SETLIST MANAGEMENT
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Setlist Planning for Artists and Songwriters: How to Craft a Set That Tells Your Story

25 February 2026 · 9 min read · By Setlist Management
setlist planningartistssongwriterslive performancesetlist app

When you're performing original material, the setlist is the show. The order you play your songs in shapes how an audience feels about music they've never heard before, and whether they remember it afterwards.

Here's how artists and songwriters are using Setlist Management to build better sets, run tighter shows, and keep their whole team on the same page.

Build Your Set From Your Full Catalogue

Every song you add to Setlist Management carries its metadata, including BPM, key, duration, genre, mood, and notes. When you're building a set, you can filter and sort by any of it. Need something up-tempo in a minor key to follow your ballad? Filter, scan, drag it into position.

This matters more for original artists than anyone else. A cover band's audience already knows the songs. Your audience doesn't, so the sequence has to do the emotional work. Having your full catalogue visible with all its metadata means you're making decisions based on actual information, not just memory.

You can mark favourites, see how many times you've played each song, and check when you last performed it. That song you wrote three months ago that never made it into a set? It's still there in your library, waiting for the right slot. Nothing gets lost.

Drag, Drop, and Hear the Difference

Drag-and-drop reordering means you can experiment with your running order as fast as you think. Grab a song, move it to a different position, and the set timing recalculates automatically. Decided the opener isn't working? Drag it to slot six. Want to try the new song in three different positions? Move it around and see how the timing changes each time.

Full undo and redo means you can experiment freely. Try a completely different running order, and if it doesn't work, step backwards through your changes until you're back where you started.

You can insert set breaks and encores, link songs together for seamless transitions, and add per-song notes like key changes, arrangement cues, which guitar to grab, and who counts in. Everything your band needs to know about each song, right there in the setlist.

Audio Attached to Every Song

This is where Setlist Management changes the workflow for artists. Every song in your library can have audio attached, including demos, rehearsal recordings, reference tracks, and backing tracks. Upload MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, or AAC files, and they're linked directly to the song.

Hit play and the track plays. Skip to the next song in the setlist and the next track loads automatically. You get transport controls, volume, playback speed (half-speed for learning parts, 1.5x for quick run-throughs), and cue points. Set a precise start and end time within a track so you hear exactly the section you need.

There's also Apple Music integration. If you haven't uploaded your own audio, the app searches Apple Music and pulls in the track, album artwork and all. For artists whose music is on Apple Music, your released catalogue is playable right inside the app without uploading anything.

Real-world use: Before a show, run through your setlist on headphones during soundcheck. Every song plays in order, at the right speed, with your latest arrangement attached. No separate playlist to maintain, no switching between apps.

Show Mode: Your Stage Display

Show Mode is what you see during the performance. It strips everything back to what matters on stage: the current song, the next song, and the controls to move between them.

The text is large and high-contrast, built for reading at a distance under stage lighting. You get:

For a solo artist with a phone or tablet on a stand, Show Mode replaces the crumpled piece of paper. For a band, it's on every member's device, updating in real time as you advance through the set.

Real-world use: You're on stage at a headline set. You tap "Next" after each song. Your whole band sees the next song title, key, BPM, and any notes on their phones, without anyone looking at a shared music stand.

Follow Along: Share the Set Live

Generate a Follow Along link or QR code from any active Show Mode session. Anyone who opens it, whether that's crew, sound engineer, lighting operator, merch person, or guest, sees the setlist progressing in real time. Current song, what's coming next, timing, progress bar. No account needed, no app to install.

Real-world use: Your sound engineer scans the QR code at soundcheck. During the show, they see which song is next before you play it. They can pre-set effects, adjust levels, and cue playback without you saying a word. Your lighting operator follows the same feed to match mood changes.

Real-Time Collaboration

Every change you make to a setlist, whether it's a reorder, a new song, or a note, appears on every connected device instantly. Your guitarist sees the running order update on their phone while you're rearranging on your laptop. Your drummer spots a problem and messages you before it becomes an on-stage surprise.

