Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

What is Setlist ?

Setlist is a project I created to help my own covers band (check us out!) keep organised. It started as a simple tool to build setlists for gigs and rehearsals, and manage our practice sessions. But as I enjoyed the development experience so much it quickly grew to provide a central place for us to manage songs, vote on favorites, leave comments, organise events and more!

Like most bands, we’d tried loads of approaches, from spreadsheets to sticky notes, shared calendars and the like - and we still couldn’t keep track of all the great song ideas we’d had or easily respond to the question of "Can we make a gig on this date?". And we also kept forgetting things we’d all agreed on at rehearsals, like how to start or end songs! There are plenty of well-established commercial offerings out there (and you should check some of them out, too - I have no money-making angle here!) but as I have a long background in web development I decided to build this as one of my fun side-projects.

As we found the project really useful I decided to open it up to the public. It's been "live" since 2025 and we've been using it ever since. I'm also really happy that there's now 100s of users also signed up and making use of the project, planning gigs and organising their rehearsal sessions. The feature set is deliberately kept small and focussed - and the project's scope is limited by what I can create or build myself in my spare time - but I hope you'll find it useful and fun too 😊 Plus, it's totally free (more on that below) and you can also export all your data at any point, so give it a go and let me know what you think!

How do I create an account ?

Just click "Get Started" on the welcome page and follow the registration process. You'll need to verify your email address before you can start using Setlist, or you can sign in using a Google account if you have one. You can also combine methods - so if you originally sign-up manually, you can add a Google log-in later if you use the same address for both.

How do I join a band ?

You can either create a new band or wait for an existing band admin to invite you - they can look you up by username if you provide it to them. It's also a good idea to upload a profile picture in your account preferences to help them find you easily. Once invited, you'll receive a notification in your messages that you can accept to join the band.

Bands & Membership

Can I be in multiple bands ?

You can be a member of multiple bands and easily switch between them. Each band has its own separate song library and other content. If you're a member of multiple bands, you'll see a band selector dropdown in the left navigation menu, click on it and select the band you want to work with.

If you're in multiple bands, you can set a "default band" in your user preferences. This is the band that will be automatically selected when you first log in. If you don't set a default, Setlist will just use your first band alphabetically.

What's the difference between a regular member and an admin ?

Band admins can:
- Invite and remove members
- Promote other members to admin
- Add songs directly to the approved list
- Move songs between states
- Edit band settings

Regular members can contribute to content and discussions but cannot manage membership or delete most things apart from their own comments. In my band, everyone is an admin as it makes things simple, but I wanted to account for different setups and ways of working. If you have an idea on how to improve this, or need something specific let me know!

How do I rename my band ?

On the band homepage, click directly on the band name. It will become an editable text field where you can type the new name.

How do I invite someone to my band ?

Click on your band's members page and use the search function to find users by email or username. Once you've found them, you can send them an invitation. They'll get a message in the app and will show as "Pending" until they have accepted the invitation.

Songs

How do I add a song to my band's library ?

Click "Add Song" on the appropriate state tile. You'll probably want to start all songs off in the Backlog section (see below), but if you are an admin you can always add songs straight to the list of "Approved" songs. You can then enter song details such as artist name and song title. Once you have saved the basic details, you can then use the online lookup feature to automatically fetch artwork and other information. You can also search for tabs & lyrics straight from the detail view, too.

What are song states ?

This is a method my band found very effective when deciding which songs to add to our setlists. Songs can be in different states:

• Approved: Songs you're currently playing or have all agreed on
• Practicing: Songs you're working on
• Rejected: Songs you're no longer performing, or you tried but they didn't work out
• Backlog: Songs that have been suggested but not yet approved

The idea is that new songs first get added to the backlog. Bandmates can then comment on them and vote for their favorites - or down vote any they don't like (although we try to limit the downvotes unless we really can't stand something!)

You can then sort, select and move songs to the practicing state. Once you've tried them out and agree you all want to play them, they get added to the approved state where they form your core library of songs and can then be added to setlists.

Band admins can toggle this behavior in the Band Settings.

How does voting work ?

Band members can up-vote or down-vote songs to indicate their preferences. This helps the band decide which songs to keep in the library - as an example, my band votes on songs in the Backlog section, then we sort by popularity so we can identify the next batch of songs to tackle. Anything with a downvote, we move to the rejected section - but you're free to implement any kind of policy you see fit. Note that voting is deliberately kept anonymous, so bandmates don't feel pressured if they down-vote something everyone else really likes!

