Set List Creator vs a spreadsheet

Plenty of bands run on a spreadsheet, and for a plain list of songs it is fine. The trouble starts when a list has to become a setlist, paced for the singer, shaped for the room, fresh every week, and in everyone's hands by soundcheck. A grid was never built for that. Here is where it stops and what a purpose-built tool does instead.

Capability

Spreadsheet

Set List Creator

Store your songs

Yes, a grid of titles and notes

Yes, plus key, BPM, tags, charts, reference tracks and audio per song

Pace the vocalist

No, you eyeball it

Never stacks more than two demanding vocal numbers in a row

Design an energy curve

12 presets or a custom curve, shown as a live energy graph

Auto-generate a set

No, every set is built by hand

Generate a paced, gig-ready set in seconds, then fine-tune

Keep sets fresh

Manual, you track it yourself

Freshness weighting favours songs you have not played recently

Reorder and pin

Cut and paste rows

Drag, swap and pin must-plays so they never move

Print a clean setlist

Wrestle with page breaks and column widths

One, two or three columns, configurable, saved per band

Share with the band

Send a file and hope they open the right version

Read-only logins, plus an emailed gig pack with every chart

Run the gig

Lives in another document

Set times, venue map, dress code and availability in one place

When a spreadsheet is genuinely enough

If you play the occasional gig, never change your set, and it is just you, a spreadsheet does the job. The case for a real setlist builder gets stronger the more you gig: a vocalist to protect across long nights, residencies that need to stay fresh, a band that needs the latest running order and charts, and the pacing of the night resting on you. That is the work Set List Creator is built for.

Read: how to build a setlist for a live gig

Move off the spreadsheet tonight

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