Technology is everywhere in the rave scene. You can stream an entire festival in your own home. You can make and share Spotify EDM playlists. What we are seeing the most of is people finding their way into the electronic music scene through making playlists online. Making and sharing a good EDM playlist can be a challenge. If you don’t pay much attention you may end up with a mix of Bon Jovi, Avicii, Pitbull, and LSDream.
I’ve made tons of playlists and stumbled through plenty of mistakes. At this point, I’d consider a handful of them to be perfect. With that said, follow along to see what you should consider when you make the perfect EDM playlist.
Table of Contents:
3 Factors to Consider Before Making Your Playlist
- Choose a mood
- Select a subgenre
- Decide Between Oldschool vs. Newschool
3 Steps to Make the Perfect Playlist
- Find a Common Theme
- Establish a Flow to the Playlist
- Update, Update, Update
Conclusion
3 Factors in a Good EDM Playlist
Making a good playlist isn’t hard as long as you consider the following three factors:
Mood
Your mood is the reason why you’re listening to EDM in the first place. You probably want to get hyped right before a party, or you just crave some hardstyle before you go to an event.
Either way, whether you’re feeling emotional or you want to hear some euphoric bangers, you should make a playlist according to your needs. It’s always nice to have a great list of EDM songs to go back to, no matter what your mood is.
Subgenre
I’m a massive hardstyle fan. Yet sometimes I just want to listen to some old bangers, Adagio For Strings, or L’Amour Toujours. So, I figured that the best way to do that is to make a couple of playlists to separate each subgenre.
There are so many subgenres in electronic music, so it’s better to have your favorite songs from each one organized in individual playlists. You could also split some of your EDM playlists into other ones, depending on their subgenre, but that will take up too much of your time.
Old-School vs. New-School
I’ve found that making playlists with only old-school or new-school songs is an excellent choice. In the late 90s and early 2000s, club music was primarily different versions of Eurodance, while the 2010s changed the scene to Big Room and EDM as we know it today.
I’ve met people in raves who don’t find old-school EDM music to be their favorite because it sounds too static; others find modern EDM to be bland and repetitive. But hey, I won’t stop you from making a playlist with a variety of the two if you like both styles.
How to Make the Perfect EDM Playlist
So, now that you have an idea of how to make a good playlist, how can you make it the perfect one?
Find a Common Theme
I usually try to find songs that have a similar theme or meaning. For example, I add my bangers to my This-Song-Slaps playlist while I add my psytrance songs to my euphoric, emotional playlist for when I am coming back down from a festival.
In other words, you’ll need to take a moment to find songs that you can relate to at a certain time and that have something in common in order to make the perfect electronic playlist.
Establish a Flow to the EDM Playlist
Most playlists should have a slow start that leads to a peak and calms down until the end. Try to follow this structure so that the audience and the people that you are playing the music for can have a pretty good understanding of what is coming next. The greatest part about a build as well is that they are along the emotional journey with you.
So to keep the flow going, you need to arrange the songs accordingly. I suggest you separate your playlists according to their flow as if you were splitting them up according to your mood.
Update, Update, Update
Spending extra time to find new songs and update your playlists is a must. Two things will happen if you listen to the same static playlist on repeat.
- You will miss new potential bangers.
- You will get bored of certain songs very quickly.
Picture this: You’re listening to a song on repeat and know that you’ve found love in that ID. You play it on repeat for the rest of the weekend. No, not just the rest of the weekend, the rest of the month! What happens after? We skip forward a few months later and that same song comes up and quickly receives the skip button.
Update your playlist with new songs often to consistently continue to give it life!
Conclusion
A well-made playlist is always great to listen to, but it can’t beat an actual festival or a rave. I introduced myself to the rave scene years back by making my own playlists and sharing them with friends. It was a simple and easy hobby where I could find music I liked and talk to others that had the same interests as me. To read more about other ways to learn about the scene, check out YESIRAVE!’s blog to learn about the scene, protecting your ears while at a festival, and what to bring when you make the leap to your first show!
’til then, keep it easy.
Alexios is a professional writer who has been raving for 5 years. He is eager to help all enter the scene.