While being a guest at someone else's party has its perks (I'm looking at you here, sinking full of plates), there's something fun about being the host once in a while.
Whether you're hosting a quiet session with a few of your closest friends or hosting a crazy all-night with whoever shows up, you can set the perfect mood for the night with the help of Spotify.
Spotify Spotify vs. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music Unlimited:Which is the best? Spotify vs. Apple Music vs. Amazon Music Unlimited:Which is the best? With the introduction of Amazon Music Unlimited, now is a great time to sign up for a streaming music service. In this article, we'll examine how Amazon's service compares to Spotify and Apple Music. Read More go for many Here are seven ways to make Spotify the life of any party, so you can spend less time worrying about 13 iPhone Apps to Plan and Throw an Amazing Party 13 iPhone Apps to Plan and Throw an Amazing Party things right. Fortunately, there are some apps designed to help make it all work. Read more about how to make guests feel comfortable and spend more time having fun.
You should probably organize your music for a meeting well in advance of the event. But if you haven't started, don't worry, there's an easy way to add the most popular songs that everyone will be listening to for the next few months.
Chances are you're already familiar with the Shazam app, which identifies music playing around you just by tapping your smartphone screen. You can now connect your Spotify account to Shazam, allowing you to easily listen to and save songs on Spotify that you've identified using Shazam.
In other words, if you're catching up on adding the newest songs to your Spotify collection, use Shazam to identify new songs. What's that song? Shazam finally hits the Mac app store What's that song? Shazam finally hits the Mac App Store The Shazam music identification app has finally made its way to the Mac, allowing you to easily identify the music playing around you without reaching for your phone. Read more than you listen to on the radio or while shopping. Each song will be saved to Shazam as usual, and then you can easily add them to Spotify with a few taps.
While the app is free to download, the free version contains ads. If you don't want those ads to crash your party, you can pay $6.99 for an ad-free version.
Download Shazam - iOS (Free) | Android (Free)
Shazam is a good way to find and add new songs to your Spotify collection, and YouTube is another. Almost all new and popular songs hit YouTube early these days, making it a good place to find the best songs for your next night out. It's not that hard to manually search Spotify for a song you listen to and like on YouTube. That said, there is a much easier way.
Set up an If This Then That recipe 10 Self-Improvement Spells You Can Cast With IFTTT 10 Self-Improvement Spells You Can Cast With IFTTT Reframe your thinking about self-improvement by casting some automated magic spells with IFTTT. These 10 IFTTT recipes can help you reach your goals or change a habit. Read More With this recipe, when you like a video on YouTube, Spotify will automatically find the song and add it to a playlist titled “YouTube Likes.”
You probably already know this, but just a word of warning:not every song you find on YouTube will be available on Spotify.
Turn on the IFTTT app here
If you're not lucky enough to have a speaker system set up outdoors or built into your house (I'm not), you can improvise with an Amazon Echo or Google Home. Amazon Echo vs. Google Home vs. Apple HomePod Amazon Echo vs. Google Home vs. Apple HomePod In this article, you will learn the differences between Amazon Echo and Google Home. We'll also take a look at what features an Apple speaker can include. Read more . Both cost much less than installing a speaker system, but can still provide relatively loud music for party guests to listen to.
If you're not sure how well they'll sound in the party area, do a simple test with different types of music. Record Head has a playlist to use just for this purpose, and you can also find similar playlists on Spotify.
Basically, you just need to make sure that most types of music are easy for your party guests to listen to.
Consider buying - Amazon Echo Dot ($49) | Google Home ($129)
As the host of the party, you'll likely be jumping from one task to another, whether it's serving drinks, making appetizers, networking, etc.
This means that it is quite practical to learn all the keyboard shortcuts that Spotify has to offer. This can help you perform various functions on the go without taking too much time. For example, Ctrl + Right on PC and Ctrl + Cmd + Right on Mac it plays the next track, while the left key goes back to the previous track.
And this is a good idea to remember for when your party starts:wait for Ctrl + Shift + Up (Cmd + Shift + Up on Mac) to convert Spotify up to maximum volume.
Just set up your laptop in the party area and you're ready to go.
You no doubt spend a lot of time putting together the perfect playlist How to Get New Playlists and Discover New Music Every Day How to Get New Playlists and Discover New Music Every Day If you're stuck in a musical rut and want something totally new, here you go An easy way to get a new playlist every day. Read More It will pass, it is a party after all, and some guests may want to hear a song that you may not have included on your list.
Fortunately, there's an easy way to play new songs without undoing your playlist. Simply go to the requested song in Spotify, open the three-dot options window and select Add to Queue. This will insert the song, play it next, and then return to the playlist.
Since you've gone to great lengths to put together your party list, it'll only be a matter of time before guests start asking you to share. Luckily, there are easy ways to do it on Spotify.
The easiest way to share music with friends (or anyone, really) is to make your playlists public. That way, users can easily browse the list whenever they want. You can share all sorts of other things besides using links, including playlists, artists, individual songs, entire albums, or even user profiles.
Not only will this get the party jumping in place, but you can also keep the party going well into the future by sharing the tracks you enjoyed together with your friends.
Almost everyone who uses Spotify has created playlists of their favorite songs from it. It could be the hottest songs of the moment, the songs that remind you of 2009, or the songs that you want to listen to while you're at the gym. But serious Spotify users know that simple playlists are for amateurs. Playlist folders are where you are.
Playlist Folders 4 Ways You're Using Spotify Wrong Without Even Knowing It 4 Ways You're Using Spotify Wrong Without Even Knowing It Many people use Spotify. But are you using it efficiently? Discover 4 common mistakes Spotify users make. Read More They are folders that you can use to group playlists together, making your entire music collection much more organized. You can create folders in the Spotify desktop app by going to File> New Playlists Folder . Those folders will show up later on your mobile devices as well.
Why do you need folders? It's simply a deeper way to organize your songs and playlists. Imagine you have a playlist of songs from every year in this decade:2010, 2011, 2012, etc. You can group all of those playlists into a decade folder called “2010s.” Make it easy to navigate and listen to your music.
One of the great things about Spotify is its sheer simplicity. You can create a great soundtrack for your band by simply loading up the app, hitting play, and letting Spotify do its thing. However, those who enjoy hosting can really customize the listening experience, too.
In what ways have you used Spotify to entertain your party guests? What music will you play for your friends the next time you throw a party? Please tell us in the comments below.
