How to Make a Tight Radio-Friendly Edit of a Song

A tight, radio-friendly edit in Club Ready Music uses the shortest DJ Edit settings: Intro bars None or 8, Outro bars 16, Redrum Off and a Volume level of −14 LUFS so the file plays at the level streaming platforms expect. Be clear about what this does and does not do: Club Ready Music extends and finishes the edges of a song, it does not cut verses or choruses, so the running time stays close to the original. What you get is a clean start, a short drum tail instead of an abrupt or messy ending, and a master that is level with other streaming releases.

Steps

1. Understand what a tight edit is here

Club Ready Music builds intros and outros from the song's own stems and normalises loudness. It does not have an arrangement editor, so a 4:10 song cannot become a 3:20 radio edit on this page. If the song is already the right length and you want it to open on the one and end cleanly at a sensible level, this page is the right approach. If you need verses removed, do that in a DAW first and then upload the shortened file.

2. Upload and confirm the grid

Drop the song onto the DJ Edit page, fill in Title and Artist / DJ, and press Upload & analyse. Press ▶ 4 bars on the Detected grid and check the count. Even with Intro bars None, the first beat matters, because the outro is measured in bars from the end and Club Ready Music searches the drum stem on bar boundaries from that point. Fix the BPM with ½, ×2, TAP or a typed value if the reading is off.

3. Set Intro bars to None or 8

Intro bars None adds nothing in front of the song. The edit starts on the song's own first downbeat, which is what a radio or playlist listener expects. Choose Intro bars 8 if the song opens with a soft or unmetered passage and you want a short, defined beat before it; at 128 BPM that is 15 seconds. Anything longer starts to feel like a club intro.

4. Set Outro bars to 16

Outro bars 16 is the shortest outro Club Ready Music offers and the tidiest ending for a non-club listener. Over the last 16 bars of the song the vocals and melodic parts fade over 2 bars while drums and bass keep going, then the drum loop finishes the 16 bars with a 2-bar fade at the very end. At 128 BPM the whole outro is 30 seconds. Choose Outro bars None only when the song's original ending is already clean.

5. Leave Redrum Off and skip the tempo shift

Keep Redrum on Off. A synthesized kick under a radio version sounds like a club bootleg, which is not the goal. Leave Shift tempo to empty as well. The point of this edit is to present the song as it is, with better edges and the right loudness.

6. Set Volume level for the destination

Change Volume level from the default −8 to −14 LUFS for Spotify, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, which all play back around that level. Use −16 for Apple Music or a podcast. A −8 file would simply be turned down by those platforms, and a −14 master keeps more dynamic range and sounds less squashed next to commercial releases. Club Ready Music still limits true peak to −1 dBTP.

7. Build, check the length and download

Leave Also export 24-bit WAV on, because streaming uploaders prefer a lossless file, and press Build the DJ edit. When the edit is Ready, read the length chip; it should be the original time plus the 8-bar intro if you added one. Download WAV for uploads and MP3 320 for sending to people. Copy link gives a share URL with the edit.

Tips

• With Intro bars None and the outro fade, songs that originally ended on a long reverb tail or a cold stop now end on a steady beat. Decide whether that suits the song before you commit.
• If you want one file for both club and streaming, build twice: once at −8 with your club settings and once at −14 with these settings, using Change settings & rebuild.
• The comment tag still records start, intro end and outro start cues, which is useful if the edit later ends up in a DJ library anyway.
• Keep Title free of suffixes like Extended Mix. A tight edit should carry the plain song title.
• Only upload music you have the rights to edit and distribute. A radio or streaming version of someone else's song needs permission before it is published.

Common problems

• The edit is the same length as the original. That is expected. The DJ Edit page does not cut sections. Shorten the song in a DAW before uploading if you need a shorter running time.
• The file sounds quieter than my club edits. −14 LUFS is 6 dB lower than −8 by design. Streaming platforms will play both at the same level.
• The ending fades the vocal too early. The 2-bar vocal fade sits inside the last 16 bars. If the final chorus runs to the last bar, choose Outro bars None.
• The first beat of the song is clipped with Intro bars None. The first beat was set a little late. Lower First beat (ms) in 10 ms steps, confirm with ▶ 4 bars, and rebuild.