Beyond the DJ Booth
Brian B and Joe Bunn tackle questions about the private event DJ industry, share music, gear/gadgets, and stories from their events.
Beyond the DJ Booth
Beyond the DJ Booth: How Spotify Auto Mix Changes the Game
What if Spotify’s Auto Mix feature could actually hold its own against a live DJ? We put it to the test (sorta)...and the results might surprise you.
In this episode, Brian B and Joe Bunn break down how Spotify’s newest Premium feature blends transitions, keys, and BPM alignment in ways that feel surprisingly natural. From bar-length filter sweeps to smooth key-matched intros, Auto Mix delivers a level of polish that’s hard to ignore. But it’s not about replacement, it’s about opportunity. Learn how DJs can leverage pre-mixed playlists for cocktail hours, lounges, and branded activations, turning curated programming into scalable revenue.
Joe also shares a behind-the-booth story from a small farmhouse wedding that turned into a programming masterclass: 40 guests, no “safe” tracks, and a floor that stayed packed through genre-hopping pivots between syrupy Southern hip-hop and festival-ready EDM. The takeaway: bold musical choices reward DJs who read energy, not trends.
Later, they dive into the real-world applications of Auto Mix for working DJs:
- Where it shines (cocktail hours, ambient sets, travel playlists).
- Where it fails (crowd-reading, energy shaping, emotional pacing).
- How to build a paid, passive product from smart programming.
And because no episode is complete without a music drop, Brian reveals five fresh floor-killers you can use this weekend - from a funk-laced One Direction flip to an Anxiety x Gimme Gimme hybrid that crushes after-hours.
Whether you’re a working DJ, a tech enthusiast, or someone curious about how AI is reshaping performance, this episode hits all the right notes: part strategy, part story, and all signal. No noise.
🎧 Subscribe, share with a DJ friend, and leave a review if this helped you rethink your next set. Want early access, bonus episodes, and our weekly Top 10 bangers? Join our Patreon and step into the backroom.
RESOURCES & LINKS
Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com
Hey everybody, welcome back to Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. I'm one of your podcast co-hosts. You see how I enunciated that properly? Co-host?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Brian B. And sitting next to me on my right, as always.
SPEAKER_00:Joseph Ellen. There we go, baby. What's up, brother? Man, I haven't seen you since about 10 minutes ago. Yeah, batch day.
SPEAKER_07:In case you're listening, and we don't hit something that is current day news. We batch these every couple of weeks, and so that's what we're doing today.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_07:Batch day. Let's hit the story time segment. Right out of the gate.
SPEAKER_00:Right out of the gate. I'll tell you a story about a 40-person wedding we did uh just a few days ago. And it was um I was nerve. I mean, I even texted you going into it. Because I don't think I've done a wedding that small since the pandemic. Wow. Five years. Yeah. Since I've done an actual wedding for 40 or less people. Uh and it was at a place we had never been that was a working farm. So a lot of these barns and whatnot that we play in are actual wedding venues. This was still like a horse farm of some sort.
SPEAKER_07:Did it have a smell? I a mild.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no. I thought it was gonna be a little more rural or a little more rustic, but um and I didn't really I didn't really know the couple. I mean, obviously I'd had a meeting with them, or they might have even booked over the phone. I don't remember seeing them until that kind of when we got on that final planning call.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I just think, you know, she had booked it over the phone or booked it with Randy, and then the final planning call was really the first time I met with her personally. Taught about the music and stuff. The music choices were very divisive, but I didn't figure that out until I got there that he was like hip-hop, slow hip hop, like 60, 70 beeps per month.
SPEAKER_01:And then she was new and not mumble rap, like not mumble rap, um very snaps. 2000s, Texas, yeah, very Texas. DJ screw, like yeah, oh wow, it was it was a vibe.
SPEAKER_00:And a lot of people had on cowboy hats, boots, yeah, jeans. Like I was way overdressed in a suit. I was like, I didn't get the damn Western memo, I guess. Yeah. And then she was EDM.
SPEAKER_07:Did you play any chameleonaire?
