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Song requests, music through your Twitch chat bot

The song requests feature lets your Twitch viewers uniquely interact with you, directly influencing the stream - through the power of music!

This helps increase community engagement, and when set to reward loyalty, it acts as a big encouragement for your viewers on Twitch to follow and sub to you.

You can also heavily moderate the requests and restrict them so they don't get out of control - so no worries!

How song requests work​

You play the songs through the song-player widget on your Moobot dashboard.

Your broadcasting software should automatically pick up this audio source as desktop audio while you're playing the songs.

YouTube provides the vast song library, absolutely for free.

Moobot's integration with YouTube makes it very simple for your viewers to add their requests, as most viewers on Twitch are already familiar with YouTube.

Your viewers request their songs by giving your Twitch chat bot a YouTube link through the «!SongRequest» chat command, which adds their song to the request-queue.

Song request via Twitch chat

The song-player widget will play the song at top of the request-queue and go to the next song in the queue once the song has finished.

The song-player widget

The song player playlists​

There are two different playlists for the song-player: The «Primary playlist» and the «Secondary playlist».

The «Primary playlist» contains all the requests from your Twitch viewers.

The primary playlist

The «Secondary playlist» is your personal playlist, and will play when the «Primary playlist» is empty.

The secondary playlist

How to take song requests​

Taking song requests is simple, just follow these steps:

  1. First open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, activate the toggle button for «Song requests» to turn the feature on. Deactivated toggle button Activated toggle button
  3. Now find the song-player widget on your dashboard and click the play button to start the song requests. The song-player widget
  4. The player will play from your primary playlist if someone has already requested a song, or from your secondary playlist if not.
    If the song-player can't find any songs to play, it will wait for a song to come in, which it will play immediately once found.
  5. Your viewers can now request their songs through the «!SongRequest» chat command in Twitch chat. Song request via Twitch chat
  6. The songs will play one after the other as long as the song-player widget is playing. The song-player widget
  7. You can view and adjust the full queue of requested songs in the «Primary playlist» menu. The primary playlist

That's it!

Once you've gotten familiar with doing song requests, it's highly recommended that you adjust the settings to fit your stream.

Encouraging Twitch subs and follows with Song Requests​

You can restrict requests to certain viewers, or limit the amount of requests for your non-subs/non-followers.

This can act as a big encouragement for your viewers to follow and sub to you.

Adjusting the song request settings​

Just follow these steps to adjust the song request settings:

  1. Open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, find the «Song requests» feature and use the «Settings» button at the right-hand side of the feature to drop-down its menu. In the drop-down menu select the «Settings» option, which will open up the settings menu for the feature.
  3. You can now adjust the settings to fit your needs.
  4. Click the «Save» button at the bottom of the menu to save the settings.
The settings menu

Adjusting the max amount of song requests in the queue​

To adjust the maximum total amount of song requests in the queue, open up the settings menu and change the value for «Maximum requests in the primary playlist».

Announcing when you're taking song requests​

You can have the Twitch bot automatically announce in Twitch chat when you're taking song requests, that way your viewers know when they can send their requests.

Moobot will automatically start posting these announcements to Twitch chat whenever you're playing from the dashboard's song-player widget.

To activate the announcements, activate the «Announcement» toggle while adjusting the settings.

Adjust the announcement settings to fit your needs.

Limiting the amount of song requests for a viewer per session​

You can limit song requests to a certain amount of requests per user per session, which gives each of your viewers a fair chance to get their request in during your stream.

Keep in mind that you can also have this restriction only apply when your song request-queue is already getting filled up.

That way you can make sure you have song requests coming in at all times. Just adjust the «Minimum songs in the playlist before restricting requests» value in the settings menu.

To activate session restrictions, adjust the settings, and activate the «Session restriction» toggle.

Adjust the session restriction settings to fit your needs.

Using song request sessions to encourage Twitch followers and subs​

By exempting your Twitch followers and subs from session restrictions, they can request as many songs as they want, while your normal viewers can e.g. only request 1 song.

This gives all your viewers a chance to request a song. And if they want to keep requesting songs, it gives them a great incentive to follow and sub.

Restricting and filtering the song requests​

You can filter and restrict what you don't want to play, and who exactly can request songs.

While you can skip any songs, you can use this filtering to remove any unwanted songs automatically before even playing them in your song player.

