How to throw a virtual dance party where everyone hears the same song

A dance party is the hardest party to move online. A quiz works on a video call. A chat works on a video call. But music on a video call is a mess: the app squashes it to save bandwidth, it arrives at each guest a moment apart, and the person playing it cannot hear anyone else over their own speakers. Ten people dancing to ten slightly different versions of one song is not a party; it is a group exercise class with a bad connection.

So the first job of a virtual dance party is not the playlist. It is getting everyone onto the same beat. Here is how, and a few ways to make it feel like a night out once you have.

The sync problem, and three ways round it

1. Let one person DJ over the call

The simplest option: one person plays music and shares it through the video call. It works for a small group, but expect lower sound quality and small delays between guests. Tips if you do it:

• The DJ should use headphones, so the call does not pick up the music twice.
• Look in your video app’s settings for an option to share computer sound or a music mode; it usually sounds better than playing music into the microphone.
• Everyone else mutes, and unmutes between songs to shout requests.

2. Share one queue

Spotify’s Jam lets a group add songs to one shared queue in real time. Spotify says you need Premium to start and host a Jam, and Premium to join one remotely; at launch, Spotify said up to 32 people could be in a Jam at once. It is a good fit when your friends already use Spotify and want everyone to get a say in the music.

3. Meet somewhere the music is already in sync

The third way is to go to a virtual place where the music is the same for everyone by design. That is how our game, AJ Cities, handles it. It is a free open-world browser game set on the edge of Ajegunle, Lagos, and its party mode is a live, virtual Lagos night with other real players. The estate has one radio station for the whole game: every radio plays the same track at the same moment for every player. When your friend in Houston hears the chorus drop, so do you.

And to be plain about it: this is a virtual party inside the game. There is no real venue, no real date and no real ticket.

Where to dance in the estate

• Prizm. The purple-lit club at No. 1145 June 12 Street. The artist Joe-Izzy plays every night from 9 pm to 1 am Lagos time, and the crowd on the dance floor moves while the set plays. Every ticket opens the ground floor; VIP tickets open the pool deck, the rooftop garden and backstage.
• The beach party. Past the bush and its football pitch. Tickets from ₦400 open it.
• The street. June 12 Street, where the music from Prizm drifts over the wall.
• Anywhere with a radio. Stand by any radio and you hear what everyone else hears.

How to throw it, step by step

1. Pick the time. In the Lagos time world, the club opens at 9 pm Lagos time. If that does not suit your time zone, pick always night, where it is 10 pm all the time and the set is on whenever you arrive.
2. Send one link. ajcities.com, choose the party. It runs in a browser on a phone or a computer, with nothing to download.
3. Everyone signs in. With an email; it is 18+.
4. Same world for everyone. Pick the same one and you usually join the same estate. Each holds up to 60 players.
5. Dress code. Pick a theme (all white, all gold, your best owambe look) and change your outfit free at Gatefold Clothing by the gate, with hair at the Palmline Unisex Salon.
6. Get past the gate. Ask the police. Most nights about four in five who ask get in free; or buy a ticket, which lasts 24 hours. The bouncers at Prizm sometimes wave in a guest without one.
7. Keep a call open. A voice call alongside the game lets you shout over the music the way you would in a real club.

Ideas to make it a night

A dance-off on a video call

Before you head to the estate, do one round on camera. One person at a time, thirty seconds each, everyone else votes in the chat. Cameras off is allowed for the shy.

Request hour

If you use a shared queue, give each guest one song, in turn. If you meet at the estate, you take what the radio plays together, which is half the point: nobody argues about the aux.

Move between rooms

Real dance parties have a kitchen, a garden and a dance floor, and people wander. In the estate, the gate, the street, the club and the beach play the same part. Split up, find each other again, end up together on the rooftop.

A last song

Agree a time to meet back at one spot (the gate, or Prizm’s ground floor) for the last song of the night, wherever the radio is.

Which way is right for you?

More: virtual nightclub games and Prizm, the virtual Lagos club.

How do you throw a virtual dance party?

Solve the sync problem first: one DJ sharing sound over a call, a shared queue such as Spotify Jam, or a virtual place where the music is the same for everyone, such as the AJ Cities estate radio. Then add a dress code, a dance-off and a last song.

Does everyone hear the same song in AJ Cities?

Yes. The estate radio is one station for the whole game: every radio plays the same track at the same moment for every player.

Is the AJ Cities dance party a real club night?

No. It is a virtual party inside the game, with no real venue, date or ticket.