SPEAKER_00:Uh no, but that probably would have gone over. Yeah. That could have gone over. Lil' Big X the Plug, Soldier Boy, Young Dolph. Young Dolph. I mean, yeah. I mean, he was throwing out wild stuff, and and a lot of the stuff was just verbal, like run up and yell it in my ear as I'm playing. But then she was like coming over and be like, kill this hip-hop shit and play my stuff. And I was like, Oh, I didn't realize y'all were like that far apart. You know what I mean? What was her vibe? Uh EDM. Oh. But you know, a lot of those songs I just sent you, the new newer EDM and then kind of golden age, you know, Calvin Harris and stuff like that. That's a toughie to know. We're we're the only thing that was good about it is their half tempo. You know what I mean? Yeah, you can go from like 130 to 65 pretty easy. Yeah. Um, but dude, it it from song one, and and by the way, there's no September, there's no sign sealed delivered, there's no boogie shoes. Like it was What was your go-to starter? Forever, Chris Brown. And that was the tamest song on the list. It was like, and I just opened it was like, all right, everybody, we're up, turn the lights down, music. One, two, three, bum. One, two, three, buff, man. And they went, they were right out there.
SPEAKER_07:And was these 40 people, people in their age range?
SPEAKER_00:Was this all family where it was very there were maybe three to four people my age or older. Okay. The other 40 people were their friends. Okay.
SPEAKER_07:That's those are fun, though. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And and they had no, there was no um moral compass. There was no, like, I'm gonna withhold because grandma's over there staring at me. They went straight to the floor, like twerking it out. Did grandma get it? I didn't see grandma.
SPEAKER_01:Grandma did, but they weren't, they weren't, they weren't throwing it like everybody else was. I I mean, it was an ass throwing show.
SPEAKER_00:Like the whole time, like the the 360 videos are insane.
SPEAKER_03:Oh bad.
SPEAKER_00:And this girl came up. I don't think I'd it's probably the best clip from the year from the 360 camera. She comes up and she's leaning over the front of the booth and and starts provocatively touching parts of her body, and then the 360 swings around on me, and my face is just beat red, and Saquon is crying, laughing. He's just like shaking his head, and then you see her friend basically come grab her by the back of the dress and pull her away from the boosh, and it is so good, but it's like it's too embarrassing. Yeah, or I can't. I maybe could cover her face or something, but it is wild.
SPEAKER_01:And then he turns to me, Joe turns to me, he's like, bro, what's wrong with her? And I said, She's nasty, bro.
SPEAKER_00:And we couldn't stop laughing about that. I go, yo, man, I don't what's up with the old girl? And he goes, She's nasty, bro. Wow.
SPEAKER_06:She's nasty.
SPEAKER_00:It was it was a scene, man. It was a great party, though. Like it was.
SPEAKER_07:Things you learned through it with it being 40 people, things you noticed.
SPEAKER_00:Um, don't judge a book by its cover, because I was like, man, this is gonna suck. Uh I kind of underestimated the venue. I didn't really know the planner. Everything was really great, though. Yeah. You know, like we didn't really know the other vendors. They all seem to be great. Tagged us and pose. I think we'll get some pictures, some clips. I have a great clip of him at the end of the night, just absolutely turned up and he like thanks everybody and he brings everybody together for a group hug, all the vendors and stuff. Yeah. The groom. He was he was funny, man. But so at least I got some some gold from it. I always call it the gold. It's amazing. The end of the night. I love it. Yeah, good stuff.
