Guide · planning
How long should a Christmas playlist be?
The answer is “longer than the event, or on a loop”. Here is how to turn that into numbers, and which fixed-length mix to use.
A rule of thumb
Plan for the event length plus half an hour, or use something that repeats by itself. Silence in the middle of a party is more noticeable than a track you have heard before.
The tracks here average 2:51, so about 21 tracks make an hour. Not every playlist needs to be that long: a station reshuffles and never stops.
Lengths by occasion
| Occasion | Plan for | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Wrapping presents | about 1 hour | 1 Hour Christmas Lofi Playlist (23 tracks) |
| Decorating the tree | 1 to 2 hours | 1 Hour Christmas Lofi Playlist or 2 Hour Christmas Lofi Playlist |
| Baking afternoon | 2 hours | 2 Hour Christmas Lofi Playlist (43 tracks) |
| Dinner or an open house | 3 hours | 3 Hour Christmas Lofi Playlist (64 tracks) |
| A long party or a stream | more than 3 hours | Non-Stop Christmas (never stops) |
| Sleeping | all night | 8 Hour Christmas Sleep Music (163 plays of 44 tracks) |
How many tracks does a mix need to avoid repeats?
That is the real limit. All 112 tracks on this radio run 5 h 20 min, so a no-repeat mix can be at most about that long. For longer than that, the radio reshuffles, and the sleep mix repeats on purpose.
Shuffle, order or loop?
- Shuffle (the radio): best for background. It avoids repeating a track for a while.
- Fixed order (the mixes): best when you want an arc, such as bright at the start and calm at the end.
- Same clock for everyone (On air): best for a group in different rooms or a stream, where everybody should hear the same thing at the same time.
Questions
How many songs is one hour?
About 21 tracks here, because they average 2:51 each.
How long is the longest playlist without repeats?
About 5 h 20 min, which is every track on the radio once.
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Tune in to the radio Next guide: Instrumental Christmas music