Just follow these steps to adjust the song request filtering settings:

  1. Open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, find the «Song requests» feature and use the «Settings» button at the right-hand side of the feature to drop-down its menu. In the drop-down menu select the «Filtering» option, which will open up the filtering menu for the feature.
  3. You can now adjust the settings to fit your needs.
  4. Click the «Save» button at the bottom of the menu to save the settings.
The filtering menu

Setting when song requests are open​

You can restrict when song requests are open, that way the requests are only coming in when you want them to, avoiding your request-queue getting filled up with old requests.

Accepting song requests only when playing song requests​

By activating the «Only accept requests while the song player is active (playing)» checkbox in the filtering menu, Moobot will only accept requests while you have the song-player widget active and playing.

Accepting song requests only when the stream is online​

By activating the «Only accept requests while the stream is online» checkbox in the filtering menu, Moobot will only accept requests while your stream on Twitch is online.

Restricting who can request songs​

You can set who exactly can request songs by using the «Only accept requests from these user groups» input in the filtering menu.

Just pick the user groups you want to accept requests from:

Accepting song requests only from viewers who have watched for a minimum amount of time​

You can set the minimum time a viewer has to have watched your stream before they can request a song.

This helps increase community loyalty, and can help you avoid song requests from viewers who are not yet familiar with your community and taste in music.

Activate the «Only accept requests from users who have watched a minimum amount of time» checkbox in the filtering menu and then adjust the minimum amount of minutes watched in the «Minimum amount of time watched» input.

Accepting song requests only from viewers who have watched for a minimum amount of time

Setting how many song requests a user can queue up​

To allow each of your viewers to have a fair chance to get their request in, adjust the amount of songs which a single viewer can queue up at one time.

Adjust the «Max requests in queue per user» input in the filtering menu.

Filtering song requests based on category and stats​

YouTube has a vast library of videos, but they all may not be what you want to listen to.

If you want to restrict requests to a certain YouTube category, you can do this in the «Only accept requests from these YouTube categories» input. Just select what categories you want to restrict the request to.

You can also restrict requests to have a minimum amount of views on YouTube, which may help you avoid unwanted requests. Just adjust the «Minimum amount of views» input.

Setting the maximum duration of a song request​

To adjust the maximum playback duration of a song request, adjust the «Max length of song» input in the filtering menu.

Try to avoid one request taking up too much air time.

Blacklisting certain words in song request titles​

You can blacklist certain words used in a song request's title by adding it to the «Song title filtering» input in the filtering menu.

Moobot will deny requests with titles containing any of your blacklisted words.

Exempting certain viewers from the filtering​

You can exempt certain user groups from all your song request filtering by selecting the group in the «Exempt these user groups from any of the filtering» input in the filtering menu.

Keep in mind that this excludes them from all the filtering, including the amount of songs they can queue up, and the maximum playback duration of their request. So be very careful of who you exempt.

Song request blacklisting​

Sometimes you don't want certain songs to play on your stream.

To avoid such unwanted songs you can use the blacklists for Twitch users, songs, and YouTube channels.

Moobot will deny any blacklisted requests, and you can also set your Moobot to blacklist the viewer who did the unwanted request.

Blacklisting song requests from certain Twitch viewers​

Just follow these steps to blacklist song requests from a certain Twitch viewer:

  1. Open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, find the «Song requests» feature and use the «Settings» button at the right-hand side of the feature to drop-down its menu. In the drop-down menu select the «User blacklist» option, which will open up the blacklist menu.
  3. Find the «Blacklist a user» input at the bottom of the blacklist menu, type in the user-name of the Twitch viewer you want to blacklist, and then either select the user or press the ENTER key.
  4. The «Blacklisted users» list should now display your blacklisted viewer.
The user blacklist menu

You can blacklist viewers temporarily by adding an expiration to them. Edit the viewer's blacklist entry and activate the «Expiration» toggle in the edit-menu, set the expiration date and time, and then click the «Save» button.

The blacklisted user edit-menu

Blacklisting certain songs​

Just follow these steps to blacklist certain songs:

  1. Open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, find the «Song requests» feature and use the «Settings» button at the right-hand side of the feature to drop-down its menu. In the drop-down menu select the «Song blacklist» option, which will open up the blacklist menu.
  3. Find the «Add a YouTube video...» input at the bottom of the blacklist menu.
  4. In the «Add a YouTube video...» input either paste in the link or id of the YouTube video, or search for it in the input. When searching for a video, select the desired video in the list once you have found it.
  5. The «Blacklisted songs» list should now display your blacklisted song.