We also enable the "neutral vote" setting (in the Band Preferences page) so we can tell the difference between someone not voting on a song and just feeling "meh" about it.

How can I add album artwork ?

When adding or editing a song, you can use the online lookup feature to automatically fetch artwork. After adding a song name and artist, click on the song name in the list view. In the next page, you can lookup the details using online services (currently Apple iTunes & Deezer), find a match or click to set the artwork and other details like song duration (handy for automatically calculating how long your setlists are!)

Alternatively, you can upload your own images and set details manually.

How can I find lyrics, tabs, and other links for songs ?

Each song has a Links section where you can search for lyrics and tabs, or add your own custom links. From the song details page, click Lyrics to search Genius or Tabs to search Songsterr for multi-instrument tabs and sheet music. You'll get a list of matches to choose from, and the selected link will be automatically added to the song's links section.

You can also add your own links to external resources like tutorials, chord charts, or anything else that helps you work with songs. Click the "+ Link" button to add a URL with a description. Links open in a new tab when clicked, and you can edit or delete them using the pencil and trash icons next to each link.

If you use the online lookup feature to fetch song data and artwork from Apple Music, a link to the Apple Music page will be automatically added.

Also, if you add any YouTube links (music videos, like performances, tutorials etc.) they will get shown in an embedded video player.

Importing Songs from a Spreadsheet

If you already have your songs organised in a spreadsheet, you can upload them directly into Setlist rather than adding each song manually. You can find the upload tool in the "Band Tools" section (spanner/wrench icon in the band homepage).

Your spreadsheet will need to include column headings that Setlist can recognise:

• Artist (required)
• Song (required) – The title of the song
• Comments (optional) – Any notes you want to include

You should save or export it as a CSV file (Comma Separated Values) before uploading it to Setlist, don't try uploading an Excel or Numbers sheet directly.

Setlists

What is a personal setlist ?

A personal setlist is one that is only visible to you, the user who created it. It can't be attached to events, and other bandmates can't see it. Other than that, they work just the same as regular setlists. They can be a useful tool to create your own structured practice sessions or experiment with song orders.

You can choose to make a setlist personal by selecting the "Make this a personal setlist" checkbox when you create it.

Which songs can I add to a setlist ?

By default, only songs in the "approved" state can be added to setlists. This ensures your setlists only contain songs your band has agreed to perform. However, band admins can always add songs in any state (approved, practicing, backlog, or rejected) regardless of this setting. If you want all members to be able to add songs from any state, a band admin can disable the "Only allow approved songs in sets" option in the band preferences.

Why can't I add songs to my setlist ?

If you can't see certain songs when adding to a setlist, it's likely because those songs haven't been approved yet. By default, only songs in the "approved" state can be added to setlists by regular members. Songs in other states (backlog, practicing, or rejected) won't appear in the song picker. But a band admin can change this setting in the Band Preferences page.

How do I rename a set within a setlist ?

In the same way you can rename your band's name - click directly on the set name (e.g. "New Set") in the setlist view. It will become an editable text field where you can type the new name.

What does "locking" a setlist do ?

Locking a setlist prevents further changes. This is useful once you've finalized a setlist for a gig to prevent accidental modifications.

How can I duplicate a setlist ?

Use the "Clone" button at the top of the setlist to create a copy. This is useful for creating variations or starting from a proven template. Note that comments and sharing URLs etc. are not copied between cloned setlists. The same Clone button is also available on Auto Setlists (see below) - that's the main way to take an auto-populated list and turn it into a regular setlist you can reorder by hand.

What is an Auto Setlist ?

An Auto Setlist is a setlist that builds itself from a set of criteria you define (e.g. "all approved songs tagged #encore", or "anything I haven't played at The Kings Head yet"). Songs are pulled in automatically and the list stays in sync as your library changes - so you don't have to remember to update it when you approve a new song or move one over to practicing.

Every band gets three Auto Setlists by default, one for each song state (Approved, Practicing, Backlog) - you'll find them under the new Auto pill on the Setlists page. See the full Auto Setlists guide for the available criteria types, operators, and a few worked examples.

Why can't I drag songs around in an Auto Setlist ?

Because the songs aren't added by hand - they're the result of running your filter criteria against the band's song library. If you reordered them, the next time the criteria refreshed the order would just snap back. If you want a fixed, editable version, hit the Clone button on the auto setlist - this turns the current snapshot into a regular setlist (band-wide or personal) that you can then drag, split into sets, rename, and so on.

What does archiving a setlist do ?

Archiving hides a setlist from your default view without deleting it. The setlist is automatically locked, and won't appear in the list unless you check the "Show archived setlists" checkbox. You can unarchive it at any time to bring it back.

