Mobile DJ Playlists:What Music do you need for weddings?

The Mobile DJ question I get the most: What must-have songs should I have ready for my events?   The answer to this question will always evolve as styles and trends change and new music becomes popular.  Fortunately, there will be plenty of songs that are instant classics and will never go out of style.  Unfortunately, some events will require that you are more “hip” to the current music trends (High School & Junior High events).

Your music database is an ever-growing collection of music that you are always working on.  For starters, I highly recommend MobileBeat.com’s TOP 200.  It uses a DJ software program (DJ Intelligence) to aggregate REAL requests for songs made by the clients who are booking DJs.  It puts these requests into a real-time list shown at http://www.mobilebeat.com/top-200/.  These are the TOP 200 songs you must NEVER be without.  (Bookmark that link and come back to it frequently!  It will change!)

The Top 200 list will give you a great start, but your goal is to have a database of 5,000 to 10,000 songs!  What can you do to quickly build up that list?  I would highly recommend checking eBay.com & Craigslist.org for used CD offerings.  Some people (retired DJs) are selling off their entire collection for pennies!

From there, I recommend checking out www.NowMusic.com for their CD collections of hit music.  You may want to look into some subscription companies where you can get music delivered monthly.   Check out:

• PromoOnly.com
• JonesTm.com
• Ergmusic.com
• TopHitUSA.com

Another tip is to focus on pre-event preparation.  The more you learn about the client, the event and their guests, the better you can prepare with the proper music needed for that upcoming party.  Remember, just because you are hired to work for 4-5 hours on a Saturday night, it does not mean you shouldn’t be investing more time sorting music, creating your playlists and planning for a perfect evening.

You may find it a bit difficult to start building your music database, but you’re obviously going to want to get it up and going as soon as possible.  There will be times when you get “stumped” by a guest with a request for a song you don’t have.  The easiest solution is to have a wireless Internet card so you can instantly download any song in seconds. (It’s like an instant get-out-of-jail-free card!)

What you do want to avoid is downloading pirated music!  Remember, it’s the same as stealing.  The quality of stolen music is usually far worse and may even contain ugly viruses.  Simply put: not worth it!  Besides, you’re a business owner, consider each song an investment.