Apple Music’s new Set List playlists could divide the crowd
Make no mistake: there’s nothing like seeing your favorite band or artist live. Part of that could be that it’s your first show, or it’s your first chance to hear snippets from their latest album – or, if you’re like me, to hear the chance to ring out Born to run with 50,000 others.
Either way, Apple wants to replicate that experience a bit, albeit in terms of the setlist. Apple Music now has a new tool that allows musicians and bands to create playlists from their setlists and showcase them in the app.
Simply put, the next big thing in pop music, a folk artist or country singer, among other genre types, can turn a setlist into a playlist available in Apple Music. It gives some power back to the artists. Still, you might see Apple Music’s editors creating playlists on all kinds of themes, including recent tour stops – I remember this coming out for the Jonas Brothers.
In a shared guide titled “Promote Your Shows with Set Lists” on the Apple Music for Artists site, Apple suggests connecting your Apple Music Artists account to the Concert Info website Bandsintown so it can automatically sync upcoming show dates. When creating a playlist, you can choose a new setlist option and even specify the type of show: part of a tour, residency, or a one-off concert. After this you can link it to an event with Bandsintown as it will retrieve that list, or if you haven’t connected you can manually enter a date – but it must be ‘a date not earlier than one day’. in the future.”
Using the tool, artists or bands can create playlists of past and future shows. The latter could be useful for tours with similar setlists, but either way, an artist can update the playlists afterwards with a fairly simple interface.
Unlike services such as Nugs.netwhich artists like Phish, Dead & Co and Bruce Springsteen use, among others, these won’t necessarily be live recordings, but rather the studio version or whatever song is available on Apple Music.
Chances are you’re on one side of the fence with this, whether you love or hate the idea of your artist posting setlists as playlists. To some extent you know what you’re getting, and if the artist is someone who mixes it or sings a surprise song every night, you can catch up on the tour’s performances with easy-to-access audio like Setlist.FM. Of course, there’s also the problem with the spoiler warning.
Ny Breaking’s Mark Wilson regularly attends gigs and he told me that setlist playlists sound like the equivalent of getting a major movie spoiler. “Part of the appeal of seeing live music for me is the element of surprise,” he adds. “Will I hear some classic deep cuts for the first time in years, or will the artist stubbornly play the new album front to back? I’d rather discover that in real time than the day before in Apple Music.”
The playlists aren’t just a general taste of what you might hear at an upcoming concert, either; Apple says artists can create playlists for each show they do on tour. I recently had to tell a friend to stop showing me Setlist.fm at a gig because it not only accurately predicted each song, but also the exact playing order.
Maybe the playlists will help build anticipation for some fans. But one of my favorite musical memories was seeing Radiohead release the handbrake for the first time in a decade and play songs from their first three albums. If Set List playlists had existed back then, it wouldn’t have been so cringeworthy.
I tend to agree with Mark’s opinion because it could ruin some of the moment, especially when you’re in the middle of a tour that’s been largely the same. For example, if the artist only posts one setlist or if they perform every night, this can be an almost play-by-play approach to the show. On the other hand, if I had already seen the show, it might be fun to see the evolution of the tour…although that might lead to gig envy.
Either way, prepare to see this appear in Apple Music on the artist or band’s profile soon – and if you’re spoiler-tired, just don’t tap to view the playlist.