Create your DJ set list with AI

AI chatbots or LLMs are becoming unescapable but can they be useful to your DJ workflow?

To try this out, I asked several chatbots to come up with a set list. Here’s the results:

To start off, I used the following prompt, word for word on each chatbot:

“Act as an experienced music DJ with knowledge of tempos, harmonies and song structure. I want you to make a set list of ten songs that mix well together in order of 1 to ten. Please include streaming links to each song. To start off my DJ set, I want to play ‘Jungle Boogie’ by Kool and the Gang”

(I absolutely love that song, what can I say?)

I have edited out all the explanatory text produced by the chatbots to save time, I also include brief notes where applicable.

ChatGPT (Premium) GPT4 (could not provide streaming links)

1. Kool and the Gang – “Jungle Boogie”

2. Earth, Wind & Fire – “September”

3. Chic – “Le Freak”

4. Bee Gees – “Stayin’ Alive”

5. Michael Jackson – “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”

6. Daft Punk – “Get Lucky” (feat. Pharrell Williams)

7. Mark Ronson – “Uptown Funk” (feat. Bruno Mars)

8. Jamiroquai – “Canned Heat”

9. Pharrell Williams – “Happy”

10. Earth, Wind & Fire – “Let’s Groove”

Google Gemini (A lot more detail-BPMs, release year and streaming links)

1. Jungle Boogie – Kool & The Gang (1973)

2. Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine – James Brown (1970)

3. Give It Up, Turn It Loose – Chic (1979)

4. Le Freak – Chic (1978)

5. September – Earth, Wind & Fire (1978)

6. Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now – McFadden & Whitehead (1979)

7. Happy Together – The Turtles (1967)

8. Dancing Queen – ABBA (1976)

9. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson (1982)

10. Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars (2014)

Claude (Sonnet) (Could not include streaming links due to copyright laws, limited metadata, focus on transitions)

1. “Jungle Boogie” by Kool and the Gang

2. “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

3. “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams

4. “Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias

5. “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee

6. “Starboy” by The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk

7. “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake

8. “Shut Up and Dance” by WALK THE MOON

9. “Forget You” by Cee Lo Green

10. “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

gpt2 (a new LLM that some speculate might be an early prototype of Open AI GPT5 available via [https://chat.lmsys.org/](https://chat.lmsys.org/)) (Really useful metadata including multiple streaming links which I’ve edited out for brevity)

1. Kool & The Gang – Jungle Boogie (Tempo: ~106 BPM, Key: E minor)

2. Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music (Tempo: ~110 BPM, Key: E minor)

3. Earth, Wind & Fire – September (Tempo: ~126 BPM, Key: F minor)

4. Chic – Good Times (Tempo: ~110 BPM, Key: E minor)

5. Michael Jackson – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Tempo: ~120 BPM, Key: B minor)

6. Daft Punk – Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers) (Tempo: ~116 BPM, Key: F minor)

7. Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars) (Tempo: ~115 BPM, Key: D minor)

8. Sister Sledge – We Are Family (Tempo: ~118 BPM, Key: E major)

9. The Jacksons – Blame It On The Boogie (Tempo: ~120 BPM, Key: F major)

10. Jamiroquai – Canned Heat (Tempo: ~124 BPM, Key: C minor)

Meta Llama-3 70B Instruct (Hugging Chat) (Good metadata, streaming links provided but not all may work, emphasis on transitions)

1. “Jungle Boogie” by Kool and the Gang (108 BPM, Funk)

2. “Get Down Tonight” by KC and the Sunshine Band (110 BPM, Disco/Funk)

3. “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5 (112 BPM, Pop/R&B)

4. “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry (114 BPM, Funk/Rock)

5. “Le Freak” by Chic (116 BPM, Disco)

6. “Y.M.C.A.” by The Village People (118 BPM, Disco)

7. “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions (120 BPM, Disco/Funk)

8. “Car Wash” by Rose Royce (122 BPM, Funk/Disco)

9. “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. (124 BPM, Funk/Disco)

10. “Last Dance” by Donna Summer (126 BPM, Disco)

So, all in all, some decent lists with certain songs popping up on almost every list. Fine, if you want to play the hits, although YMCA has been ruined for me by Donald Trump.

However, I wanted Deep Cuts, so I fed this prompt to the same chatbots:

“Could you redo this list with less commercial songs. I want to start with Jungle Boogie then progress into a set of deep cuts that match the tempo and energy of Jungle Boogie. They can be from the 70s, 80s,90s, right up to the current decade. Any genre as long as they meet the criteria of deep cuts that fit the tempo and energy of my chosen opening track.”

