How to Blast Protest Jams WITHOUT A SPEAKER!
You don't need a giant speaker to blast protest songs at your next rally!
How? It's appropriately people power: you get everyone to play the jams out of their cellphones! TOGETHER. Democracy at work. This is much like the "people-powered amplifier" that you may have seen at rallies where people simply listen to a speaker and shout out each sentence that he/she says. If everyone cranks up their phones, you will hear the songs.
(It doesn't hurt if some folks have some powerful portable speakers to help. Some people can also play music through their cars. Note that Bluetooth speakers may lag and lose synch, but feel free to try them. A little minor desync is not a problem in a big outdoor space.)
BEATSYNC IS OUR #1 SOLUTION
How do you get everyone on the same tracklist? Use a site called beatsync.gg. It's free and easy to use. You will need a net connection and a phone, tablet or computer. No registration or download needed.
Once you set up a "room" for your common listening, use the search bar to find the streaming music you want, or click the UPLOAD AUDIO button in the bottom left to add songs. Note that songs must be loaded individually.
When your tracklist is ready, share the URL or QR code for the room to get everyone on the same tunes. The QR code button for your Beatsync room is at the top left. Click it to get a URL.
It takes time to search, find, and load the songs you want into your room playlist. We think prepping ahead and uploading is safer. If you want some of our custom, danceable, safe-for-work songs in MP3 format, just message us on Signal at footstrong.17 or at the following link! If you don't have time for that. just google "download MP3 from youtube" and use any of those sites to snag our songs from our Youtubes.
HOW TO SHARE THE BEATSYNC URL
Plan ahead so you can easily share the URL for your Beatsync room to everyone. We recommend Linktr.ee - set up the Linktree ahead of time and pass out slips of paper with the URL and QR code for the Linktree. The Linktree should point to the Beatsync URL as well as any other organizing websites or resources you want the crowd to have. That way you can update the URL the day of your protest if there are any issues. Beatsync URLs are in the format beatsync.gg/room/ROOMNUMBERHERE so if you change rooms, you only need to change the room number.
How far ahead can you set up the Beatsync room? We'd say four hours, and make sure you keep your phone browser on that page the whole time so you don't have to move rooms or reload your songs. It's hard to tell exactly how long Beatsync allows a room to be open with inactive members. When we tested it overnight, it was a partial success - when we restarted our computer the room was still ours, but our songs had been forgotten.
BEATSYNC ALTERNATIVES
For YouTube (Web): "Watch2Gether"
If you want a browser-based experience like Beatsync but for YouTube videos, use Watch2Gether. It handles the sync across dozens of users without requiring an app download. Message us for our Youtube links! Just beware that Youtube may run ads while you're streaming if you don't have Youtube Premium. And yesss: Youtube Premium is one of the services we are BOYCOTTING. See resistandunsubscribe.com. So we don't recommend paying for that long-term.
If you have Spotify Premium, you can use Spotify Jam.
How: Start a song -> Tap the Device icon -> Tap "Start a Jam."
Pro Tip: Even people with Spotify Free can join your Jam and hear the music at the same time through their own phones, as long as the Host has Premium. We don't recommend this because not everyone has Spotify installed.
For YouTube Music: "Rave" (App)
Since YouTube Music doesn't have a native "Sync" feature for different devices yet, Rave is your best bet. It lets you sign into YouTube/YT Music. You create a room and share the link. It forces every phone to stay in sync with the video/audio. We don't recommend this because not everyone has Rave installed.
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