJ sets online and dig into tracklists.
Beyond just having great tunes, you need to know your music inside out. As you listen to music, try to figure out the structure and phrases and pick out any key elements in the track, like a vocal that sits nicely by itself or a groovy bassline. These can be vital points to set hot cues (which we’ll get to later).
Build your DJ music library
Once you’ve found music you like, the next step is getting it into a DJ-ready library.
That might mean downloading tracks from DJ pools like BPM Supreme, DJcity, ZipDJ, or Digital Music Pool. If you play electronic music, you’ll probably be buying tracks from somewhere like Beatport. You might also be streaming music directly inside your DJ software using services like Beatsource or TIDAL.
However you source your music, once it’s in your DJ software, it gets analysed. That analysis gives you BPM, key, track length, waveforms, and other info that becomes essential later when you’re actually planning and playing a set.
Want to know the best places to find these tunes? Check out our full guide on how to listen to music like a DJ.
Prepare your tracks with cue points
Cue points are one of the most important parts of planning a DJ set. They turn your music library into something you can perform with, rather than just scroll through.
A simple starting point is setting just two cue points on every track. One at the intro, usually on the first clean drum beat. This tells you exactly where a track is easy to mix in.
Another near the outro, where the energy drops and elements strip back. This tells you when you need to start bringing the next track in.
Once you do this consistently, you always know where you are in a song, even if you haven’t played it for months. You can add more creative cue points later, but intros and outros are the backbone of planning.
If you want to know loads more about all the best places to put cue points in your tracks, you’ve got to watch this free DJ lesson from our Rekordbox Intermediate DJ Course.
Mixing In Key
Mixing in key is really useful to help keep your sets sounding cleaner, especially if you’re working with multiple different melodic or harmonic elements that you don’t want to clash. When you’re thinking about which songs could work next in your set, having your tracks sorted and arranged by key is a good way to narrow down your selection to something that you know should sound good. So, for example, if you’re playing a track in 8A, you can move up to 9A, down to 7A, stay in 8A, or switch to 8B, and it should work musically.
However, you don’t want to obsess over mixing in key all the time for every single transition. That can make things feel a bit flat if you’re just sticking to one key, and sometimes a bit of dissonance can add a nice bit of spice.
If you want to know all the theory behind mixing in key and how that applies to your DJing, check out this free lesson taken from our House DJ Course.
BPM
BPM is one of the quickest ways to keep control of a set when you’re planning or mixing. Organising your music by tempo makes it easier to move through tracks without things feeling jarring. This is especially useful if you’re playing open-format or switching styles.
Generally speaking, you don’t want to be jumping between wildly different tempos unless you’ve planned for it. Keeping an eye on BPM helps your set flow naturally and stops you making awkward tempo choices when you’re under pressure.
Playlists
If you play across different genres, organising your folders properly is essential. Especially if you’re going into a long set and you know you’ll be pulling from a lot of music. This is a personal process and there’s no right or wrong way to do it. However you divide things up, just make sure it makes sense to you and the way you DJ.
If you’re using streaming, set your playlists up inside your account so they’re ready when you load into your software. The whole point of doing this work is that it saves you from having to dig around loads mid-set, because you already know where things are.
Check out our full guide with loads more info on how to organise your DJ music collection and USB.
Same song remixes
Try finding different remixes of the same track, as it’s a great way to give yourself more options in your set. You might start with the original, the straight commercial or radio version, then mix it into a remix that takes it somewhere else completely. That could be a deeper house version, or maybe something heavier and bassier. Having those up your sleeve lets you easily react to the mood of the floor and take things in either direction.
That shift alone can change the whole feel of your set without you needing a completely new song, and if you play open-format sets, this is especially powerful.
If you want to start making your own remixes of tracks to help give you those options, we’ve got the perfect course for you. In our DJ to Producer course, you’ll learn how to add your own signature sound to the music you love by building edits, mashups, remixes and original tracks in Ableton.
5 hours 35 lessons Beginner
DJ To Producer Course
Think about your music
When you’re planning a set, actually listen to what each track gives you to work with. Some tracks are quite stripped back, maybe just drums and a bassline with not much happening in the higher frequencies. Those are usually the ones where you can add a vocal, an acapella, or some extra elements without it getting messy.
Other tracks are already full of energy, with big synths, a heavy bassline and lots going on. Trying to layer more on top of those can quickly make things clash. Part of planning a set is knowing which tracks invite creativity and which ones are better left to do their own thing.
Mashing up genres
Mashing up genres will open up a lot more creativity in your sets. You don’t have to stick rigidly to one style the whole time. For example, if you’re a house DJ, you can bring in acapellas or vocals from completely different genres and layer them over your tracks.
That contrast can freshen things up instantly and make your set sound more original. It’s not about randomly jumping styles. It’s about using elements from elsewhere to add something different without losing the core sound you’re playing.
Performance features
Whatever setup you’re using, you’ll have some sort of performance features built in. When you’re practising, that’s the time to really experiment with them and figure out what works well and where. Try out things like loops and different effects, and push things a bit further than you normally would and see what sounds good.
Effects and other performance tricks can sound especially good on acapellas and mashups (like we mentioned before). The key is figuring all this out in practice, so when you’re playing live, you’re not throwing random effects on every transition for the sake of it. You already know what fits your style and what doesn’t.
You can try out a cool transition trick with this free lesson taken from our Trance Crash Course, where you’ll learn how to use loops and acapellas to make your mixes more interesting.
Great tutorials Jamie! Love the creativity!