As with blacklisting certain Twitch viewers, you can also blacklist songs directly from the song-player widget.

The song blacklist menu

Blacklisting song requests from certain YouTube channels​

Sometimes certain YouTube channels only contain songs you don't want requested.

Just follow these steps to blacklist song requests from an entire YouTube channel:

  1. Open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, find the «Song requests» feature and use the «Settings» button at the right-hand side of the feature to drop-down its menu. In the drop-down menu select the «Channel blacklist» option, which will open up the blacklist menu.
  3. Find the «Add a YouTube channel...» input at the bottom of the blacklist menu.
  4. In the «Add a YouTube channel...» input either paste in the link or channel-id of the YouTube channel, or search for it in the input. When searching for a channel, select the desired channel in the list once you have found it.
  5. The «Blacklisted channels» list should now display your blacklisted channel.
The channel blacklist menu

Taking advantage of the curated song request blacklists​

Moobot offers curated blacklists for both songs and YouTube channels.

To activate the curated blacklist, go the blacklist menu for songs or/and YouTube channels, activate the «Enable the global blacklist» checkbox, and then click the «Save» button at the bottom of the menu.

Song request chat commands​

Your viewers and Twitch mods interact with the song request feature through the Twitch bot's chat commands.

All the chat commands for the song request feature are built-in, and you can fully adjust their settings and responses from their menu.

Just follow these steps to activate a song request chat command:

  1. Open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, find the «Song requests» feature and use the «Settings» button at the right-hand side of the feature to drop-down its menu. In the drop-down menu select the «Commands» option, which will open up the commands menu.
  3. While in the commands menu, activate the toggle button on the right side of the chat command you want to activate.
The chat commands menu

You can also click the «Settings» button in the commands menu to edit the settings and responses of a chat command.

The chat command edit-menu

!SongRequest chat command - Request songs​

The «!SongRequest» chat command is how your viewers request their songs, and they can use it in Twitch chat like:

  • «!SongRequest YouTube link», where «YouTube link» is a link to a YouTube video. Keep in mind that Moobot's link filtering will not remove this link, as long as Moobot accepts the request.
  • «!SongRequest YouTube video id», where «YouTube video id» is a YouTube video id. E.g. for the YouTube video «youtube.com/watch?v=kNuZuQEIRHo» the video id would be «kNuZuQEIRHo», and Moobot will accept either «kNuZuQEIRHo» or «v=kNuZuQEIRHo».
  • «!SongRequest query», where «query» is a search query. Moobot will then search YouTube for the query and choose the most relevant video.

The «!SongRequest» chat command has many responses based on your song request filtering and settings. Adjust the responses based on your settings.

!CurrentSong chat command - Show what's playing​

The «!CurrentSong» chat command displays in Twitch chat which song is playing through the song-player widget.

!NextSong chat command - See what's playing next​

The «!NextSong» chat command displays in Twitch chat which song is playing next.

Moobot cannot determine the next song if the primary playlist is empty, so it will display nothing in that case.

!Volume chat command - See and/or set the song volume​

Your Twitch mods can use the «!Volume» chat command to display and/or change the current volume of the song-player widget.

They can use the chat command in Twitch chat like:

  • «!Volume» to display the current volume.
  • «!Volume value» to set the volume, with «value» being a number from 1 to 100
  • «!Volume up» or «!Volume down» to increase/decrease the volume by 10.
  • «!Volume up value» or «!Volume down value» to increase/decrease the volume by «value», being a number from 1 to 100.

You can enable your Twitch mods to use this chat command by activating the «Can be used by Twitch chat moderators» checkbox in the chat command's edit-menu.

!SkipSong chat command - Skip the current song​

The «!SkipSong» chat command can be used by your Twitch mods to skip the song playing in the song-player widget.

You can enable your Twitch mods to use this chat command by activating the «Can be used by Twitch chat moderators» checkbox in the chat command's edit-menu.

!WrongSong chat command - Remove your requested song​

The «!WrongSong» chat command removes the previously requested song of whoever uses the command.

Your viewers can use this chat command if they make a mistake with their request.

!SongList chat command - Display the full list of queued songs​

The «!SongList» chat command links a public page where your viewers can see all the queued requests.

