How to host a music trivia night

Music trivia nights are a great way to attract new groups of people to your venue, as well as create some loyal trivia lovers who will come back each quiz night. Are you looking to host a music quiz or music trivia night, but need some tips on how to make the night a success?

We got you covered with some tips from Sabina Söder, owner of Bollbrolyckan a show club famous for its music trivia nights and karaokebar.

How Bollbrolyckan hosts their music quiz nights

Bollbrolyckan is a entertainment venue based in Helsingborg, Sweden that does everything from dinner shows, cabarets, and private parties for up to 300 people. But, they are most known for their music trivia night along with Friday and Saturday karaoke.

If you look at some larger events and how much staff you have and how big the costs are. The quiz and karaoke bar we have is more financially profitable. It is fun! - Sabina Söder, owner of Bollbrolyckan

The trivia nights at Bollbrolyckan came as a creative solution from Sabina to attract people to their venue after the pandemic. Their music quiz is exceptionally well planned and is not your average music quiz. They do it like a show and have hosts that sing a song related to the question they're going to ask. Entry for the music trivia nights are between $8-$30 per entry. The price for $30 includes dinner and a drink. Prizes Bollbrolyckan gives out are often gift cards to different places in Helsingborg. Other prizes you can have is free drinks or food, movie tickets etc.

During summer they often have their music quiz outside, which attracts a lot of people to participate or just to come and watch. Recently they hosted a Eurovision quiz night which attracted over 70 people, but mostly they have a unique music quiz called "Lyckans Quiz" with different music related questions. Some other popular themes you can include in your music quiz is Disney Quiz, Christmas Quiz, Rock Quiz, 90s Quiz to name a few.

How to plan your music trivia night

1. Choose the type of music quiz

With music quizzes there's different quiz structures you can use. You can have customers write the down their answer, provide multiple choices, or even have a beat the buzzer speed answer round. Ideally you should vary the structure throughout the quiz to allow for variety and different skill sets to shine through.

Some music trivia round ideas:

• Finish the lyric after you sang a part of a song
• Guess the song from the intro
• Name the singer and the song title
• What year was the song released
• Complete the lyrics
• Choose the correct lyrics

At Bollbrolyckan they usually provide multiple choice questions with three alternatives, so the audience can always answer something.

Here's Sabina best tips for someone that would want to organize music quiz:

1. Familiarity and recognition factor: Choose some typical sing-along songs that the guest will know and let them sing with you.
2. Multiple choice questions: Then the audience don't need to write the question instead they can also guess. Make the quiz easy!
3. The actual structure of the quiz: Bollbrolyckan does 25 songs and 25 questions. The songs are both the whole song or just a verse of it. Sometimes the audience can also sing the song with the hosts.

2. Plan your trivia night beforehand

Sabina told us that quiz is a really great and easy activity to attract people to your venue, but the most important thing is to plan the quiz beforehand. Before you even have the quiz night remember to promote your quiz. Tell your customers about the upcoming trivia night on your website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. A fun way to promote the trivia night is through videos, especially through Instagram Reels & TikTok. Let your customers get intrigued and excited.

A lot of venues that offer music trivia nights have pre-bookings but some have also first come, first served. The positive thing with pre-bookings is that you beforehand know how many people are participating and you can prepare yourself how much staff you need.

Another important thing is having your set-up ready. Before the trivia night remember to have your powerpoint ready and try it before hand. Remember to also check the microphones and sound if you're going to use some singing during your trivia night. If you also use Singa. Remember to add the songs you're going to sing to the queue so you just have to start the song once it's time.

3. Integrate karaoke into your music quiz

Karaoke had always been a huge entertainment at Bollbrolyckan, so they came up with an inventive way to incorporate it into their Trivia nights! They integrate karaoke in two ways.

1. Playing a karaoke track and having people guess the song. This is fun as many karaoke tracks vary some from the original, so it tests your knowledge of the melody.
2. Make the quiz a show and sing a part of a song before giving the customers the questions. Singing the song with the customer is more interactive and will for sure make them want to sing karaoke afterwards!

You can use Singa for this! It's a great way to either play the karaoke track to have the guest guessing the song or do it more like a show and sing the part of the song before giving the customer the question. You don't even have the sing the whole song. With Singa Business we have over 100 000 songs to choose from. Click here to learn more about Singa for Business.

Using Singa for your trivia nights

If you're a Singa Business customer, you can enjoy extra benefits like a variety of complementary music quizzes to turn any night at your venue into a buzzing night of music and fun. Our quizzes can be found on admin.singa.com under our Marketing Kit.

Here's some instructions on how to download and use the quiz:

1. Decide which device you would run the quiz one (computer or iPad). From this device you have to open the quiz. We recommend using the same device that you use Singa on already.

2. Go to the marketing kit > Karaoke quiz

3. Click on the quiz you want to use

4. Click "Slideshow" and start your quiz

5. Add the songs needed for the quiz to your Singa Pro queue, so they're already there before you start the quiz

6. Download it on your device, if you want to modify the quiz:

• If you're using a computer download the quiz by clicking File > Download and open the quiz to modify it.
• If you're using an iPad you first need to download "Google Slides" from App Store. After that download our quiz from the marketing kit (File > Download). You will then find directly the quiz in the "Google Slides-app"

7. HAVE FUN!

And that's how you get the music trivia night going! Hosting a music trivia night can be a fun and profitable way to attract new customers to your venue. Choosing the type of quiz and planning beforehand are key factors in ensuring a successful event. With these tips in mind, you can create a fun and engaging music trivia night that will keep customers coming back for more. Remember to end your night with karaoke!