Why Band Central?
If you play music with other people, Band Central is for you.
Band Central Storage syncs your documents automatically. Attach a PDF chart or a backing track to a song and it is stored for the whole band, so it appears on everyone else's phone, tablet and the website on its own. No Dropbox in the middle, no emailing files, no doing it once per device.
Setlist Helper is a great tool for solo musicians — manage your songs, lyrics, and setlists on your own device.
Band Central is built for collaboration. If any of these sound familiar, Band Central is the right choice:
Your charts and backing tracks need to be on everyone's device
With Band Central Storage turned on, every document and audio file you attach to a song is stored for the whole band and syncs automatically. Add a chart on your tablet and it is on the singer's phone and on bandcentral.com without anyone passing a file around. A Files view shows you every file in the band and where it lives, Migrate to Cloud Storage moves the files you already have, and Download all files puts everything on a device before a gig so nothing depends on the venue wi-fi.
You're in a band or worship team
Every member sees the same songs and setlists in real time. Add a song on your phone, and it's on your bandmate's tablet before you put yours down. No more texting setlists or emailing PDF charts.
Everyone needs different lyrics
The guitarist wants the chord chart. The singer wants the full lyrics. The keyboard player wants the lead sheet PDF. With Band Central, each member sets their own default lyric version — same song, personalized view.
You play in multiple groups
Cover band on Fridays, worship team on Sundays, acoustic duo on Wednesdays? Create a separate band for each one. Switch between them with a tap. Your songs and setlists stay organized and separate.
You need real-time sync
Changes sync instantly across iOS, Android, and the web. No sync button. No waiting. Edit a setlist on your laptop and it's updated on every device immediately.
You want to manage your band from anywhere
Add or remove band members, organize songs by tags, build setlists, and assign lyrics — all from your phone, tablet, or computer at bandcentral.com.
See Band Central in Action
Watch a 5-minute walkthrough of the core features.
Setlist Helper vs Band Central
| Feature | Setlist Helper | Band Central |
|---|---|---|
| Songs & setlists | ||
| View ChordPro, PDF, Word docs | ||
| Your documents reach every device | Dropbox, per device | Automatic |
| Auto-scroll & metronome | ||
| Transpose | ||
| Bluetooth pedal support | ||
| Multiple bands | ||
| Band members | ||
| Real-time sync | Manual sync | Automatic |
| Per-member default lyrics | ||
| Web access | setlisthelper.com | bandcentral.com |
| Platforms | iOS, Android | iOS, Android, Web |
Why your charts don't follow you in Setlist Helper
This is the question we get asked most by people who live in PDFs, and the honest answer is that it was decided long before anyone asked for it.
Setlist Helper syncs your song information. Titles, lyrics, keys, tempos, setlists. Those are rows in a database, they are small, and they move between your devices easily. It has done that job dependably for years.
Your files were never part of that. A PDF chart or an MP3 backing track is not a row in a table, it is a document that has to be stored somewhere, transferred, kept in step, and cached on a device that may have no signal when it matters. So in Setlist Helper a file stays on the device you added it to, and Dropbox is the way to get it anywhere else. That is why you connect Dropbox on each device and run Update Dropbox Files, and why a chart added on the tablet is not on the phone until you do.
Carrying files for a whole band is a different problem again, not a bigger version of the same one. Every file needs an owner, a band it belongs to, and a rule that decides who is allowed to open it. It needs somewhere to live that is built for documents rather than records, a limit on how much a band can store, a way to move existing files in without losing which song they belong to, and a way to work when the venue wi-fi does not. None of that is a feature you add to a design built for syncing rows.
That is why Band Central exists. It was built from the start on a database where every song, every setlist and every file belongs to a band rather than to a device, with permissions attached to the band, and with real file storage alongside it. Attach a chart and it is stored for the whole band, so it appears on everyone else's devices on its own, and opens on bandcentral.com as well.
It also means the awkward parts have somewhere to live. A Files view shows every document and audio file in the band, where each one is actually stored, and which ones cannot be reached, so a broken link is something you repair rather than hunt for. Migrate to Cloud Storage moves the files you already have into the band in one pass. Download all files pulls everything to a device before a gig so nothing depends on the venue.
Setlist Helper is not going away and is not being rewritten to do this. It is a solid tool for what it was designed to do. If your charts only ever need to be on your own device, it will keep doing that job. If they need to reach the rest of your band, that is what Band Central was built for.
Who should stay on Setlist Helper?
If you're a solo musician who doesn't need to share songs with anyone, Setlist Helper is simple and does the job well. We're not abandoning it — it continues to receive updates and bug fixes.
Ready to try Band Central?
Download it free on iOS or Android, or visit bandcentral.com to get started.
Already a Setlist Helper user? Migrate your data in minutes.