Methods and Apparatus for enabling groups of patrons of localized physical establishments, such as restaurants and retail stores, to collaboratively select the sequence of musical media for public play. Some embodiments comprise receiving, at a centralized media server, a plurality of media request over a network from a plurality of separate personal portable computing devices, such as mobile phones. Each media request may comprise a media identifier, an establishment identifier and a customer identifier. In response to receiving such media requests, the centralized media server updates a listing of media files pending for play within a localized physical establishment associated with the establishment identifier. The centralized server also provides messaging functions, returning information to the portable computing devices of participating patrons, the information including for example, textual song dedications, song title and artist information, playlist lengths, and song popularity information.