How to Build a Warm-Up Set

For new DJs: what a 90-minute warm-up set should actually do. Tempo range, energy management, the do-not-peak-too-early rule.

Warm-up sets are the job most new DJs get and most new DJs do wrong. The goal is not to impress. The goal is to set conditions for the next DJ to succeed.

Start under tempo

Open at 170 BPM, not 174. If the night will eventually hit 176, you should not arrive there in the first hour. Tempo creep is part of the warm-up arc.

Avoid the obvious bangers

The tracks that everyone knows belong to the headliner. Your job is to play the deeper cuts that have similar energy without being instantly familiar. If the headliner walks in and recognises every track you played, you used their record bag.

Watch the room

Read what people do during your set. If a track empties the floor, do not try to rescue it with three more in the same style. Pivot. The job is to leave the next DJ a room that is ready to go up, not a room that is already burnt out.