SPEAKER_07:So uh you brought it up a couple of episodes ago, but Ashley mentioning to you the Spotify auto mix feature. Jesus. Have you had a chance to mess with it at all? I have not. Okay. So it's my first weekend actually using it this weekend. Okay. I had a cocktail hour that was in a different room. Sure. So you knew you didn't need to play it live. No, couldn't play it live, had to have it on a thing. I'm like, this is a great opportunity to see if this thing is gonna work for me or how it could work. Sure. So I'm gonna throw some pictures up on the screen. But if you haven't seen it on your, you have to be a premium member, first of all. Yep, so that's right. You'll see this circled, uh-huh, right? Yep. So that'll at least give you the indicator. And when you hit it, then we'll go to the next pick here. Um, I mean, a couple things it shows you. Obviously, it shows you the BPM. It's pretty darn good. And then the last one that'll show you is the um the key it's in. It actually tells you the key. Now I don't know how accurate it is. Okay. I from what I from my ear, it sounded like it was. I haven't matched it with what says on Serato necessarily.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:But then if you go to the next one, this is how it basically allows you to edit these things. So when you um click on it and you click uh mix basically, you can set the amount of bars you want it to mix for. Right. Two bars, four bars. I mean, it goes up to like a lot. And then at the bottom, uh, if you go to the next slide, you can change it from customizing it. It will already pre-select what they think is the best transition. Oh, okay. Whether that's a filter, yeah, it's a straight mix, yeah, it's an echo out. They're gonna kind of think through how this works. And the cool part is these are two totally, well, not totally different tempos. This is uh Cole Hart at the top, you can barely see it on this picture, but yeah, 116. And then one below it is late night talking at 115. But you can see that they're lined up, the grid, yeah, and you can actually move it so it will line up for that one portion, and then it kind of goes off grid into the normal tempo. It kind of gradually works its way up there. So there is a syncing that happens, which doesn't say it on the app. Yeah, but it actually sounds pretty darn good. I actually have a video of it listen uh listening to it too, uh, so you can kind of hear how it works when you're fixing it. I might have to turn it up a little louder.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's coming through the TV audio. Go back one more time. One more time, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, a little bit of a filter whatever. I felt like listening to it back. First of all, I felt really good about it because I could listen to these things ahead of time how these mixes gonna be. It just took me, it was uh maybe an hour and 15 minute list. Probably took me 20 minutes to put together. And it's already putting it in the you can set it to tell you a suggested order based off of whatever's on the list. You did this on your phone. On my phone. That's the thing. Right now, it's only available on phone or tablet. You can't do it on your computer. So you have to do all of this kind of stuff. Now, once it's on that playlist, it whatever device you're playing it on, whether it's your computer or whatever, the mix is there. You just can't set these cue points or whatever ahead of time. You can only play it on those devices, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:A couple things. Number one is is the killer of like DJ Studio.
SPEAKER_07:I mean, it is essentially that. Um but the thing is, the difference with DJ Studio is you can do it with your own edits. This is only songs that you can find on Spotify.
SPEAKER_00:True. Secondly, um would a civilian know what they were doing?
SPEAKER_07:I think they're gonna have to have a little bit of music knowledge to start with. Personally. But I mean, even lining up these grids, there's a green, you can't see it here when you're in edit mode, you can actually see where you want to line up the grid exactly to that thing. So to match the other tempo. There's actually like a green line and it says bring this over, and you're like, holy crap, you're basically giving them the cheat code to do it. But I will say, in playing it this way, it was I noticeable difference in the feel of the cocktail out than just putting it on like the auto with just like it coming over every six or seven seconds beforehand. Like the if the energy felt up the entire time.
SPEAKER_00:We need to do this. I mean, it was so for mobile DJs, is this a oh shit or is this a help? A help, I think. I think it helps you because when she told me, I was like, yeah, I'm not really excited about something that's trying to take my job. Like, no, I don't think I don't think it will right away.
SPEAKER_07:Right. I mean, and I don't think it ever will because the people that are gonna stand out are the ones that do the edit digging that we do and do all that stuff that you're not gonna be able to get on Spotify, at least initially. Right. But where I felt like the win was was their list was already kind of upbeat as it was, uh-huh, but it never dropped in energy. It felt like it was just writing, and you can again decide where you want these mix out points to happen, so they don't have to even be the whole song. Yeah, yeah. So you can you can bang out a list of like 40 songs in an hour if you really wanted to. You know what I mean? Yeah. The way I looked at it was this could be another source of revenue for the for the DJ of like, hey, listen, I have a client who I've done her party before. She reached out to me. She's like, hey, my brother's getting married. Um not my brother's not getting married, my brother's having a birthday. I would love to get a playlist together of songs that I could play. Well, I said, listen, I'm gonna give you the list, I'm gonna mix it all for you. And basically we can send that to somebody? I with my login. So I'm gonna have to give her my login for.
SPEAKER_00:I was about to say, damn.
SPEAKER_07:But I was like, that's an extra bit of money that I wasn't planning on. It's not a ton of money, but it's something.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:And there is an art to programming a playlist, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna try this, man, actually, because uh again, I'm not a huge fan of the way the songs just play all the way, and then they kind of dip a little bit, and then they have that. I do use the crossfade function when I'm playing the cocktail hour, but it's not gonna be nearly as good as that.
SPEAKER_07:It was so much better. I could not believe how good it was. Damn. It was worth it. So DJs need to jump on it if they're not already on it. Yeah, it's good to know. So uh one more segment, let's jump into the music. Okay, let's do it. So I thought I'd just play some songs I'm digging. Oh, I love songs that I think you should have on your radar that I found on pools or Patreons or whatever.