Team roles control who can edit and who's viewing:

There's a full activity log showing who changed what and when. No more "I thought we agreed to drop that song."

Real-world use: You're building a setlist for Friday's show on Tuesday evening. Your bandmates are at home. Everyone has the app open. You drag songs into order, your bassist suggests swapping songs 3 and 4, you make the change, and everyone sees it update live. By the time you arrive at the venue, the set is locked and everyone knows it.

Listening Party: Remote Rehearsal

Not every bandmate is in the same city. Listening Party lets you run a synchronised playback session where the host presses play and every participant hears the same track at the same time. Skip to the next song and everyone follows.

Built-in voice chat means you can talk through arrangements while you listen. "Let's extend the bridge on this one." "Can we cut the intro shorter?" "What if we swap this with the next song?"

Participants join with a simple code, and no account is required.

Real-world use: You're prepping for a run of shows. Your keys player is in another city. You open a Listening Party, run through the setlist in order, and discuss the arrangements over voice chat. It's not a rehearsal room, but it's closer than "play the track at the same time and hope for the best."

Gig Calendar and Performance History

Setlists don't exist in isolation. They're tied to gigs. The built-in gig calendar lets you create events with date, venue, city, start time, load-in, soundcheck, and doors times. Link one or more setlists to each gig.

After a show, mark the gig as performed. The app tracks stats for every song, including how many times you've played it, when you last played it, and which setlists it appeared in. Over time, you build a clear picture of your live output.

Real-world use: You're booked at a venue you played three months ago. Open the gig calendar, find the last show at that venue, and see exactly what you played. Now you can build a set that's different enough to feel fresh for returning audience members, without accidentally dropping the song that went down best last time.

You can also import tour schedules from CSV. Map your columns, preview the data, and load an entire run of dates in one go.

PDF Export for the Real World

Sometimes you need paper. The sound engineer wants a printed setlist. The venue manager needs a copy. Your keyboard player wants a backup sheet on the stand.

Export clean, formatted PDFs in three templates:

Choose portrait or landscape, toggle which metadata to show (BPM, key, notes, album art), adjust the font size, and preview before exporting.

Real-world use: Ten minutes before your set, you export a Stage PDF with tonight's city and "v3" in the corner (because you changed the running order twice at soundcheck). Print two copies, one for the sound desk, one as a backup on the drum riser.

Share Links and QR Codes

Generate a public share link for any setlist. Anyone with the link can view it, no account needed. Generate a QR code for the same link.

Real-world use: You're doing a festival. The stage manager asks for your setlist. Instead of finding a printer, you text them the share link. They see the full running order with timings on their phone. If you make a last-minute change, they see the update automatically.

Timecode and Show Control

For productions that run to timecode, Setlist Management integrates with LTC input and AbleSet.

Feed LTC from your audio interface and the app decodes it in real time at 24, 25, 29.97df, or 30 fps. The setlist auto-follows timecode position, so the current song advances automatically as the show runs. There's a live timecode display and signal quality monitoring.

The AbleSet bridge connects via WebSocket, syncing song position, section progress, and tempo from AbleSet into Setlist Management.

Real-world use: Your show runs on Ableton Live with AbleSet controlling the arrangement. Setlist Management follows along automatically. Every band member's screen shows the current song and section without anyone pressing anything. The show advances itself.

Built for How Artists Actually Work

The features above aren't hypothetical. They're the workflow. You build your set from your catalogue, attach audio, share it with your team in real time, run it on stage in Show Mode, let your crew follow along, export PDFs when you need paper, and track your performance history so every set gets sharper.

Whether you're a solo singer-songwriter playing an acoustic set at a listening room or a five-piece loading setlists for a European tour, the process works the same way. Your music, your team, your gig history, your audio, all in one place, all in sync.

Setlist Management. Build setlists, sync your team, perform with confidence. Drag-and-drop creation, real-time collaboration, audio playback, show mode, PDF export, gig calendar, and more. Start free.