How do people play music at parties these days?

[origamiwarrior]

I feel such a dinosaur. Can't believe I'm asking this. It's my 40th birthday next month and we're having a big party at home. I don't want to hire a DJ (as I'm not convinced people will want to dance!) but I definitely want music. I'm really technologically behind the curve.

I would ideally like to create a playlist online ahead of the party, but also have it so people at the party can choose to play anything they want. What do I need (app wise, speakers wise, subscription wise) to make this happen?

The equipment I have is a Bose SoundDock (series 1) which docks an ipod (no other inputs as far as I can tell). I have a laptop and android phone. Can any of this be used? Happy to throw a bit of money at the problem.

Do a playlist on the iPod. Job done.

Oops sorry pressed post too soon!
I would be highly reluctant to let guests mess with the music, there's usually someone that wants to take over!

We plug our laptop or iPad into the Bose.

Create a playlist to just play on shuffle, or, if you want to go a bit further, there's an app called 'djay' where you can drag songs onto either side of a 'djay' deck and it mixes them together. So, if you have some guests with good taste, you can let them DJ for a bit.

We downloaded and subscribed to spotify for a recent party. You can put a playlist together but also have the option to play other songs from a large catalogue

Thanks everyone (sorry for delay in coming back to thread).

Think we are going to give up on the ipod (screen has just gone squiffy) and move to spotify.