You know this gets asked ALOT from new DJ's. And usually the answer is "You dont need it, just shut up and spin" or its cheating, lame, etc.

Not everyone can learn everything the same way. Not everyone has a musical background or musical talent to be able to just "shut up and play" and knowning the BPM can help them gauge better.

As for the actual question there are sites that have a data base of songs of all styles and genres and their BPM [try google searching]. Theres also BPM counters on many mixers now a days.. and theres even cheap little pocket devices that you tap the beat to [8 times, on each quarter note] figure out a "ballpark" number.

While i do agree that after a couple months of practice the BPM thing really doesnt matter all that much, it can still keep you organized when youre at a show with all those stacks of records.

most people will say that you shouldnt need to know the bpm's of a record. as the club set up may not show this, or whatever.

however i once made a mix cd, and i was wondering how fast it was at the start and end, so wot i did is, i opened fruity loops, and beat matched the tune on my mix, with the bpm thing on fruity, as this is accurate.

the entire process of getting to know your records, making mistakes because you didnt know the bpm (until you actually listened to the record) trying to mix a track that sounds good into a track that sounds like shite at a high tempo, and using your ears instead of some blinking numbers that arent even 85% accurate is what learing to match pitch is all about. beginners need to fuck up to get better. forming the habit of being anal about bpm is detrimental to the long term buildup of solid DJ'ing skills and ears.

the only reason, already mentioned, for labeling records with bpms should be to organize huge collections which is counter-productive anyways unless all the records are of the same genre.

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the best moneymakers are scams, and the best scams make A LOT of money, especially if they offer a great product, if I had to label the best scam of ALL time, it's gotta be religion, what's worse? it is the number one enemy of government. go figure.

I use my DJM300. When I go to mix in a trak it's quicker as it gives you a rough guide to where you need to pitch the incoming record to get it matched. Labelling your records doesn't beatmatch them for you, it just gives you a helpful starting point.

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Meh