You rented our AMAZING headphones and you are READY TO PARTY! What playlist should you play at your silent disco party?
If you, like most people who rent our headphones, are using phones or tablets with playlists from Spotify, Apple Music or similar services, this article will help you to choose which songs to put on your playlists.
#1) Play songs they know!
Scroll down for TEN curated, made-for-you, mind-bendingly-good playlists that your guests will LOVE!!!
If you are a live DJ or manipulating your playlist during the silent party, the same principle applies.
#2) Play songs they love!
What is the single most important thing to consider when choosing awesome music for your party playlist?
With Silent Disco, people want to shout out the words while they dance!
#3) Play songs that they want to sing along to!
Below is a top 200 playlist from Spotify that works every time!
Notice how familiar the songs look?
Familiarity means your guests will know them and be able to sing along.
In Silent Disco, your guests want to sing along.
=Always. =
That is the single most important metric for silent disco song selection.
The above Spotify playlist is long enough to use on all three channels. Start at the beginning on one device. Start a third of the way through on a second device. Start it two-thirds of the way through on your third device.
Remember that you need to have three different streaming accounts or a family account.
Most streaming platforms only allow one simultaneous stream per account unless you have the family plan.
Remember that you need to have three different devices.
Each device will stream one playlist. – One per transmitter.
Should you have assigned genres to each channel?
There are two strategies:
Strategy #1)
Top Hits on all three transmitters:
Rock out to chart-topping hits across every channel!
From dance to pop-anthems to hip-hop bangers, country classics to electronic beats – all playing on all channels for the ultimate musical adventure!
Strategy #2)
Each transmitter is assigned a genre:
Choose your musical adventure!
Each channel is your gateway to a different world:
Channel 1 rocks with today’s hottest pop hits,
Channel 2 brings the bass with hip-hop and R&B fire, and
Channel 3 takes you on a nostalgic journey through classic rock and throwback favorites!
We think it is more fun for your guests when you mix it up on each channel.
Mixing it up on each channel encourages more togetherness by preventing people from splitting up according to genre.
But it is fun to assign one genre per channel too.
Both Ways work.
When a DJ is using a traditional sound system, they have the benefit of being the only music in the room. The listeners don’t have the option of switching to a different channel. This gives the DJ more leeway in song selection.
If listeners don’t care for the song, they may leave the dance floor, but they are not going to turn it off by switching the channel on their headphones.
This is THE game changer that is driving the rapid rise of Silent Disco as a party medium. Suddenly it is up to the listener instead of the DJ to decide what song they are going to listen to. When you look at it that way, it is no surprise that Silent Disco is so popular!
Thanks to the Internet and streaming services we all expect to be able to choose our own media. Why should it be different at a party?
But with three channel Silent Disco headphone parties, it is extra important to play something the crowd knows, because anything else is simply ignored by judicious use of the channel sector switch.
You’ve got to understand that the mind of the partying listener is always wondering what is on the other channels. They are always worried that they might be missing an awesome song that is playing right now!
So they switch channels every 30 seconds.
If they land on a channel while it is playing a song that they don’t know, they are switching channels.
Did I mention that you should play something they know?
There are several ways to “Know” a song. You could know the melody and the beat. But for Silent Disco, It is even better to recognize the song by how the dancers move or act. (because if it is on another channel the listener, they won’t be able to hear it, but will still recognize it.)
A perfect example of a song like this is the song, “Shots” by LMAFO. Yes, it has fantastic opportunities to shout the words back to the performer (or DJ), but “let me see your hands up!” and you can tell just by watching, what song it is.
Anyone who sees that, gets serious FOMO and switches to the ‘Shots’ channel!
If that song is not on your list – you are missing a huge opportunity.
How about “All I Do is Win” by DJ Khaled? Same deal. Essential reppetoir for silent disco! #essentialreppetoirforsilentdisco
Everybody knows how much fun it is to sing along to a pumpin’ song and it is even more fun to be singing and doing the moves in perfect time with your friends. Nothing could be better!
So choose songs that have memorable lyrics and memorable moves.
Play songs that they ALL know the words to!
The bests songs are songs that everybody at the party knows. If you play a song that only half of your guests know, and follow it with a song that all of your guests know. The latter will be more fun even if it is not near as good of a song.
Let me say that another way. The quality of the song matters less than the number of people who know it.
Play the best song ever written -but known by few, and your dance floor will be empty. Play a sub-par song – but one that everybody knows, and your dance floor will be packed!
One last word: It is tempting to allow a friend with a phone to run their playlist for awhile. We caution you to first take a look at what they are about to play. If she has a list of songs that your guests don’t know, don’t let her play them.
Your party is NOT the place to promote obscure music or to enlighten your friends about the newest songs. Your party is for having fun. Your party is for bringing people together in a celebration of life.
Play something they ALL can Jump around to!
Want a straight-up-magical playlist for students, families, young people and the young at heart?
Includes Disney hits and group dances like YMCA and Line Dances like Macarena, Cupid Shuffle, Cotton Eyed Joe, Cha Cha Slide. All clean versions without explicit language.
Want an absolutely-killer playlist of mainstream hits?
Old and New songs that most adults in the English speaking world know and love. Any type of celebration)
Want a ridiculously-addictive playlist of epic bangers?
These are classic anthemic-crowd-pleasers songs that the English speaking world knows and loves to sing along to, especially when they are in a party mood.
Want some next-level-incredible playlist of dance-floor fillers?
I’m talking energetic dance-floor fillers fun for all audiences old and new – time-tested dancing songs)
Want a seriously-irresistable playlist of party-pumpers for younger adults?
Age 40 and under. – Flat-out brilliant stuff from post 2000’s
You can play any of these playlist on Spotify.
Just click on any of them and they will automatically open up in Spotify.
You can manipulate them, you can save them, you can change the order of the songs, you can add songs and you can even queue in spontaneous song requests from your guests!
Pro Tip #1: Volume leveling across devices.
Make sure all of the channels are playing at the same volume!
Start with your silent disco headphones set on medium volume. Then turn up your devices that are playing your music until it is dancefloor volume.
Check each channel to make sure they are at the same volume. You should not have to adjust your headphone volume when you change channels. (Adjust your device(s) volume(s) until all channels are the same volume.
Pro Tip #2: Volume leveling of all songs on each platform.
Both Android and Apple have a volume leveling feature so that each song that is played comes out at the same volume.
On iOS it is in the music settings. Look for “Sound Check” and make sure it is toggled “On”
In Android, you can use the Volume Leveling feature in the Spotify App.
Pro Tip #3: Fade from song to song to eliminate dead air.
Both Apple Music and Spotify have a fade-into-the-next-song feature in the settings.
For Silent Disco dances, put it on the maximum setting to eliminate silence between songs and to keep the party-energy pumping all night long!
Pro Tip #4: Set your phone to “Do Not Disturb” mode.
If you are using your phone to stream your playlist, incoming calls or texts will lower the volume or even stop the music.
To stop this, go into the notifications settings of your phone and set it on “Do Not Disturb” for the duration of your party.