BPM (Beats Per Minute)

The tempo of a piece of music — how many beats occur in one minute.

BPM, or beats per minute, is the unit that measures tempo — the speed of a piece of music. A track at 120 BPM has 120 beats every minute, or two per second. BPM is fundamental to DJing (matching the tempo of two tracks so they play in time), to producing (setting the grid your whole arrangement sits on), and to genres broadly defined by tempo ranges — for instance, house music typically sits around 120–130 BPM, hip-hop often lower, drum and bass much higher. Knowing a song's BPM lets you sync drums, loops and effects precisely to its pulse.

432

Written & reviewed by

432 Academy

The Club432 musician collective

432 Academy is the learning arm of Club432 — a performing-arts collective of working musicians, producers, DJs and engineers. Our guides are written for beginners and reviewed by people who play, record and perform for a living, so the advice is what we'd tell a friend picking up the instrument, not specs copied off a box.

Meet the roster →Get 1-on-1 mentoring →

Want a working musician in your corner?

Reading only gets you so far. Get 1-on-1 coaching and consulting from real 432 musicians — over video, on your instrument, around your goals. We match you with the right mentor and build a plan that actually moves you forward.

Book 1-on-1 coaching →Meet the musicians →