Adjusting when a song starts and ends​

You can adjust the starting and ending position of a song by setting its playback position.

Adjusting playback for songs in the secondary playlist​

Follow these steps for your «Secondary playlist»:

  1. Open up the «Features» menu from the main menu, then open the «Special features» menu from there. The features menu
  2. While in the «Special features» menu, find the «Song requests» feature and use the «Settings» button at the right-hand side of the feature to drop-down its menu. In the drop-down menu select the «Secondary playlist» option, which will open up the playlist menu.
  3. Find the song you want to adjust the playback position of, and click on the clock-iconed button (labeled as «Set playback position») in your song's table row.
  4. Change the start and end positions in the playback position pop-up.
  5. Click the «Set» button to save the new playback position.
The playback position pop-up

Adjusting playback for requested songs​

When requesting songs you have to provide the start and end playback position when using the «!SongRequest» chat command.

You do this by adding a «start=00m00s» and/or «end=00m00s» to the request, where «00m» is the minutes, and «00s» the seconds. You must also prefix it with a «#» character and separate the end and start with a «&» character.

Examples:

Playback starts at 30 seconds and ends at 1 minute and 45 seconds:

!SongRequest youtube.com/watch?v=kNuZuQEIRHo#start=00m30s&end=01m45s

Playback starts at the beginning (00:00) and ends at 1 minute and 12 seconds:

!SongRequest youtube.com/watch?v=kNuZuQEIRHo#end=01m12s

Playback starts at 1 minute and 32 seconds and ends when the video completes:

!SongRequest youtube.com/watch?v=kNuZuQEIRHo#start=01m32s

Manually moderating song requests​

Your Twitch mods can use the «Primary playlist» menu to remove any unwanted song requests which your filtering does not (yet) catch.

They can use the menu simultaneously, with the menu updating in real-time as changes and additional requests come in.

The primary playlist

Using keyboard hot-keys to control the song player​

You can easily control the song-player by using hot-keys with Moobot Assistant. That way you don't have to switch out of your game to skip a song, or change the volume.

Hot-keys work in your other apps, full-screen included, and are available for:

  • Pausing/unpausing the player.
  • Skipping the current song.
  • Muting/un-muting the player.
  • Increasing/decreasing the volume of the player.
  • Adding the current song to the secondary playlist.
  • Blacklisting the current song and whoever requested it.

Displaying the current song on your stream overlay​

With Moobot Assistant, you can write the current song to a local file.

You can then use this file in your broadcasting software (like OBS or XSplit) to display the current song on your stream overlay.

The local file updates in real-time as the song changes in the song-player.

Song requests when streaming on Xbox and PlayStation​

If you're streaming to Twitch with an Xbox or PlayStation, you will need to feed the audio of the song-player into your broadcast.

One way to do this is to feed this audio into your microphone input.

By using a cheap audio splitter cable, you can feed both your microphone output and your song-player output into the same microphone input.

If you (the streamer) also want to hear the song-player's audio, you will also need to split the song-player output to your headset or/and speakers.

Common problems​

The player is not playing​

If you get the «Waiting for song to be requested, or added to the secondary playlist...» error but you have songs queued up, it means the YouTube player fails to load the songs properly.

Clear your browser's cache and cookies, then restart it, and it should be fixed.

In some cases where clearing the browser does not fix it, a browser extension is usually the cause of the player failure. Try to disable all your browser extensions and then try again. Use an incognito window in your browser to make this easier.

Permanently disable or remove the browser extension once you've identified it as the cause of the failure.

The player is too small to comply with YouTube's guidelines​

YouTube requires all of its players to be at least 200 pixels wide and 200 pixels high.

To comply with these guidelines, you must manually resize the song-player widget to fit these requirements.

Follow these steps to resize the song-player:

  1. Open the «Interface» menu in the main menu, then make sure «Lock UI» is deactivated. The interface menu in the main menu
  2. Follow one or more of these steps:
    1. Make your browser's window wider. or;
    2. Use your browser's zoom feature (if available) to zoom out, giving the song-player more space. or;
    3. Drag-and-drop the song-player widget to a wider column on your dashboard. or;
    4. Use the «UI columns» menu to adjust the width of a column by dragging its slider to your desired size. or;
    5. Reduce the number of columns in the «UI columns» menu to give more space for each column. The UI columns menu
  3. Your song-player should now be at least 200 pixels wide and 200 pixels high.