I'd recommend that you consider archiving old setlists rather than deleting them. There are a few good reasons:

• Preserve your history - keeping a record of what you played and when can be really useful, especially if you play the same venues regularly and want to keep things fresh for repeat audiences.
• Auto Setlists benefit from it - Auto Setlist criteria like "songs not yet played at this venue" rely on setlists being attached to events. If you delete a setlist, that history is lost and those songs may start reappearing in your auto-generated lists.
• No clutter - archived setlists stay out of the way in your day-to-day view, so there's no downside to keeping them around.

Tags & Organization

What are tags ?

Tags are custom labels you can create to organise your songs by genre, mood, or anything else that makes sense for your band. For example, my band uses them to indicate songs that require a different tuning, or an instrument change. This can be useful to make sure that we don't include too many guitar swaps or awkward pauses next to each other in our setlists. I've heard from other users that are using them to identify "high energy" or "chilled" or "set closer" songs - feel free to experiment!

You can also attach them to setlists, which can be useful to identify rehearsal/practice sessions for example.

Custom Fields

What are custom fields ?

Custom fields let your band add extra details to songs beyond the standard information I've included like artist and title. Band admins can create fields to track things like key, tempo, tuning, or anything else that's useful - if there's something you think should be included by default, do let me know!

There are three types of custom field: Text (for free-form input like "Key of G", "120 BPM" etc.), Single Choice (a dropdown where you pick one option from a list), and Multiple Choice (checkboxes where you can select several options).

Events, Calendar & Venues

What can I do with events, calendars and venues ?

Setlist includes a scheduling system designed for gigging and rehearsing bands. It's been built from the ground up after years of experience playing in part-time bands and includes:

• Shared band calendar - you can create events (gigs, rehearsals etc.) with useful band-focussed details like separate times for "Soundcheck" and "Load-in", attached setlists and more...
• Personal calendar integration - event invites sync to external services like Google/Apple Calendar, Outlook and others. Email integration is included, and RSVPing from your email client updates in the app automatically
• Availability blocks - band members can mark dates they're unavailable, so you can see if everyone's free before booking a gig
• Venue management with maps - save your regular venues with address and contact details, and see them plotted on an interactive map
• Gig history - attach setlists to events at each venue to build up a record of what you played and when, so you can keep things fresh for repeat audiences. You can also comment on gigs which is useful for attaching notes or discussing how the event went afterwards!

See also the Calendar Invites & RSVPs guide for a walkthrough of how calendar sync works, or read the full FAQ entries below.

What are availability blocks ?

Availability blocks let band members mark dates when they're unavailable or tentatively unavailable. As a part-time gigging musician myself, I know how often personal commitments get in the way. In my experience, we all often have school holidays, family events, work trips and so on to juggle. The hardest part of booking a gig is sometimes just figuring out whether everyone in the band is actually free!

By letting members block out their unavailable dates in advance, the calendar shows at a glance who's free on any given date. When someone offers you a gig or you're thinking of scheduling a rehearsal, you can immediately see if there's a clash without having to message everyone individually. And when you create an event, if you pick a date that someone has marked as unavailable, you'll get a warning displayed straight away.

You can manage your own availability blocks from the Availability page (accessible from the Events section). Add a date range, mark it as unavailable or tentative, and optionally add a reason. Your blocks will appear as shading on the band calendar so everyone can see.

How do I RSVP to an event ?

On the event detail page, click the Yes, No, or Maybe buttons. You can also RSVP by responding to the email invite directly from your email client - your response will be synced back to the app automatically. See the Calendar Invites & RSVPs guide for more details.

Events will be highlighted red or yellow if there any declines or tentative responses, and will turn green once everyone has accepted.

Why haven't I received a calendar invite ?

There are a few things to check:

• Allow a couple of minutes - event invite emails are sent with a short delay (around 2 minutes) after an event is created or updated. This is intentional so that if someone is making a few quick edits in a row, you don't get a flood of emails for each change.
• Check your spam/junk folder - email invites come from [email protected] and some email providers may initially filter them. Marking the email as "not spam" should fix it for future messages.
• Check your preferences - make sure Event Invite Emails is enabled on your Preferences page (under the Emails section).
• Still not arriving? - if you've checked all of the above and emails still aren't coming through, please contact me at [email protected] and I'll do my best to investigate. Email deliverability can sometimes be tricky depending on your provider, and I'll do my best to look into it.

Why aren't my calendar RSVPs showing up in the app ?

