How do songs and upvotes work?
Each round, every player submits one or more songs (you choose how many) and then votes on everyone else's submissions using an upvote bank.
- Max songs per player — How many songs each player can submit per round. Anywhere from 1 to 10. A Submissions Required checkbox sits right under this setting — turn it on to require every player to submit the full number, or leave it off to allow partial submissions.
- Total upvotes per player — Each voter has a pool of upvote points to distribute across submissions. Anywhere from 1 to 100 points per round.
- Max upvotes per song — How many of their points a voter can put on a single submission. This caps stacking and encourages spreading votes. If a round has fewer songs than expected, this number auto-adjusts upward so every voter can spend all their points — but it never drops below the number you set.
Players can never vote on their own submissions.
One thing to watch: players × songs-per-player can't exceed 100. That's the maximum playlist size for a single round, so very large leagues need to keep submissions per player low.
What are downvotes?
Downvotes are optional and turned off by default. When enabled, each voter also gets a pool of downvote points they can use to subtract points from submissions they don't like — in addition to their upvotes.
Downvotes add a competitive edge and can lead to bigger swings in the standings. They work best in tight-knit groups where everyone is comfortable with the extra competition.
You can set the downvote bank size (0 to 100 points), a per-song cap, and whether voters are required to spend all their downvotes. Players cannot downvote their own submissions.
When can players see submission comments?
Players can leave an optional comment when they submit a song. You control when those comments become visible to other players. There are three options:
- During (and after) Voting — Comments are visible to voters while voting is open. This is the default and adds context and personality to each submission, though comments can influence votes and may reveal who submitted a song.
- When Votes are Revealed — Comments are hidden until voting closes and results are revealed. This keeps comments from swaying anyone's votes.
- Player's Choice — Each player decides per-song whether their comment is visible during voting or only after.
You can change this setting between rounds, but not while a round is actively in voting.
What's Competitive Mode?
Competitive Mode is an optional setting in the Advanced Settings section of Rules & Scoring. When it's on, players who fail to vote in a round don't receive any upvotes on their submissions for that round — though they still receive any downvotes. This encourages everyone to actually participate instead of just submitting and disappearing.
Competitive Mode is locked the moment you launch the league. Unlike other scoring settings, it can't be toggled on or off mid-league — decide before you launch.
What other advanced settings are there?
A few fine-tuning controls live under Advanced Settings:
- Vote Breakdown — When results are revealed, show who voted how. Turn this off to keep individual voting patterns private; results will only show total points per song.
- Downvotes Required — If downvotes are enabled, require voters to spend all their downvote points (not just their upvotes).
Can I change the rules after the league has started?
Most settings can still be changed once the league is running, but a change never affects a round that's already in progress — it takes effect on the next round. When you save an edit while a round is underway, Music League reminds you of this with a pop-up. Be sure to use the league chat to tell everyone if you change something mid-league, so no one is caught off guard.
A few settings are locked tighter than that:
- The number of votes is locked the moment the league starts. Total upvotes per player, max upvotes per song, and every downvote setting (downvotes on/off, downvote bank, max downvotes per song, downvotes required) can no longer be changed once the league is active. Changing the number of votes available or required after voting has begun would unfairly impact ballots players have already submitted. The one exception is automatic: if a round has too few songs for everyone to spend all their votes, Music League raises Max Upvotes per Song on its own so no one gets stuck — it never lowers it below the number you chose. See How Voting Rules Work.
- Competitive Mode is locked at launch and can't be changed afterward.
- Max players and visibility (Private/Public) can be updated at any time, as long as the league hasn't already hit its cap.