How play-next works

The short version

Most of the time the room's votes decide what plays. Play-next is the exception. Each guest gets one per event, it costs nothing, and it moves one song ahead of the vote ranking.

Songs moved up this way play in the order guests used their play-next. The first one used plays first. The rule is the same on every plan.

Using it as a guest

Why first in, first out

CrowdTune orders the play-next queue by time, oldest first, for two reasons.

It is easy to predict. If you used your play-next before someone else did, your song plays before theirs. You can see the order on your phone and on the big screen, and nothing reshuffles it.

It cannot be bought or outvoted. Every guest has the same single play-next, so an early pick from a quiet guest counts as much as one from the loudest corner of the room. Once the play-next queue is empty, the votes take over again.

The full playing order

When a song ends, the next one comes from the top of this order:

• A song that is playing now, or has already played, leaves the queue.
• The order is the same everywhere: the server picks the next song with it, and the guest list, the host console and the big screen all show it.

Limits that keep it fair

• One play-next per guest per event. Changing your nickname or rejoining from the same browser does not give you a second one, because CrowdTune keeps you the same guest at that event.
• Up to five songs can wait in the play-next queue at once. When it is full, the button answers that play next is full and suggests voting for one of the waiting songs instead. As each one plays, a place opens up.
• Each song can only be moved up once. If another guest got there first, you are told so, and your play-next is still unused for a different song.
• The button is disabled on the song that is playing now, on one that has already played, and on one the host has already pinned.
• A guest cannot take a play-next back once it is used. That stops one person trying the front of the queue with every song in turn.

What the host can do

The host, and co-hosts with manager rights on a Teams plan, manage play-next from the host console.

• See every waiting pick in the Playing next list at the top of the Songs tab, in the order they will play.
• Undo a guest's play-next. The song goes back into the vote ranking, and that guest gets their play-next back to use on something else.
• Pin a song from the moderation list with its own Play next button. A pin goes ahead of every guest pick. Up to ten pins can wait at once, and pins do not count toward the guests' limit of five.
• Turn the feature off for the event with the Allow play next switch in the Settings tab.

Turning it off

Allow play next is on for every new event. Turn it off and the Play next button and the 1 free play-next left line disappear from guests' phones, without them needing to reload. From then on, votes alone decide.

Turning it off does not reorder anything. Songs already in the play-next queue keep their place and still play first, and the big screen still shows them. If you want one of them gone from the front, undo it from the Playing next list.

You can switch it back on at any time. Guests who had not used their play-next still have it.

Play-next on the big screen

The big screen shows a Plays next section above the vote ranking, with the next few picks listed and a count of any more waiting. Guests in the room can see their pick coming without opening their phone. The /guides/big-screen guide covers the rest of what the screen shows.

Questions