In a recent article, I discussed some of the reasons why Spotify seems like a good idea for some brides.
But of course, it doesn’t matter what I think, the fact remains brides will continue to suggest “Spotify is free so you don’t need a DJ” on wedding discussion groups in New Zealand and worldwide.
So this article is more direct but without bias. Brides only hear about Spotify being a success, few brides will come back to say how it was a disaster and they regretted it. Spotify CAN work, but not always as well as you might be hoping in some cases. And while many brides on the various wedding discussion groups might be fans of Spotify, how many of them are going to be really open about how bad it turned out to be when they’re wrong…? Yes, it worked, but for how long, and how much better could it have been?
I’m going to give all the worst-case scenarios.
Why Not To Spotify For Your Wedding?
It seems easy, right? Spotify has dozens and dozens of pre-curated wedding playlists. You can add personalise those if you want to spend hours putting together a list of YOUR favourite songs, plus all those ones you think your guests will love. Yes, hours. It will inevitably take as much time to put the list together as it does to play through the entire playlist. I know this because many years ago before Spotify was a thing, I agreed to help a friend put together a playlist for an overseas wedding. We spent four hours making a three-hour playlist.
Here are the simple honest reasons why a Spotify wedding might not be everything you imagined:
- Not everyone will love your fave songs as much as you think.
- Everyone will have song demands (not requests).
- Many guests will be pretty sure everyone will want THEIR song instead of yours.
- Spotify doesn’t “level” their music, meaning one song can be really quiet, and the next track is BLASTING.
- Spotify doesn’t have “clean” versions of some of the most popular songs. That might not bother you, because you might not be worried about offending grandma.
- Guests will try to take over your playlist or constantly skip the tracks you spent so much time choosing.
- You still need a sound system – very few venues have a great sound system that’s good for much more than speeches and background music.
- The songs have gaps between them. The Spotify crossfade feature isn’t amazing, it cuts off the beginning and end of some songs.
Why Do Brides Contemplate Using Spotify?
Often it’s based on bad or misguided advice from other brides saying “it worked” for them.
But just because “it worked” doesn’t mean it was great. Just because a group of brides in a Facebook discussion group think it was amazing, doesn’t mean they’ve been to more than 3 weddings in their lifetime, and they may not have seen any decent alternative.
Some venues even encourage it, directly or otherwise. To be fair, it can be less-than-professional DJs who make venues lose faith in entertainers – but that’s an entirely different article.
Nick Logan
Wedding MC | Event DJ