ChatGPT (Premium) GPT4

1. Kool and the Gang – “Jungle Boogie”

2. The Meters – “Just Kissed My Baby”

3. Cymande – “Brothers on the Slide”

4. Fatback Band – “Gotta Get My Hands on Some (Money)”

5. Pleasure – “Glide”

6. Zapp – “More Bounce to the Ounce”

7. Loose Ends – “Hanging on a String (Contemplating)”

8. Azymuth – “Jazz Carnival”

9. Jungle Brothers – “What ‘U’ Waitin’ ‘4’?”

10. Breakbot – “Baby I’m Yours”

The lack of links is a bit frustrating but I have to say, this set list SLAPS!

Google Gemini

1. Jungle Boogie – Kool & The Gang (1973)

2. Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine (Part 1) – James Brown (1970)

3. The Champ – The Funky Meters (1974)

4. Sing a Song for the City – The R.P.M. (1984)

5. Drop It Like It’s Hot – Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell (2004)

6. The Breaks – Kurtis Blow (1980)

7. Cha Cha Slide – Mr. C The Slide Man (1996)

8. Gasolina – Daddy Yankee (2004)

9. Jungle Juice – Breakbot (2010)

10. ΛᏤ⋁ϟϟ (Run the Jewels) – Run the Jewels (2014)

Claude (Sonnet)

1. “Jungle Boogie” by Kool and the Gang

2. “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & The Drells

3. “Pick Up the Pieces” by Average White Band

4. “Sweeter” by Gavin DeGraw

5. “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire

6. “Uptown” by Drake ft. Benny Revival & Lil Wayne

7. “Groove Is in the Heart” by Deee-Lite

8. “The Wiggle” by Cali Swag District

10. “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang

I wasn’t able to access gpt2 again as Imsys randomises the chatbots in each chat but I did get this from Claude Opus which is a superior model to Sonnet. Spotify and YouTube links were included.

1. Kool & The Gang – “Jungle Boogie” (Tempo: ~106 BPM, Key: E minor)

2. Cymande – “The Message” (Tempo: ~106 BPM, Key: A minor)

3. The Meters – “Cissy Strut” (Tempo: ~92 BPM, Key: E minor)

4. Sly & The Family Stone – “Sing a Simple Song” (Tempo: ~112 BPM, Key: F minor)

5. Lyn Collins – “Think (About It)” (Tempo: ~102 BPM, Key: G minor)

6. Maceo & The Macks – “Cross The Tracks (We Better Go Back)” (Tempo: ~108 BPM, Key: A minor)

7. Brick – “Dazz” (Tempo: ~112 BPM, Key: E minor)

8. The JB’s – “Pass the Peas” (Tempo: ~110 BPM, Key: D minor)

9. Lakeside – “Fantastic Voyage” (Tempo: ~112 BPM, Key: F# minor)

10. Leon Haywood – “I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You” (Tempo: ~116 BPM, Key: A minor)

Meta Llama-3 70B Instruct Streaming links were included but some were for Google Play(?). The release year for each was included with brief, useful descriptions.

1. “Jungle Boogie” by Kool and the Gang (108 BPM, Funk)

2. “Funky Nassau” by The Beginning of the End (110 BPM, Funk)

3. “Africano” by Earthquake (112 BPM, Afrobeat)

4. “Get It Up” by The Skull Snaps (114 BPM, Funk)

5. “Space Dust” by Galactic Warriors (116 BPM, Disco/Funk)

6. “Freaky Times” by The Rimshots (118 BPM, Funk)

7. “You Can’t Turn Me Away” by Sylvia Striplin (120 BPM, Boogie/Funk)

8. “Get Ready” by The Universal Robot Band (122 BPM, Boogie/Funk)

9. “Feel the Heat” by Dam-Funk (124 BPM, Funk/Electronic)

10. “Tropicalia” by Mocky (126 BPM, Funk/Electronic)

The second prompt produced good results. I think most of us would be happy with some combination of the suggested tracks. This is useful if you want to experiment with different genres but don’t know a lot about them or even just to plan out a quick set list on the fly for your radio show or house party.

If you want to dive deeper, you could ask for lists of prominent DJs by genre, decade, location and ask the chatbots to compile lists of good DJ sets to inspire you. Aside from ChatGPT Premium, all of these sites are free to use, and ChatGPT is also free on the GPT3.5 model which would likely produce similar results to the paid version.