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There’s a lot to love about popular streaming services, and while they’ve been under a ton of flack lately—whether for their low payouts to artists or their fairly aggressive cut into the quality of the audio, pulling it far from hi-fi standards—it’s undeniable these sites make music discovery incredibly accessible but they’re not so good for knowing finding where to find good DJ sets to listen to.
Because it’s all fun and games for almost any genre except electronic dance music.
Because dance music, unlike any other genre, isn’t meant to be listened to in a vacuum, not meant to be consumed in isolation. And in fact, it’s at its best when listened as one of many tracks in a longer-form DJ set or mix or similar sort of seamless, blended curation.
Good DJ sets are fantastic for anything you’re doing, whether studying, working, or hunting for tracks to add to your setlist. The challenge is knowing where to find the best ones.
In this article, I’ll share the best places to find quality DJ sets and tips on locating the hidden gems among the millions of mixes.
DJ.Studio
DJ.Studio is much more of a DAW for DJs and a platform for creating your own mixes. It’s an insanely powerful tool that we’ve been really loving over the past few months since it first came onto our radar.
The real x-factor here, though, is the community section, where you can check out mixes done by a growing list of talented artists using the platform for various reasons. It offers a wide range of styles, and you can filter by genre and other criteria, making it not just a place to discover new mixes and see what others are creating, but also a fantastic spot to put together and share your own DJ mixes.
You can get feedback, meet other DJs, and connect with people who are also working on music. DJ Studio has quickly become one of my favorite places to find new music and DJ mixes. The best part is that the mixes are incredibly eclectic because there are DJs from all sorts of backgrounds and skill levels. What I find so useful and innovative about DJ.Studio is how accessible its tools are, which leads to a really wide range of music you can listen to in the community mixes. The tracklists are also easy to navigate, making it simple to find out what music is being played in the mixes.
YouTube
This one might seem a bit obvious, but YouTube is a fantastic place to find DJ mixes but it’s at its best when you lock in on a channel of DJ that you dig, like curator-specific channels like The Grand Sound or specific DJs like Chris Luno.
Thanks to YouTube’s Content ID system, it’s easy for anyone to upload mixes while ensuring that copyright holders receive the appropriate royalties. Some of my favorite mixes are recorded and produced with super high production quality where you can actually see what the DJs are doing on the decks—whether it’s adjusting EQs, flipping through USB sticks, and more. This adds a visual element that really complements and enhances the mix itself.
I’ve linked some of my favorite ones below, so you can check them out.
Another great aspect of YouTube’s powerful Content ID system is how it recognizes tracklists and often links them directly below the video. If you like a song in the mix, you can easily reference it and find it later. You don’t usually need to visit a third-party website; you can just save it to a playlist or your “watch later” list right there, which is incredibly convenient.
SoundCloud
While SoundCloud may be far from its golden era a decade ago, when it was really blowing up, it still holds a lot of value for finding dope music (oftentimes unreleased ot bootlegged versions of them). Most relevant to this article, it remains one of the main go-to platforms for hosting DJ mixes.
The only challenge is sifting through the noise because, while it’s incredibly accessible for anyone to upload DJ mixes, not all of them are that high of quality. It’s best to find a handful of reliable channels or outlets that consistently post high-quality mixes. Once you do, you’re set and can find an endless amount of great music.
I’ve linked some of my favorite channels below, including many mixes on our own Magnetic Magazine channel. The Balanced Mix Series is another fantastic option, and many DJs upload their radio shows or podcasts as well. Days Like Nights is a great example, along with other big labels. You can follow these channels and get notified whenever they upload new music for you to enjoy.
Spotify
Spotify has only recently started allowing DJ mixes to be uploaded, but it operates a bit differently from other platforms. There’s a higher barrier to entry, so the DJ mixes you find on Spotify are often more curated, usually in the form of mix albums or episodes of larger radio shows (like ABGT).
Mix albums are one of my favorite forms of DJ mixes because you can tell the artist has put a lot of effort into curating a specific, cohesive set of tracks. It’s not just a throwaway live recording of a recent gig or a jam session in their bedroom, which you might come across more often on platforms like SoundCloud or YouTube.
It’s a shameless plug, but my song “At Least We’re Safe” was included in David Hohme’s yearly mix album, which you can listen to below, too!
Mixcloud
MixCloud is one of the OG platforms for hosting online mixes, and while it might seem a bit antiquated now, it still has a lot to offer. Many older, more experienced DJs continue to use it, which brings its own benefits. Although it’s not as accessible or mainstream as sites like SoundCloud or YouTube, you’re rewarded for digging a little deeper.
Incredibly skilled DJs often upload their mixes there, and even though MixCloud doesn’t get the same organic traffic as some of the bigger platforms, there’s still some incredible quality for those willing to explore and take full advantage of what the platform offers.
Twitch
DJs streaming on Twitch really took off during COVID, and the momentum that started during lockdown is still going strong. Many DJs now make a significant part of their career through streaming on Twitch. Whether you’re catching DJs live for that real-time, performative experience or following your favorite DJs who regularly stream, Twitch offers a lot.
You can also watch past recordings on their channels to catch previous streams you might have missed, the only caveat being that you usually have to be a subscriber to their channel (which is a great way to support them as artists, though, let’s be real).
One thing to note is that Twitch has been cracking down more on content ID and copyright, so the music DJs can play is a bit more restricted. However, Twitch is actively working to expand its music catalog, so this will likely improve over time.
It never fails, even though you do need to wade through the morass of people chiming in. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of Reddit—it feels like the armpit of the internet. But if you know how to use it and can search through the threads, you can find some hidden gems. One of my favorite methods for finding DJ mixes is to visit the specific subreddit for the genre I’m interested in, like r/progressivehouse or r/techno, and look for popular threads with mix recommendations.
These threads are often packed with suggestions, and by focusing on the ones with the most upvotes, you can rely on the hive mind of Reddit to point you to some solid mixes. The good ones are definitely out there; you just have to be willing to wade through the platform to find them.
1001Tracklists
1001 Tracklists is essentially the gold standard for finding out what music DJs are playing, which tracks are being supported by top artists, and what songs are getting heavy play each week. It’s also a great way to reverse-engineer the discovery process. If you’ve found a song you’ve loved lately, whether it’s by a big artist or not, you can punch that song into 1001 Tracklists and get a list of mixes that include it. If that song has been included in recent mixes, the search will bring those mixes right up.
If you love the song, you’re likely going to enjoy the other tracks being blended around it, making this a fantastic jumping-off point. Often, 101 Tracklists even tells you the platform—whether it’s SoundCloud, YouTube, or another service—where the mix is available, redirecting you directly to it. It’s a really effective way to start with a song you love and expand from there, discovering multiple DJ mixes that are likely to appeal to you because they include tracks you already enjoy.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