If you're replying to event invites from your email client but your RSVP isn't being reflected in the app, it's most likely because you're sending the reply from a different email address than the one you signed up with. The system matches incoming RSVP responses to users by email address, so the email you reply from must match the email on your Setlist account. If you use multiple email addresses, check your Setlist profile to confirm which one is registered, and make sure you're responding from that address.

Collaboration

How do comments work ?

You can leave comments on songs, setlists, and polls to discuss arrangements, notes, or other details. Comments can be edited or deleted by their author. I suggest keeping discussion in comments, and use the Performance Notes on songs for details you've agreed on.

Note that you can mention or "tag" someone in a comment by typing @ followed by their username. A dropdown will appear showing matching band members - select one to insert the mention. They'll then receive a notification (unless they've disabled mention notifications in their preferences).

What is the Daily Digest email ?

The Daily Digest is an optional email that summarizes any unread in-app messages from the past 24 hours. It's sent once a day to help you stay on top of band activity without having to check the site constantly. You can enable or disable this feature any time from your user preferences page.

Rehearsal Room

How do I upload audio to a song ?

From a song's detail page, band admins will see an audio upload icon next to the artwork/lookup buttons. Click it to open the upload dialog, select your audio file, confirm the rights disclaimer checkbox, and submit. Once uploaded, the song will appear in the Rehearsal Room and a play icon will show next to it in the song library.

What audio formats and file sizes are supported ?

You can upload MP3, M4A/AAC, WAV, and FLAC files. Individual files can be up to 50MB. Bear in mind that uncompressed formats like WAV are much larger than MP3 for the same song, so if storage space is tight, consider using a compressed format.

What is the Rehearsal Room ?

The Rehearsal Room is where you go to practise songs that have audio attached. You can find it from the Rehearsal Room tile on your band's homepage, or by clicking the play icon next to any song with audio in the song library. It shows a waveform visualisation of the song with playback controls, and lets you split a song up into sections, each of which can have individual speed and loop settings.

See the guide for more details including screenshots, or the video tutorial for a full walk-through.

How do I create and edit practice sections ?

Click the + button in the playback toolbar to enter marker mode, then click anywhere on the waveform to place a section marker. You can also use the keyboard shortcut I to quickly add a section marker at the current playback position (handy to quickly add sections while the audio is playing). Sections are automatically created between markers, so you'll probably want to create one right at the beginning of the song to get started.

Each section can be customised with a label (click to rename it), speed, looping toggle, colour and free-form notes for things like lyrics, chord charts or other reminders. Click any section row to jump straight to that point in the song.

What keyboard shortcuts are available in the Rehearsal Room ?

Click the shortcuts icon (top-right of the practice view) to see the full list. The main shortcuts are:

• Space - Play / Pause
• Escape - Stop
• Home - Rewind to start of song
• Left arrow - Rewind to start of current section
• Right arrow - Skip to next section
• M - Toggle add-section-marker mode
• I - Insert a marker at the current playback position

How can I save my practice sections and notes ?

There is a "Print to PDF" feature. Click the printer icon to open the PDF options. The generated PDF includes all your section details and notes which is useful for a permanent record after the audio has been removed.

Why does audio get automatically removed ?

This policy reflects how the Rehearsal Room is intended to be used: bands typically upload their own recordings for a small batch of songs they're actively learning. Once those songs are learned, the audio is no longer needed. I've set the limits to what seems reasonable to me - I want to make things genuinely useful and not too restrictive, whilst also balancing keeping storage manageable for a free, hobbyist-run service like this. It's for that reason (and to reduce exposure to other issues) that there's also no way to share audio publicly, generate public links, download or distribute recordings. See the Terms & Conditions for full details. That said, do get in touch if you have any comments or suggestions around this - I'm always open to discussion!

What does the renew button do ?

When audio is approaching its expiry date, band admins can click the refresh icon in the Rehearsal Room to renew the retention period. This resets the clock, giving you more time to practise. Renewals are limited - once you've used them all, the audio will be removed when the final period expires. You can see how many renewals have been used in the tooltip on the button.

What are the storage limits ?

Each band has a fixed amount of storage space for audio files. You can see your current usage on the storage bar displayed in the Rehearsal Room and on your band's preferences page. If you're running low, consider removing audio for songs you've already learned to free up space. Band admins can remove audio from the song detail page or from the Rehearsal Room.

Any other practice tips ?

When songs have audio attached, a setlist will display a highlighted "play" icon in the toolbar. This will pop open a small audio player window that will play through the setlist tracks in order:

These two features together make for a great practice aid! You can use the Rehearsal Room for focussed study, then group tracks you are working on into personal setlists and play through them in order.

