Awesome list guys and can’t wait to see what else you come up with! I think this is a great list to start with and build upon, speaking from someone who only DJ’s out occasionally and always has a hard time figuring out what to play.

Question…
I understand this is an ‘opening’ set, but lets say you basically play the whole night, something like 10-2am. Do you guys setup different playlists for each part of the night? For instance:

10-11pm – Opening Set
11-12:30 – Mainstream Set {or whatever you would call it}
12:30-2pm – Peak Set

Also, well I guess another ‘playlist’ question I’m curious to hear how other DJ’s deal with this type of situation…

Let’s say you got a tough crowd, or your playing out at a new spot or new people you’ve never met before. You show up with your playlists(s) and, for example, playing in the 1st hour using your ‘opening’ set. You play a few R&B type songs and people are feeling it, but then after 2 or 3 you switch to Raggae or HipHop and the vibe goes down. At that point, would you axe the playlist at that point (for now) and then play more R&B? If that’s a yes, then great… but let’s say I don’t have anymore R&B at a similar tempo range in my ‘opening’ playlist! What do you do? Just curious… Do you then go hunting for R&B tracks in your library?

So I’m just looking for some insight on what other people do in the above situation, or even if you’ve shown up to a gig or club and you just, down right, missed the mark on the music?

In these situations, personally, I get very nervous if this happens and I freeze. I find myself thinking ‘what the f**k’ do I play next, and then I forget what songs I could be playing, so it’s like I’m flying blind. Next thing you know there is :30 seconds left on the track playing and I haven’t found a song to play.