Club DJs are no strangers to BPM (Beats Per Minute). BPM is actually a unit used to measure music tempo? Sounds geeky? In the radio production world, BPM is important, especially when you’re producing a beatmix.

In order for you to pull off a snappy beatmix like that, you need to work with songs with similar or closer BPMs, otherwise, you’ll end up getting the vocals to sound like Tweety. For example, songs like DJ Got Us Fallin In Love by Usher, Your Love Is My Drug by Ke$ha and Dynamite by Taio Cruz are great songs to beatmix since they have relatively the same BPM. If you notice, producing a beatmix is pretty much like mixing songs in a club.

But how do you detect the BPM of a song? There’s actually a manual way to calculate beats per minute, but unless you’re a seasoned DJ or producer, it might take you some time to get the hang of it. So I’ve compiled the Top 25 BPM detection tools you can use for audio production. In no particular order

AbyssMedia BPM Counter
Fast and accurate beats per minute detector for MP3 music
http://www.abyssmedia.com/bpmcounter/

Cadence App for iPhone
Easily playback all your music that matches the BPM you select.
http://www.cadenceapp.com/

MixMeister BPM Analyzer
Calculate extremely accurate BPM counts for any song
http://www.mixmeister.comp

Tangerine for iTunes
It works by analyzing the BPM and the beat intensity of your music.
http://www.potionfactory.com/tangerine

beaTunes 2.1 for iTunes
Automatically determine BPM and store the result in iTunes
http://www.beatunes.com/

BPM ProScan
Detects BPM and write them to the MP3 ID3V2 tag
http://www.softjock.com/bpmproscan.html

BPM Detector Pro
digital DJ-oriented automatic Beat Per Minute detecting software
http://www.bpmdetectorpro.com/

Beat Counter Program
Free Beats Per Minute Calculator
http://users.compaqnet.be/CubicCarrot/TestProg.htm

BPMer
Completely automatic, no need to tap
http://www.wildbits.com/bpmer/

BPMeter
Plugin for Winamp Players by TonioWare
http://www.winamp.com/plugin/tonioware-s-bpmeter/6564

DJ Helper
Designed for Winamp DJs
http://members.tripod.com/to_skripto/dj-helper/

DeKstacy
Open-source automatic beat-finding software
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dekstasy/files/

Final Scratch Record Box Editor
Super-fast metronome measurement tool
http://finalscratch.sourceforge.net/

Alcatech BPM Studio
Mulitple software for professional DJs
http://www.bpmstudio.com/html/index.php

KraMixer
Software for beat freaks
http://www.kramware.com/

DJ Mix Lite
Automatic mixing mp3 player for Windows
http://www.djmixpro.com/djmixlite/downloadredirector.html

Ask The DJ
You choose the music, Ask the DJ mixes it!
http://www.wildbits.com/askthedj/

Traktor Pro
Busts out a power-packed array of tools
http://download.cnet.com/Traktor-Pro/3000-18502_4-10186952.html

djDecks
For beginners and professional DJs
http://djdecks.be/index.php

Mixxx.org
Free and open-source DJ Software
http://www.mixxx.org/

Teuf Player Version 2.0
Has a plugin and a separate player
http://tbx.free.fr/index.php?p=dl

MP3 Tools
Free Although Designed for Beginners
http://www.qpratools.com/mp3tools/download.html

Mixshare
Advanced harmonic music library tool
http://www.mixshare.com/software.html

Virtual DJ
The Most Popular Digital Mixing Software
http://www.virtualdj.com/

DJAY Software
For Mac, iPhone, and iPod Touch
http://www.djay-software.com/

Scratch Live
Built for the professional mixers
http://www.scratchlive.net/

Open Source BPM DJ
Open source code for developers
http://bpmdj.yellowcouch.org/index.html

BPM Detection Library
Useful for developers who want to create plugins
http://adionsoft.net/bpm/

gJay
Supports ogg, mp3 and wav
http://gjay.sourceforge.net/

iTunes BPM Inspector
Free license plugin for iTunes
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11586/itunes-bpm-inspector

Other tools to check out:

Online Beat Calculator
You can tap the beats online
http://www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm

Beat Scanner
Why not detect while on a workout
http://www.bestworkoutmusic.com/beatscanner.html

BPM Checker
Determine the tempo of a song
http://download.cnet.com/BpmChecker/3000-2169_4-10071678.html

Beat Match City
A blog about the latest tunes with BPM
http://www.beatmatchcity.com/

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