Music League

User Guide

How Music League works

  1. A league is a group of friends who play together across a series of rounds.
  2. Each round has a theme — a prompt like “Covers” or “A song you can’t get out of your head.”
  3. When a round opens, every player submits one or more songs from Spotify that fit the theme.
  4. Once the song submission window closes (or everyone has submitted), Music League builds a Spotify playlist of all the entries and opens voting.
  5. Each player gets a budget of points to distribute across songs they like (and, if the administrator enabled them, downvotes for songs they don’t).
  6. When voting closes, results are revealed — who submitted what, how everyone voted, and the comments people left.
  7. Points carry across rounds and add up on the league’s standings. The player with the most points at the end wins.

Getting started

1. Create your Music League account. Every player needs a Music League account. There are two ways to make one:

  • Continue with Spotify (fastest) — on the sign-up or sign-in page, tap Spotify. Music League creates your account from your Spotify profile and connects Spotify in the same step.
  • Sign up with email and password — create your account with a display name, email, and password. You’ll then be taken straight to a screen to connect Spotify before you can do anything else.

2. Connect your Spotify account. Music League can’t work without it — Spotify is how songs are searched, how round playlists are built, and how you listen during voting. A free or premium Spotify account works equally well. If you signed up with “Continue with Spotify,” this step is already done for you. If your connection ever expires, Music League will ask you to reconnect.

3. Join a league or start your own.

  • Joining: open the invite link a friend sent you, then tap Join League.
  • Browsing: Public leagues listed on the home screen are open for anyone to join, until they fill up or start.
  • Creating: tap New League from your leagues page to walk through the setup wizard (more on that below).

Creating a league

Setting up a new league walks you through a five-step wizard. Your progress is saved at every step, so you can leave and come back.

  1. Identity — name your league, add a description and cover image, and choose Private (invite-only) or Public (discoverable).
  2. Rounds & Themes — the wizard starts you with three rounds. Add or remove rounds, drag to reorder, edit each round’s title and description inline, or pick from the theme library.
  3. Schedule & Pacing — pick a pacing style (Steady — fixed schedule, Accelerated — advances when everyone’s done, or Speedy — no waiting between phases) and set the date and time round 1 opens. The remaining round deadlines are calculated automatically from your pace.
  4. Rules & Scoring — set max players, songs per player per round, the voting budget (points and max per song), when submission comments become visible, and optional downvotes and competitive mode.
  5. Invite & Launch — copy your invite link, search and invite players you’ve played with before, customize the invitation message, then launch. Pending email invitations are sent the moment you launch.

Tip: aim for 4–6 rounds with about 8–15 players. Pick themes broad enough that people can pull a song from memory rather than reaching for Google.

For step-by-step detail, see the Creating a League article in our help center.

FAQs

How do I submit a song? ▼
When a round is open for submissions, open the round and tap Submit a song. You can:
  • Search Spotify directly inside Music League by typing a song or artist.
  • Paste a Spotify track link copied from the Spotify app or website.
  • Add an optional comment that other players will see (timing depends on the league’s comment-visibility setting).
You can change your submission as long as the round is still in the submission phase.
Do I need a paid Spotify account? ▼
No. A free Spotify account works for everything in Music League: signing in, searching, submitting, and listening to round playlists.
How many players and rounds should a league have? ▼
Leagues support up to 100 players. Private leagues can have up to 100 rounds; public leagues are capped at 20 rounds. The sweet spot is 8–15 players over 4–6 rounds — smaller leagues feel more personal; longer leagues lose momentum.
Do league administrators have an advantage? ▼
No. The administrator sees nothing about submissions or votes that other players don’t see. Once the league launches, they play on the same footing as everyone else.
Why can’t I vote on my own song? ▼
Because it’s not sporting. It also keeps the math fair — every voter is judging the same pool of songs they didn’t submit.
What happens if I miss a deadline? ▼
Deadlines keep things moving for the whole group:
  • Miss the submission deadline: you don’t have a song in that round’s playlist, and you can still listen and vote.
  • Miss the voting deadline: by default, your unsubmitted votes are simply not counted. If your league has Competitive Mode on, any upvotes given to your songs that round are also discarded — downvotes against you still count.
What are downvotes? ▼
Downvotes are an optional feature administrators can turn on. They let voters subtract points from songs they don’t like, in addition to the upvote budget they have for songs they do. Administrators control how many downvotes each player gets and whether using them is required.
Where do my round playlists live on Spotify? ▼
Music League creates each round’s playlist inside your own Spotify account. You can find it in your Spotify library and keep it forever — even after the league ends.
Why did I get logged out of Spotify or lose my connection? ▼