SPEAKER_00:And this is for the dance floor, right?
SPEAKER_07:For the dance floor or for walk-in. Okay. Most of these are gonna be for the dance floor. But this first one I loved. I uh again, that guy I just mentioned before, Touch of Funk. Yeah. He did this blend of what makes you beautiful versus um I can't shake this feeling, which is an 80s funk groove called uh group called Click Click K-L-I-C-Q-U-E. Never heard of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Anyway, I played this for Doors Open for uh a younger crowd. Okay. They didn't have what makes you beautiful on the list, but I knew that it would hit with their age range, and it just sounded good. So here it is. It has the original. Okay. I definitely don't know the original. I don't know either. But funkiest. AF. Doors open. Imagine walking in your table. I want to do the right one.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, it's released on the picture.
SPEAKER_00:That's a I I would feel like if I like I'm at a wedding, I've got a glass of champagne. Ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna make our way into the ballroom, and I and you're standing up there, and this is playing, yeah. I'm gonna be like, fuck yeah. We're in for a treat. Yeah, totally. Yeah, totally. Love that, dude.
SPEAKER_07:Uh, second one is um, are you ever playing the song Shake It to the Max? Do you have you had that on the list yet? It's the um uh Molly and Silent Addie. It's a it's kind of a I wouldn't say it's an underground track, but it's it's doing well on the nightlife stuff.
SPEAKER_06:All right.
SPEAKER_07:So this is a tone play. This reminds me of like that even Steve stuff that you kind of came up with uh that you heard. This is I didn't come up with it. This is uh Nick Davis on his Patreon and uh sh uh with juvenile. What? Yeah, so here we go.
SPEAKER_02:Ticket to the max, please just rewind, let me say it to the max. Ticket to the max. Ticket to the max.
SPEAKER_08:Ticket to the max. Yeah. Wow to the max.
SPEAKER_03:Ticket to the max. Ticket to the max, please just rewind, let me say it to the max.
SPEAKER_01:Cash money records taking over for the nine nine in the two thousand. Does it work if we're coming back?
SPEAKER_07:It's a cool segue, yeah. I played it this last one.
SPEAKER_00:They had Shake It to the Max on that list. Wow, I don't know that song.
SPEAKER_07:It's it's kind of like um, I mean, it's definitely hip hop, yeah, for sure. But it's got like an electronic kind of sound to it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_07:But if you get that, yeah, I made this edit because the one that they Nick Davis did was all dirty. So I did a clean version of it to play at weddings to be able to get by it. All right. Uh Ophelia, you playing anything off the new Taylor Swift record? Dude, listen to this, man. Um I said this to your girlfriend, by the way, this morning.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Randy sent me and all the all of our DJs a clip from last weekend, and it was Opa Lite. It's on the record. Okay. Opa light. Yeah. Something something. And it was going fucking crazy in there. Wow. Now, he didn't answer me. I texted me, I said, there this was the the two days after the record came out. Wow. I said, Bro, did you just pull this or did they they were they Swifties? You know what I mean? He didn't answer me, but there's no way he had the balls to just pull up a track five off of you know, whatever the life of a showgirl record. Yeah. I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_07:This is probably the more remixed danceable single. Which one is this? Fate of Aphelia? This is a fate of Ophelia.
SPEAKER_00:This is the single that they're playing on the radio.
SPEAKER_07:So this is with a Midnight City M83. Oh, jeez. Great for a ride. Yeah. That's what I texted to Ashley. But uh, see if you think this would work for your wedding.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, they went to that's good.
SPEAKER_07:The good good one to have before I leave. Uh that was by Allegheny.
SPEAKER_00:Damn, that's good.
SPEAKER_07:Isn't that a good one? Uh, two more here. Uh, your favorite song, Anxiety, Doshi. But this is uh with Gimme Gimme. Um Abba? Abba. Okay. But this is by Mellon, is the singer. I think he he, or maybe he's a producer, he redid the Gimme Gimme.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_07:This was I did the play this for their after party and Boca.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:This because Gimme Gimme was surprising it was on their list, and the band didn't play it. Like it was crazy. They had a band before me and they didn't play that song. So anxiety was on the list. Gimme gimme. I found this and I was like, oh, this is gonna work great. Because the gimme gimme has some meat to it. So check it out.
SPEAKER_04:Anxiety, people quiet, feeling quiet.
