Researching a band’s tour setlists before they come to your city can help you reach a level of fandom. Others want to relive great concerts with a quick look at setlist.fm. Once you have this information, the next logical step is to create a playlist on your favorite streaming service for instant access. Although this process is easier for Apple Music and Spotify users thanks to third-party options like Setify, it still requires time.
Apple Music now allows artists to convert setlists into playlists, thanks to information from tour information site Bandsintown. Once artists connect the two services, they can select a show type (concert, tour, or residency) in Apple Music for Artists and link it to upcoming Bandsintown dates. From there, artists can set a release date and use search to create playlists. These song collections may include original songs covered by the artist as well as collaborations with other artists. Apple Music allows you to create an unlimited number of playlists of setlists from past or future shows, but the service allows artists to create tracklists that most accurately reflect their entire tour when they create tracklists across dates. We recommend that you select it.
Setlist playlists aren’t exactly new to Apple Music. The service has been curating playlists from popular tours, including Zach Bryan’s 2024 Quittin Time Tour, for some time now. Additionally, Apple Music is touting this new tool as a promotional feature for artists, so there are many ways to share your playlists once they’re published. But it’s also a great item for fans who want to know more about what they’re about to hear, can’t make it on tour, or just want to relive the experience of seeing the band in person.
Of course, if one of your favorites doesn’t jump on this bandwagon, you still have playlist options for your setlist. Setify lets you link Apple Music or Spotify and pull data from setlist.fm to create collections. It’s not perfect, but it works well most of the time, and if you need to be more selective with your playlist, you can always adjust it in the streaming service app. I recently missed out on one of my all-time favorites at Furnace Fest, but thanks to this combo I can at least play a small part of Blindside through About a Burning Fire.
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