A few things can disconnect your Spotify account from Music League:

  • You disconnected Music League from Spotify. If you tapped Disconnect on your Profile page, or removed access to Music League from your Spotify apps page, your connection ends immediately and you’ll be asked to reconnect the next time you use Music League.
  • Your access token expired. Spotify access tokens have a limited lifespan. If we can’t refresh yours automatically, we’ll ask you to reconnect.
  • Someone else signed in with the same Spotify account. Music League doesn’t support Spotify account sharing — each Music League account must be tied to a unique Spotify account. If a friend or family member connects the same Spotify account to their own Music League account, your connection is replaced.
  • Spotify is down. If Spotify’s API is having an outage, Music League can’t verify your session. Try again in a few minutes.

To reconnect, open your Profile page and tap Switch account (or sign in with Spotify again).

I tried “Continue with Spotify” and got an error. Why? ▼

If your Spotify account doesn’t have an email address on file, Music League can’t create or sign you in to an account using Continue with Spotify. Every Music League account is tied to an email address — that’s how we identify your account, send you league notifications, and let you recover access if you ever lose your Spotify connection.

This usually happens with older Spotify accounts that were created before Spotify required an email, or accounts created through certain partner sign-ups.

You have two ways to fix it:

  • Add an email to your Spotify account. Go to spotify.com/account/profile, add and verify an email address, then come back and try Continue with Spotify again.
  • Sign up with email and password instead. Create your Music League account on the sign-up screen using any email you control, then connect your Spotify account from the screen that follows. You’ll end up with the same result — a Music League account with Spotify connected.
How do I delete my account or data? ▼

Open your Profile page and use the Delete Account option. This removes your personal data — name, email, comments, chat messages — and removes you from any leagues you’re currently in.

Songs you previously submitted stay in the database and on the round playlists, but they’re no longer tied to you in any way.

If you also want to revoke Music League’s Spotify access, you can do so at spotify.com/account/apps — we can’t do that on your behalf.

How do I report a chat message or comment? ▼

Hover over (or tap, on mobile) the chat message or comment, then tap the flag icon on a chat message, or the Report link below a comment. Pick a reason, optionally add a note, and submit.

Reports go to the league administrator, not Music League support. The administrator can hide the content, delete it, or dismiss the report. You’ll be notified when they take action either way. The author of the reported content is not told who reported them.

See Reporting Chat Messages and Comments for the full walkthrough.

I’m a league administrator — what tools do I have to moderate my league? ▼

You can hide or delete any chat message or comment in your league directly (hover over the row to see the flag and trash buttons), or wait for reports to come in through your Reports queue (linked from the three-dot menu on the league’s main page).

You can also kick a member (removed, can rejoin if invited or if the league is public) or ban them (removed and blocked from rejoining until you unban them).

See League Administrator Moderation Tools for the differences between hide, delete, dismiss, kick, and ban — and what survives when a member is removed.

What’s the difference between following someone and friending them? ▼

Follow is one-way — you don’t need permission to follow another player. They get a notification but don’t have to accept.

Friend is two-way — you send a request and the other player accepts or declines. Once accepted, you appear as friends on each other’s profiles.

You can do both. See Following Players and Adding Friends for the full comparison.

Where is my Music League Wrapped (Year-in-Review)? ▼

While the Wrapped window is live, look for the banner at the top of your Leagues page or the “Music League Wrapped” link in your profile menu. Tap either to open your Wrapped.

If you accidentally closed the banner, sign out and back in — or use the profile menu link, which stays available the whole time the window is live. You can also save your Wrapped as a PDF or share a public link with friends.

See Music League Wrapped (Year-in-Review) for the full guide.

Need more info? Visit our Help Center or email us at support@musicleague.com.

Learn more

For deeper guides on specific topics, head to the Help Center: