Five people ask for it,
the DJ sees one line with five votes.
Guests request songs from the same QR code they already scanned for photos. Ask for a track that is already on the board and your request becomes a vote on it, not a second line. The DJ ends up reading the room instead of deduplicating a list.
Included in the $39 Event Pass · No app for guests · No second QR code
The DJ console, on a tablet propped against the mixer. It is owner-only and never indexed — there is no public link to it.
- 1
Two numbers, read from a metre away. “waiting” counts everything still to play, “played” is the set list so far. They are the two things a DJ checks between tracks without leaning in.
- 2
One button per row. A single mint “Played” button, sized for a thumb, applied immediately — the tap happens while the track is already starting. Beside it, an X to decline.
- 3
The vote pill is the sort key. The queue is ordered by demand rather than arrival, and a tie goes to whoever asked first, so a row never jumps under a thumb already moving toward it.
- 4
“Requests open” is the whole switch. It lives on this screen, not in event settings, so the board can be opened for the dancing and closed for the speeches without leaving the console.
Why the deduplication is the whole feature
A request box is not a new idea. What decides whether one is useful at midnight is what happens when the same track is asked for by six different people. Kept as six separate entries it is noise: the most wanted song in the room looks like six unrelated requests scattered down a list, and the DJ has to hold the count in their head. Merged into one line with six votes it is the answer. Picsui enforces that in the database, not in the interface, so two guests asking at the same instant still produce one line.
Left: what a request list that keeps every ask hands the booth. Right: the same five asks as one row with five votes, which is the row the DJ actually works.
A request list that answers the DJ's actual question
Not “who asked for what”, which is a list. What does the room want next, which is a number.
The same song twice is one line with two votes
Ask for a track someone already asked for and your request becomes a vote on the line that exists. The DJ sees one entry with a number beside it instead of five copies of the same song scattered down a list.
The code already on the table
Requests live at the same event code guests scanned to share photos, under 'Also happening' on the upload page. No second QR, no second sign, no app to install.
A console built for a booth in the dark
The DJ view is white-on-black with large type and one unmissable action per row, made for a tablet propped against a mixer and read at arm's length while the other hand is on a fader.
Ordered by what the room wants
The queue sorts by votes, most wanted first, and a tie goes to whoever asked first so a row never jumps under a thumb already moving toward it. One tap marks a track played.
Open and close requests from the console itself
One button at the top of the DJ console reads 'Requests open' or 'Requests closed'. Closed means guests can no longer add or vote; the queue you have already collected stays yours to work through.
The host can add a track themselves
Somebody always asks at the booth rather than on their phone. A field at the top of the console types that track straight in, and it lands above the vote order with a 'Next' chip on it.
How a night actually runs
Four steps, each on the screen it happens on. The copy in these screens is the copy in the app.
01
Turn requests on, from inside the DJ console
Song requests are off by default on every event. The switch is not in event settings — it is the button at the top of the DJ console itself, and the dashboard says so rather than letting you hunt for it. Open the event, go to Present, choose Music and press Open the DJ console. The button there reads “Requests closed” until you tap it once.
The moment it says “Requests open”, a Request a song card appears for guests on the event page, in an “Also happening” strip below the uploader. Left off, that strip does not render at all, so a plain photo party stays a plain photo party.
Hidden entirely when requests are off
Host on the left, guest on the right. Requests are off by default on every new event.
- 1
Four clicks: event → Present → Music → Open the DJ console. That panel is the signpost, not the control. It also opens the guest page in a new tab so a host can see exactly what the room sees.
- 2
There is no toggle in event settings. The only switch is the button at the top of the console itself, and the dashboard says so rather than letting a host hunt for it.
- 3
The guest link sits below the uploader. Never above it: the photo is why they scanned. The strip renders nothing at all when the host has left requests off, which is the default.
- 4
One QR code, not two. The request board hangs off the same event code as the photo upload, so there is no second sign to print and no second link to explain.
02
Guests ask from the code already on the table
A guest scans the same QR they used for photos, taps through to requests, and types a song title — optionally an artist, optionally a short note for the DJ like “for the first dance”, which stays collapsed behind a button until they want it. Then Add to the list.
Two answers come back, and both are green. Your song is on the list. if it is new, or Already on the list — your vote is on it. if the room got there first — in which case that row's count goes up by one and its arrow fills in. Below, everything waiting in vote order, and below that everything already played, struck through.
The guest board, in English, Spanish, French or Russian. No name is shown anywhere — a request never says who asked, and a vote never says who voted.
- 1
The duplicate answer is green. The guest typed a track the room had already asked for. Instead of an error or a second row, they are told their vote landed on the line that exists.
- 2
That line went up by one. Its arrow is filled in, because turning the repeat ask into a vote is the same action. Asking again for a song you already voted for never takes your vote back.
- 3
Tap the arrow to vote, tap it again to take it back. One vote per guest per track. Voting is not capped — votes are the signal the DJ is reading.
- 4
“Already played” stays on the guest's screen. Struck through, below the queue, because “what did you already play” is the second question every guest asks all night.
03
The states nobody puts on a marketing page
A guest with no photo uploaded yet can read the whole board and cannot touch it: uploading one photo is what creates the guest pass the board runs on. There is no login, no account and no app behind that — the pass is the photo.
And when the host closes the board for the speeches, the guest page says so in a sentence instead of failing. Both refusals are shown here word for word, including the one a guest meets at 10 tracks.
Requests switched off
No guest pass yet
Both refusals, verbatim. There is no counter warning a guest they are near the ten-track ceiling — they meet the sentence at the moment it applies.
- 1
Closed is a state, not a dead link. The event still resolves and the page still loads; it just says so, rather than sending a guest back to re-scan a code that looks broken.
- 2
Reading needs nothing at all. Anyone holding the link sees the queue and the played list. Only adding a track and voting need a guest pass, and a viewer without one simply has no arrows filled in.
- 3
The pass is a photo. Uploading one photo on the event page is what creates the guest session the board reads. No login, no account, no app — and the server says so in as many words.
- 4
Ten tracks each, votes uncapped. Past ten distinct tracks a guest is told “You have asked for plenty already. Vote for one instead.” The ceiling exists to stop one bored guest burying the console.
04
The DJ works the queue from one screen
Most-wanted first, one tap to mark a track played, one tap to decline. A track the host typed in sits above the vote order with a “Next” chip, because a queue that quietly reorders itself looks broken.
The screen re-reads every five seconds and stops while nobody is looking at it. Marking a track played applies immediately rather than waiting for the round trip — the tap happens while the track is already starting.
That screen is the one at the top of this page. Everything the night needs is on it: the two counters, the field for a track somebody asked for at the booth, a mint Played button on every row, an X to decline, and a Played tonight column with a put-back arrow and a bin. No settings page to hunt through, and nothing on the screen is hover-only.
Where a request board earns its place
Weddings
Because repeat asks merge into votes, the four aunties who all want the same song show up as one line with four votes, which is a much better argument for playing it than four separate messages. Nobody sees who asked for what — requests and votes are anonymous on both screens.
Mobile and club DJs
The booth screen replaces a phone full of texts and a stack of napkins. A running count of waiting versus played sits at the top of the console in numbers you can read from a metre away.
Corporate parties and fundraisers
Requests can be switched off during the speeches and switched back on for the dancing, from the same console, without the host having to reprint anything. While the board is closed, guests see a page that says so rather than a broken link.
Birthdays and house parties
Nobody wants to run a request list on their own birthday. Guests add tracks themselves, up to 10 each, and vote for as many as they like.
What this deliberately is not
Worth knowing before the night rather than during it. If any of these is the thing you actually need, better to find out here.
No Spotify or Apple Music search
A guest types the song. There is no catalogue lookup, no autocomplete and no cover art — which is also why matching folds capitalisation and spacing rather than trusting an ID.
No do-not-play list
The board has no banned-track list and no filter on song titles. If there are songs the couple will not have played, that conversation still happens with the DJ.
Declining is final on the console
An X removes a track from the DJ's screen and it does not come back — only played tracks have a put-back button. Guests never see a declined request anywhere, which is the point: turning one down is a private judgement.
No DJ seat or shareable link
The console is owner-only. A hired DJ works it on a device signed in to the host account, or the host keeps the tablet. There is no DJ role to invite.
No set-list export, no request alerts
The played column is the set list while the night runs; there is no download of it afterwards, and the host gets no notification when a request arrives.
Not realtime, deliberately
The console refreshes every five seconds and the guest board every fifteen, and both stop while the screen is not being looked at. It is a poll on a venue's wifi, not a websocket.
