How to Let Guests Request Songs from Their Phone at a Wedding or Party

At a wedding, a birthday or a house party, the best playlist is the one the guests help make. With Digital Center, guests scan a code with their phone camera, browse your music right in the phone's browser and add the songs they want to hear. The songs come up on the big screen in the order you allow, and you stay in charge of the rules. There is no app to install for the guests and nothing to pay per request. This guide shows how to set it up. For the jukebox overview, see the jukebox page.

What you need

• A Windows PC with Digital Center, connected to a TV, projector or speakers with a screen.
• Your music in Digital Center - a music library on the PC, or music shared from another Digital Center machine.
• One WiFi network that both the PC and the guests' phones can use.

Step 1: Make a playlist for the party

Guests add songs to a playlist, so start with one. Go to Administration, Playlists and create a playlist for the evening - for example "Wedding". You can put a few songs in it yourself to get things started, or leave it empty and let the guests fill it.

Two playlist settings are especially useful at a party:

• Always Playing - when the queue runs out, a new song is pulled in automatically, so the room never goes silent.
• Guest songs start right away - when one of those automatic songs is playing, a song a guest adds takes over at once instead of waiting. A song somebody chose is never interrupted.

If you want the guests' songs to disappear after the party, turn on Temporary: added songs are never saved and are cleared when you switch playlist or restart.

Step 2: Turn on phone remote control

Phone remote control is on by default. To check, go to Administration, Phone remote and make sure Phone remote control is on. On the same page, Show the remote on the front page puts the code on its own tile on the home screen, so it is always there.

Step 3: Put the code where guests see it

Guests need to scan the code once. You have three ways to show it:

• On the front page - the tile from Step 2.
• In Setup - on the front page, open Setup and choose Remote. A large code appears.
• On the screensaver - in Administration, Screensaver, set Invitation on the screensaver to Scan the code with a phone (or Both). Whenever the screen rests, it invites the room to pick a song.

A printed card on each table with "Scan the code on the screen to pick a song" works wonders at a wedding.

Step 4: What the guests see on their phone

When a guest scans the code, a page opens in the phone's browser that follows the big screen. In the music center it becomes a jukebox remote:

• Browse and search - albums, artists and songs, plus Browse by Popular, Genres, Years, Added and Favorites, depending on what you show on the screen.
• Add a song - the phone says "Added to the queue" once the screen has really taken the song. A song that is already waiting says so, instead of being added twice.
• The queue - what is playing, what is next and roughly when each song comes up.
• My songs - the songs this phone has added, which one is playing now, which are waiting, and which were played tonight.
• Their own name - a guest can type a name under My songs. It is optional, and it is shown next to the songs they add, for example "Requested by Anna".
• Their own language - each guest can switch the page to their language. It only changes their phone, never the big screen.

Guests can save the page to their phone's home screen, so it opens like an app the next time.

Step 5: Set the rules

You decide what guests may do. Two places matter:

On the playlist (Administration, Playlists, your party playlist):

• Allow voting songs up - lets guests vote for a waiting song from their phone. A song with more votes than the one ahead of it moves one place forward per vote, but never ahead of the song that is playing. It is off by default.

On the screen (Administration, Sound & playback, under Queue):

• Show who asked for each song - shows the guest's name next to their song on the screen. It is on by default.
• Confirm songs added to the queue - a short confirmation on the big screen for each song added.

Step 6: Lock the screen (Home and Professional)

If the PC stands where guests can touch it, lock it with Party Mode so nobody wanders into your settings or closes the app:

1. 1

   Set the passwords

   In Administration, Users, set your Admin password and a Party password.
2. 2

   Switch Party Mode on

   In Administration, Party Mode, switch it on.
3. 3

   Allow the playlist in Party Mode

   In Administration, Playlists, turn on Available In Party Mode for your party playlist, and choose what guests may do during playback and in the queue - pause, skip, delete and so on.
4. 4

   Limit the queue

   Set Max songs on the playlist - the most songs that may wait in the queue at once - so the queue never grows hours long.

The same rules apply on the phone and at the screen, so the phones can never do more than you allow. For the full Party Mode setup, see how to set up a party jukebox with phone control.

Step 7: Karaoke requests too

If your party has a karaoke corner, the same phone page works in the Karaoke center. Turn on Ask for the singer's name on the karaoke playlist, and the singer types their name when they add a song - the screen then calls them up by name when it is their turn. See the home karaoke setup guide.

After the party

When the evening is over, open Setup, Remote and choose Create new key. Every phone that scanned the old code stops working at once, so nobody can add songs from home the next morning. Nothing else changes - your passwords stay the same.

Read more on the jukebox page, or see how Digital Center compares on best jukebox software.