SPEAKER_00:Your boy Johnny Smash.
SPEAKER_06:Alright, last one.
SPEAKER_07:Um, this is oh, so same thing. After party, they had it all EDM. It was pretty much that's with a couple of like 80s. But it's definitely something. Yeah, that I just did.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Um, but I knew I needed to get some hip hop in there just to kind of flip it a bit because it was too much. I think you said this last yeah, we've got 128, yeah, it was just too much. Exhausting. So I found this Castra, who's a like a legit producer. Yeah, no, um, he did this version of No Hands, okay, which I usually wouldn't mess with no hands. Yeah, me neither. That one's pretty but for an after party, this worked really great. This was uh uh a blend with um the Own Boss and Sevic. I don't know the track off the top of my head. I may have it. Actually called Move Your Body is the name of that track.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:This went off so well. So if you have an after party, this is the version of the 130. You don't see it coming. Yeah. I'm gonna let it ride for a second, dude. Like it's gonna chore it. But what a turn. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:That's fucking filthy. Yeah, filthy. I know that track.
SPEAKER_07:So let's hit the question and then we'll dive into this one.
SPEAKER_00:Sounds good. All right, booth heads. We made a move and it's a bold one.
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SPEAKER_07:Like early access to batched episodes, bonus episode that we couldn't post publicly, maybe, and our weekly top 10 banger lists, songs that absolutely crushed at our events this week. You know, the stuff that you really want to steal from us anyway. But if you want to go deeper, jump into the booth backroom at$19.99 a month.
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SPEAKER_08:Question of the day.
SPEAKER_07:Even though I explained how the must-play, play if possible, and do not play lists work. When I went back to check it, the bride wrote anything not on my list in the do-not play section. WTF. Obviously, I'll have a heart to heart with her about it, but should I try to get out of this one? You guys rock. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:So she's saying if it's not on the must-play list, it's on the do not playlist?
SPEAKER_07:Pretty much. Like she probably gave not just must-plays, but she also probably played play if possible as well. So basically, he can't add anything to what he's given her, what she's given him.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, she made it pretty clear. I mean, in all things not on my list. I mean, listen, I don't think I would I would clarify it on your final planning call. Is this really what you mean by this? Which I think she does. And then I would just make sure that you have an overabundance of songs for this party. You know what I mean? And if you do, then you there's nothing she can jump back on you on if it if it goes sideways.
SPEAKER_07:I hate that you went first because I've you usually say it's the same copy and paste. I'm doing a copy and paste. It's the exact same thing. You gotta have enough on the play if possible. Yep. And I would even just add to that um based on whatever she's answered on like the di the demographics of the crowd, yeah, that you say, hey, listen, if you she only gave you one genre, listen, I think you should have some other genres in here just to round it out. And I'm fine playing within the within the box, but you got to give me enough stuff to so I don't run out of stuff. Because here's the problem some of these people give you a list and it's only 30 or 40 songs. I'm gonna burn through that in 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00:Especially you, right?
SPEAKER_07:You know what I mean? Yeah, like I need to have at least 200 songs minimum on this list if we're gonna play to your songs only, or you have to give me the okay to be able to get outside of this bag.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's a good that the same question, but no, don't get out of it, man. Just no, you can't, it's too late. Yeah, yeah. DJ Rass, just have a conversation, man, and and use some of these tips that we gave, and I think you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think a lot of people that give DJs a playlist with like a certain amount of songs, they think, or maybe they just don't have an idea that the DJ's not gonna play the whole track.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So, like I I'm gonna burn through these because I'm gonna mix in and out.
SPEAKER_00:So they look up at the top of Spotify and it says, you know, three hours, right, or whatever. They go, Oh, that covers the full dance set. Right. Hell no.
SPEAKER_07:And the other thing is, I mean, I don't know DJ Raz, but he might surprise them because maybe they went to a wedding the week before and the DJ was terrible.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:So you have a chance to really like impress them with what you can do within staying in the lines. Yeah. Well, let's thank our sponsor.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So thank you again. Uh DJ Event Planner has been our sponsor now for almost a year, probably. Yeah. And they are the CRM that Brian and I and tons of other DJs use to keep track of their leads and to trickle out emails to our clients and all sorts of other things. So if you don't have a CRM and you want some help in keeping up with your shows, you need to go to DJEventplanner.com. That's it.
SPEAKER_07:We'll see you guys on the next one.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks, everybody. Later.