Technical & Privacy

What do I do if I find a bug ?

Please contact [email protected] with the details! This is a hobby project built for fun, and while every effort is made to test the site thoroughly, it's always possible glitches sneak through. Let me know and I'll fix it as soon as I can.

Will you implement feature X ?

Please ask! A huge number of features and improvements have come directly from user feedback - everything from big additions like the Auto Setlists feature, down to smaller layout and workflow tweaks. I genuinely love hearing from users and it's one of the most rewarding parts of running the site. Check the Changelog when logged in to see all the recent updates, many of which started as a comment from a user!

That said, I am just one person building this in my spare time, so I'm focussed on things I can realistically deliver and maintain - and have fun doing! Requests like "Can you make a mobile app" or "Can you add a detailed finance tracker and invoicing" will most likely get a "Sorry, no" as they're either outside my skill (or interest) set, or something my own band would never use and I therefore can't properly test.

But if it's technically feasible, within my ability and a useful addition, I'll absolutely see what I can do - you can email me, or use the built-in feedback form to send your ideas or comments :)

Is my data private ?

Yes, your bands, songs, and other data is only visible to members of your band. This is by design - I'm not trying to build a social networking "thing" here. You can optionally choose to share read-only setlists with the public via a randomly generated URL but no member data is included. You can view full details in the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions documents.

Exporting your data

You can export your band data at any point. In the "Band Tools" section (spanner/wrench icon on the band homepage), you'll find a "Export Band Data" tool. Clicking this will schedule an export of all your data - songs, setlists, comments, events, etc.

This will be presented as a ZIP file containing multiple CSV files. It's essentially a dump of the database, but you should find it easy enough to load into any other tool.

Note that in order prevent abuse, you can only create a new export once every hour, and old exports will be removed after a week. There is no limit to the number of exports you can create, though.

Other Things

Who built this ?

I did! Here's my personal website. I'm a musician and IT professional (working mainly with modern apps & cloud platforms) and I play in a local covers band. I've been building websites and infrastructure since the late 90s, and have been playing bass for about as long. Having experienced the challenges of trying to organise a hobbyist band and keep track of song suggestions and performance details, I decided to build this site to help us. I'm also a massive geek, and was looking for an excuse to get back into web development as well 😃 You can read more about the tech stack behind it and how I built it in this article.

As we found it useful I decided to open it up to the public. It's been a really enjoyable experience combining my passions for music and technology, and it's been great seeing all the new users join up too!

Much of this site relies on the fantastic work of the open source community and other projects. Special "shout-outs" go to:

• Ruby On Rails - The framework behind this site. Makes developing web apps an absolute joy!
• Wavesurfer - Waveform display and playback in the Rehearsal Room feature
• FFmpeg - Swiss-Army-Knife of audio processing
• StreamlineHQ - Great colourful icons!
• FullCalendar - Fantastic JS Calendar component

What alternatives are there ?

If you're looking for a commercial offering that does a lot more than my app with a long-established history and developer behind it, I can recommend Band Helper from past experience. There's native apps and it even handles things like controlling stage lighting! A member in one of my old bands used it and it was really slick.

I've also recently been made aware of OnSong - this looks really cool. Lots of features, compatible accessories, native Mac/iOS app and more. I haven't used it myself, but I hear lots of good things about it.

You can export your entire band data at any point from this site, so it should be pretty simple to switch to an alternative. If you have any other suggestions in this space, let me know!

Why is it free ?

The short version is that it's for the same reason I (and I guess most musicians, too) make music: Because I enjoy it. Because I want to share it with other people. Because it takes my mind interesting places and it gives me a creative outlet. If I started charging for it, it would cease to be a labour of love, and would instead become an obligation. I'm fortunate that I can make music on my own terms, and I want the same thing for my other projects.

Longer (slightly rantier) version: Because in Internet timescales, I'm what is technically known as "an old fart". I remember how things used to be - I've been writing code for nearly 40 years now, and creating websites and building web infrastructure professionally for over 25 years. I got my first email address at university, was around for the first dot-com bubble and spent the first few years of my career preparing for Y2K. I remember the early, quirky Internet before it got drowned in AI slop, plastered in adverts and mined for data.

People would build cool things all the time, and give them away with no expectation of compensation - we did it just because it was fun. It's in that spirit that I've been blogging and building things over the years, and although I'm probably in a shrinking minority now, I still hark back to the good ol' days and a return to the "small web".

Need More Help?

If you have questions not covered here, please contact me at [email protected].