PULTEVENT
Name that tune party game: 7 rounds of guess the song for a room
A twenty-year school reunion in the bar of a rugby club in Glasgow. The first four notes of a song come out of the speakers, and a man in a navy suit, who by all accounts hasn't raised his voice since 2006, is on his feet shouting the title before the drums kick in. His old classmates are pointing at him. His wife has her phone out, filming. I let the silence hang for a second, then press the button, and the title comes up on the screen behind me. He was right. The room cheers like he scored a try.
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Guess the song is the most democratic game I know. You don't need to be clever, sober or young to win it. You need to have been alive when the song was on the radio, and everybody in the room has been alive for something.
In PULTEVENT the format lives in a section built for your own music. You load the tracks and the answers before the party, play each intro from the laptop, and the room shouts. When you're ready, the title and artist appear on the projector. Guests don't need phones for the standard version, so it works in any room. If you'd rather have answers typed in and scored automatically, you can build a phone round in the quiz builder with the audio inside each question.
7 guess-the-song rounds, from quick intros to the couple's playlist
1 Five-second intros
The classic. A few seconds of the opening, a pause, and the first person to shout the right title wins the point. Loud, fast and very easy to explain.
How to run it. Order the list from the easiest to the biggest hit. The platform can play the tracks in exactly the order you set.
It wakes a room up in under a minute, and nobody needs the rules explained twice.
2 One decade per round
Round one is the eighties, round two the nineties, round three the noughties. Everyone has a round where they are the expert.
How to run it. Announce the decade before the round. The people who own that decade will sit up, and you'll see them nudging their tables.
At a family party it lets the grandparents and the teenagers each have their moment of glory.
3 Film and TV themes
Soundtracks and theme tunes instead of pop songs. The room shouts the name of the film or show rather than the song.
How to run it. Mix a couple of instantly recognizable ones with a few that make people say "I know this" for ten agonizing seconds.
People who never listen to the radio still watch television, so it brings a different part of the room into play.
4 The couple's playlist
Songs from the couple's story: the one playing when they met, the first dance at a friend's wedding, the song from their road trip. After each reveal, one of them tells the room why it matters.
How to run it. Ask each of them separately for three songs. Where their lists overlap, you've found your finale.
It's a game and a love story at the same time, and it hands you a perfect lead-in to the first dance.
5 Tables as teams
Each table agrees on one answer and a spokesperson shouts it. You add points on the team scoreboard after every track.
How to run it. Pick a spokesperson per table before you start, or the whole room shouts at once and you can't hear who was first.
At a big banquet it turns sixty strangers into ten small teams with something to prove.
6 Phone round with audio
Build a quiz in the quiz builder with an audio clip in each question and four options on the guests' phones. Correct answers climb the leaderboard.
How to run it. Drag the audio file straight into the question. Phones need internet, so check the venue Wi-Fi first.
No shouting, fair scoring, and it works in a big conference room where only the front rows would be heard.
7 Cartoon songs for the kids
Theme songs from the cartoons the children watch this year, plus one or two that their parents grew up with, to get the adults involved.
How to run it. With children, ask for hands up rather than shouting, or the youngest never gets a turn.
It keeps a birthday party calm for ten minutes between the loud games, which every parent in the room will thank you for.
Your music, your room
You load the tracks, so the round fits the crowd: nineties for a fortieth, crooners for a ninetieth, cartoon songs for a kids' party.
The answer on screen
Title and artist appear on the big screen only when you reveal them. No arguments about what was actually playing.
You see what's next
Under the stage you see the track playing now and the one coming up, so you run the round from the list, not from memory.
A phone version too
Put audio clips into the quiz builder, and guests answer on their phones with the scores adding up by themselves.
Setting up the section at home
This is a section built on your own material, so do the work at your desk, not an hour before the party. Load the music files, type the answer for each one (usually title and artist), and arrange the order. Arrows in the list move a track up or down. I build every round from easy to hard, with the biggest singalong hit last.
Press Save when you're done and wait for the counter to finish uploading. Your round is then stored in your event on the platform, so if the laptop dies on the night, you log in on another one and the music is still there.
If you spot a typo in an answer later, don't delete the track. The pencil icon in the list lets you fix the title or swap the file.
The pause is the game
The music stops, and for ten or fifteen seconds nobody knows. That's where the excitement lives. New hosts rush it and reveal the answer the moment someone shouts. Don't. Repeat the shouted answer, ask the room if they agree, and let a second guess come in from the other side.
"Is that your final answer?"
"Play it again."
Then reveal. The cheer is twice as loud when the room has had to wait for it.
Choosing the tracks
Choose for the room, not for yourself. Look at the guest list: the average age tells you which decade to lean on, the occasion tells you the mood. A retirement lunch wants songs from the guest of honor's twenties. A Sweet 16 wants this year's hits, and the adults can sit that round out.
Cut every track to its most recognizable moment. For most pop songs that's the first seconds. For some it's the chorus. Test each one on someone who isn't a music fan. If they don't get it in ten seconds, cut it or move it later in the round.
Scoring without a clipboard
For a relaxed party, don't score at all. The glory of being first is enough. For a competitive crowd, use tables as teams and add points on the team scoreboard after each reveal. The totals carry through the evening and end in an awards ceremony with confetti on the screen.
If you want nobody to argue about who shouted first, switch to the phone round from the quiz builder. Each guest answers privately and the platform ranks them.
Sound in the room
The music plays from your laptop, so connect it to the venue's speakers or your own PA, not just the TV. TV speakers disappear the moment eighty people start talking. Check the volume from the back of the room during setup.
Before the round, play a few seconds of something quiet as a test. It saves you from blasting the first intro at full volume into the grandmother's ear at table two.
Trying it first
Sign up for the free 3-day demo (no card) and build one ten-track round at home. Play it on your own TV for whoever is in the kitchen. The full version is a one-time license with no subscription; pricing is on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run a guess-the-song game at a party
- 1
Pick the rounds that suit the room: decades, film themes, the couple's songs.
- 2
Load the music files and type the title and artist for each.
- 3
Arrange the list from easy to hard and press Save.
- 4
At the venue, connect the laptop to the speakers and to the screen.
- 5
Play each intro, hold the pause, then reveal the answer on the screen.
- 6
Add points for teams if you're scoring and finish on the biggest singalong.
FAQ
Do guests need phones to play?
Does the platform come with a music library?
Can I change the order on the night?
What if I lose the laptop?
How many tracks make a good round?
Can I use it for a kids' party?
What does it cost?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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