New Year's Eve 2012: Playlists for Your Party

With New Year's Eve just around the corner, some party hosts may still be searching for the perfect party playlist.

On Saturday, more than 1 million brave souls will face the cold and pack themselves in New York City's Times Square, as Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest ring in 2012 with the famous New Year's Eve ball, along with performances from Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

For those not planning to go to Times Square, and those not lucky enough with a ticket to some of the hottest New Year's Eve show in town (Phish, Patti Smith, Deadmau5), the house party will most likely be the main ticket on Saturday evening.

Party hosts, here are a few suggestions to spice up your New Year's Eve playlist. Happy 2012!

Pandora:
Pandora has sorted the year's best music under several categories. At the bottom of your screen, click on Genres to find a slew of categories. The one you want is End of Year, which features 2011 Top Pop Hits, 2011 Top Hip Hop and Pop Hits and others.

From trial and error, playing Pandora off Katy Perry and Rihanna also works wonders.

Spotify:
Spotify has made it easy to play pre-made lists, including one made by Maroon 5's Adam Levine. There's Spotify Staff's best of 2011, Willow's 'End of Year' Playlist, Top 100 tracks of 2011 from Pitchfork and a Best of 2011 list from Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

Last.fm:
The New Year tag on Last.fm radio works half the time, mainly because the playlist relies on keywords. Still, Last.fm requires minimum supervision.

Turntable.fm:
If you're looking for a more interactive experience, Turntable requires listeners to DJ a song in consecutive cycles, earning points as you go along (if people like your music). This could be a fun exercise before turning on the tube for Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest's annual countdown.

Playlist.com:
Whether you build your own playlist with the day's top searches or your favorite artists and/or genre, Playlist provides a good mix of songs that will accompany any house party. Or, if you're feeling lazy, try a few pre-made New Year's Eve party mixes from this user, or this one.

Z100:
If you're feeling really lazy and just want to turn the radio on, local radio stations like Z100 New York will be playing the Top 100 songs of 2011 all weekend, both streaming on its Web site and on regular, good 'ol radio.