Music Round Generator
Create a music round for your quiz night. Filter by decade and genre from a database of 150+ songs. Generate song or artist questions with answer key.
How to Build a Music Round for Your Quiz
Set the question count (default 10), pick a decade filter or 'mixed', and the tool pulls songs from a 150+ track database. Each question shows the song clue (title hidden, artist or release year visible) and the answer key separately so the host can read out questions without spoilers. You can choose 'song question' (give the artist, ask for the title) or 'artist question' (give a lyric or year, ask for the artist).
A standard pub quiz music round is 10 songs played for 30 seconds each. With the typical introductions and pauses, that is a 12-minute slot, which is the right length to fit between a general knowledge round and food. If you want a shorter round, drop to 5 questions; for a music-themed evening, run two rounds of 10 with different decades. The [pub quiz generator](/pub-quiz-generator) handles the rest of the night around it.
Picking the Right Decade for Your Crowd
The decade filter is the single most important setting. A pub quiz audience aged 30 to 50 will laugh at 80s and 90s tracks; an audience over 60 will groan because they only know the 60s and 70s; a student crowd will yawn at anything before 2010. The 'mixed' setting is safest for unknown crowds but means roughly 60% of any room will have at least three songs they do not recognise.
If you can survey the room (corporate Christmas parties, family birthdays), match the decade to the average birth year minus 15. Someone born in 1985 was 15 in 2000, which is when their music-listening peak started, so 2000s tracks will get the warmest reception. Same logic puts a 1965-born person on 1980s music. The math is rough but consistent.
Running a Music Round Without Music
If you cannot play audio (corporate setting, accessibility constraints, no speakers), use 'lyric questions' instead. Read out the second line of a song's chorus and ask the team to name the song. This actually works better than audio for some rooms because everyone hears the same clue at the same volume. Print the answer key for yourself and read each lyric three times, slowly.
For hybrid rounds, mix five audio clips with five lyric-only questions. That breaks up the pace and stops people zoning out. The premium PDF export from this tool produces a host script with both the question (lyric or song info) and the answer (artist + title + year), formatted so the host can flip pages without losing place. Use the [scattergories list generator](/scattergories-list-generator) to fill the next round if you need 6 minutes between music and break.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a music round take in a pub quiz?
10 to 12 minutes. That is 10 questions at 30 seconds of audio each, plus introductions and pauses. Going over 15 minutes loses the room because music-only rounds slow the energy. If you have more than 10 songs to play, split them into two separate rounds with a different round in between.
Where do I get the actual audio for the songs?
Stream them directly from Spotify, YouTube or Apple Music using the answer key as your playlist. Build the playlist before the night so the next song is one tap away. Most quiz hosts use Spotify's queue feature on a phone, plugged into the venue's speakers via aux or Bluetooth.
Can I use songs without a music licence?
For a private quiz at home or a small office party, no licence needed. For a public pub quiz where money changes hands (entry fee, prizes from venue takings), the venue should have a PRS for Music licence and most established pub-quiz pubs do. Check with the venue manager rather than assuming.
What is a good mix of song-question vs artist-question types?
Roughly 60/40 in favour of song titles, since people are more confident naming a song than an artist when they only know one or two from a band. Throw in two or three artist-questions to reward the diehards. Avoid 'name the album' questions; those are too narrow for a pub crowd.
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