Questions DJs and hosts ask
What happens when two guests ask for the same song?
The second request becomes a vote on the first one. The board keeps one line for the track with a vote count beside it, so the DJ reads demand rather than reconciling duplicates. Matching ignores capitalisation and extra spaces, and treats a missing artist as blank, so 'mr brightside' and 'Mr Brightside' are the same track.
Do guests need an app or an account to request a song?
No. It is a web page opened from the event QR code. A guest does need a guest pass to add or vote, and uploading one photo on the event page is what creates that pass. Anyone holding the link can read the queue without one.
Where do I switch song requests on?
Inside the DJ console, not in event settings. Open the event, go to the Present tab, choose Music ('Song requests from the floor') and press 'Open the DJ console'. The button at the top right of that screen reads 'Requests closed' until you tap it. Requests are off by default on every new event.
Can the DJ or host turn requests off during the speeches?
Yes, with the same one button. While it is closed guests cannot add or vote, and the guest page reads 'This event is not taking song requests right now.' rather than breaking. The queue you have already collected stays on the console the whole time.
Can the host add a request that somebody made at the booth?
Yes. There is a field at the top of the console placeholdered 'Someone asked at the booth…'. A track added that way lands above the vote order with a 'Next' chip on it, and it does not count against any guest's request allowance.
How many songs can one guest ask for?
Up to 10 distinct tracks each. Voting is deliberately not capped, because votes are the signal the DJ is reading and the ceiling exists only to stop one bored guest burying the screen. There is no counter warning guests they are close to it — at 10 they are told 'You have asked for plenty already. Vote for one instead.'
Can a guest take a vote back?
Yes. Tapping the arrow again removes the vote, and one guest can hold one vote per track. Asking again for a song you have already voted for does not remove your vote — that case is handled separately on purpose.
Does the DJ see who asked for a song?
No. Requests and votes are anonymous on both screens. A guest is identified internally so the ten-track ceiling and the one-vote-per-track rule can work, but no name is ever shown on the board or on the console.
Can guests see what has already been played?
Yes. The guest board shows what is waiting and, below it, 'Already played' with the titles struck through. The console shows the host the same two lists side by side with a running count of each.
What happens when the DJ declines a track?
It disappears from the console and there is no undo — only played tracks have a put-back button. Guests never see a declined request, on the board or in the count, so nobody is told their song was turned down.
Can a request be deleted for good?
Yes, from the played column. Deleting a track removes its votes with it, which also frees that title to be asked for again — that is how a host clears a joke request. Putting a played track back in the queue clears its played timestamp, so a mis-tap does not leave a song in the history of a night it was never played at.
Is the DJ console a link I can share with my DJ?
Not as a public link. The console is owner-only and never indexed, because a shareable DJ link would let a guest mark their own request played. There is no DJ role or seat either: a hired DJ works it on a tablet or laptop signed in to the host account, or the host runs the screen.
Does the queue update live?
It refreshes itself, but it is a poll rather than a live socket: the console re-reads every five seconds, the guest board every fifteen, and both pause while the tab is not being looked at and catch up when it comes back.
Does it search Spotify or Apple Music?
No. A guest types free text — a title, optionally an artist, optionally a short note for the DJ. There is no catalogue search, no autocomplete and no track metadata lookup.
How long can a title or a note be?
A title can run to 200 characters, an artist to 200, and a note for the DJ to 300. Anything longer is trimmed rather than refused, because a guest typing a remix's full parenthetical in a dark room should not be told off for it.
What languages does the request board speak?
The guest board is translated into English, Spanish, French and Russian, like the rest of the guest-facing pages. The DJ console is English only, because it is a host screen rather than a guest one.
Do I need the Event Pass for song requests to work?
Yes for the host side. On an event without the pass the console still opens and still shows everything collected, but the switch, adding a track, marking one played, declining and deleting all refuse with 'This is included with the Event Pass. Everything you have already added stays exactly where it is — upgrade to keep editing it.' Reading is never gated.
What do song requests cost?
Song requests are part of the Event Pass, $39 once for the event, with no subscription. That is the same pass that covers the photo gallery, the guestbook, the slideshow and the full-resolution download.
Put the request board behind the code you already print
Song requests are one button on a console you open from an event you have already set up. Everything else on the night — the photos, the guestbook, the slideshow — runs from the same $39 Event Pass.