How To Host A Silent Disco Without Rental Equipment

To host a silent disco, you need to use a lot of rental equipment. This is still the norm for big professional events.

What if you want to host a smaller, impromptu silent disco or silent rave with a bunch of friends?

Better yet, a bunch of friends by the beach, or up a mountain, or snowboarding down that mountain??

I’m pretty sure any silent disco rental company would have issues with letting their rental equipment out for such an event!

What if you don’t need rental equipment at all!?

In this post we’ll go through all the steps you need to go from zero, to silent disco hero, without the use of any rental equipment!

TL;DR – You can skip over most of the text and just look at the screen shots to see what you need to do.

Step 1: Download the FREE My Silent Disco Club app

The app is available on either app store.

Step 2: Register / Log in to the app

When you open the app, you will see the logo and the “FIND A DISCO” button. You’ll also have the menu icon at the bottom of the screen.

Click the menu icon and then click on the profile block.

You’ll then see an option to sign in or register. If you don’t have a free account, click on the register button and fill out the small form. If you do have an account, click the sign in button and sign in.

Forgotten your password: No problem, just reset it via the forgotten password page via the website.

You’ll now see your profile page.

Step 3: Creating a playlist!

Now the boring bit is done, it’s time to move on to the best part any silent disco… the music!

NOTE: My Silent Disco Club does not work with Spotify.

If you haven’t already, make sure you have clicked on the “music” icon to be on the playlist section of the profile page.

Next, click on the “+ NEW PLAYLIST” button.

You’ll now have an option to add a title to your playlist. Fill this in (this can be changed later when you think of a cooler, much more apt name) and click the “SAVE NAME” button.

After that is saved, you can move on to adding the music.

You can add music via a SoundCloud or YouTube URL. To get the URL you need, just grab the link they give you as if you were sharing that music.

NOTE: SoundCloud playlist and YouTube mix lists do not currently work, its just 1 song / mix at a time.

Once you pasted in a link, click on the “+ ADD MUSIC TO THIS PLAYLIST” button.

A new block for your music will appear just above the import box. You’ll see some loading progress, then when it’s ready, you’ll see a play button, track details and a delete button.

NOTE: You can switch from the My Silent Disco Club app to the others, just don’t close it or your progress will be lost, or you’ll get some issues with some of the tracks.

Once you have a few tracks, you may want to re-order them… that’s easy to do!

Just tap on the track details and you’ll see a new drag handle appear. Use this to “grab” the music track and slide it up or down to re-order your playlist.

Once you drop the track in the order you want, the app will auto save your order. An auto save will also happen if you delete a track from the playlist.

If you changed the name of your playlist, don’t forget to click “SAVE“. You can then click the “X” button to close the playlist creation screen.

Step 4: Create a party!

You can have a party with a minimum of 1 playlist, so for this tutorial we’ll keep just 1, but you can have up to 3 for a free event and 5 for any paid event!

Switch to the party screen by clicking on the “calendar” icon. You can now click on the “+ NEW PARTY” button.

As before, select a title for your party / event and click “SAVE TITLE“. You’ll be able to change this later if you think of a cooler name.

NOTE: Special characters like commas and single / double quotes get removed. We’re not here for a grammar lesson anyway 🙂

Once that title is saved, the next step is to choose your event type: Free, One time paid, or Premium monthly.

Which level is right for you?

Free

This allows you to have up to 3 playlists and 5 people in attendance. For anyone wanting to join the party after the first 5, they will watch a short advert before being able to join in.

You’ll also be able to try 30 min events of live streaming and voice only events.

Paid – One time

This gives you up to 5 rooms of music and unlimited attendance.

Zero adverts! – Everyone at the event will have zero advert and you can have a choice between a public or private event.

Live stats! – You’ll also get live stats on which room is the most popular!

Private / Password protected events – This functionality allows you to sell tickets to an event.

Longer live streams and voice only events – You can host these types of events for up to 12 hours!

Custom design your event – Change the main background color, room colors, fonts and even add in your own logo!

Paid – Premium monthly subscription

Everything as the one off paid events plus the benefit of storing unlimited playlists.

Restart events! – You’ll get the option to restart events. Saving you a lot of time when it comes to having repeat events.

For this example, we’ll choose a free event. You can always upgrade later if you feel you want more options.

Next steps are to choose an estimated start time and date for your event.

You have the option of putting in an event location and a small description about the event.

After that is done, scroll down to add your playlists…

To add a playlist to a room, click on the rooms “+ADD PLAYLIST” button.

You’ll then get a screen with all of your playlists.

Simply click on the playlist you want to add!

You can easily change your mind by clicking the delete button on the room as this will allow you to choose a different playlist.

Once you’re happy, scroll down and click on the “SAVE” button to save your event.

Step 5: Start your party and join it!

So, you’ve created an epic playlist, created an event to host that playlist with just an app. No expensive silent disco rental equipment to be seen.

The final step is for you to “START PARTY” from your profile screen and kick off the music!

Once you start your party, you’ll not be able to edit the playlists anymore.

For you (as the host), once you start the party, you’ll see a “JOIN” button shown which you can click to load the party screen.

For your guests, they just need to download the app (see step 1) and click “FIND A DISCO“. On that screen they will see your party listed, or will be able to search for your party via the party code or title.

They will then see a “JOIN” button which they can click and they will be taken to the party screen.

It’ll take a few moments for the party to get set up, but then you’ll be able to click the “PLAY” button.

Once you click the play button, the music will start playing.

The app will sync you and everyone else who is listening to be at the same spot in the playlist.

Now its your turn!

It’s now, even easier to launch an impromptu silent disco without any rental equipment, that the only thing you need is your phone, headphones and a group of friends!

You can also do all of the playlist and event creation via the website

Final things to note

The app and how it syncs the music works through your internet connection.

This means if you have a slow connection, there can be some issues with your sync compared to the person next to you.

You can trigger a re-sync, by clicking the “re-sync” button which appears next to the play button.