Migrating from Set List Maker to BandHelper

If you're not sure about switching to BandHelper, please see Benefits of Switching from Set List Maker to BandHelper.

Follow these steps to set up a BandHelper account and migrate your Set List Maker data into it:

  1. Click Start a Free Trial from the BandHelper home page and fill out the one-page form. You will have 30 days to try it out and you don't need to enter any payment info until you decide to subscribe.
  2. If you have bandmates, go to Admin > Users in the website and add them as users in your account.
  3. Go to Admin > Projects in the website and create a project for each Set List Maker database you want to import (your new account will already have one project that you can use).
  4. Go to Admin > Import, select a project in the Set List Maker section of the page, and click Continue to generate an import code. This lets you easily connect to your BandHelper account from the Set List Maker app.
  5. Open Set List Maker on a device that has the database you want to import. If you have the same database on multiple devices, be sure to use a device that has your latest data.
  6. Click the Import/Export button in the top toolbar, select Export Database To BandHelper and enter your import code. Your database will upload into your account and might process for several minutes. If you don't see the Import/Export button in the top toolbar, check that Settings > Appearance > Top Toolbar Buttons > Database Import/Export is on. If you don't see the Export to BandHelper options, check that you're using the current version of Set List Maker.
  7. If you are using attached documents or recordings in your database, click the Import/Export button in the top toolbar, select Export Documents To BandHelper or Export Recordings To BandHelper and enter the same import code. Your files will upload into your account, which could take some time, especially for recordings. If you need to leave the app before they finish uploading, you can click Done and then repeat this step later to continue where you left off.
  8. If you are linking to recordings in an Apple music library, Set List Maker cannot upload them directly. You have two options: 1) collect the recordings from the Music folder on your computer, zip them and upload them onto the Repertoire > Recordings page of the website, as shown in this video, or 2) open the BandHelper app, log into your account if you haven't already and wait for the initial sync to finish, then go to the Repertoire > Recordings page, select each recording, click the File button, click iTunes and browse to the file.
  9. Return to step 4 for each additional Set List Maker database you want to import. You should import each Set List Maker database into a different BandHelper project.
  10. If you import databases that use the same documents or recordings, those files will be shared across the corresponding projects in BandHelper. But if your databases use the same songs, those will be imported into each project as a separate copy. If you would rather share songs across projects (meaning an edit to a song in one project will appear in the other projects), you can go to the Repertoire > Songs page of the website, click Find Duplicates, then select the copy of each song that you want to use.
  11. The contents of the Settings pages in the Set List Maker app will not be exported with your databases. To copy your settings from Set List Maker to BandHelper, you can click the Import/Export button in the top toolbar of Set List Maker, click Export Settings, and save the file in a shared location on your device. Then open BandHelper, click Settings from the main menu, click the import button at the top of the Settings menu and select the file you exported. BandHelper's settings are shared by all the projects in an account, so you only need to do this once to configure all your BandHelper projects.

After you have imported your data into BandHelper, you cannot import it back into Set List Maker again. So if you make an edit to your data in BandHelper, you should also make it in Set List Maker until you are satisfied with your setup and are ready to stop using Set List Maker.

Notable differences between Set List Maker and BandHelper

While BandHelper's interface is basically the same as Set List Maker's, here are a few differences you can take advantage of:

  • BandHelper has a Repertoire module in Basic accounts that's comparable to Set List Maker, and additional modules in Plus and Pro accounts for scheduling, finance, etc. This creates an additional level in the app navigation. To help your bandmates find current set lists, you can create shortcuts to place them right in the main menu, reducing the need for navigating through the menus.
  • BandHelper can share layouts between users and devices, and can scale layouts to different screen sizes. This means you can set up a shared layout for your bandmates to use, reducing the need for them to manage their own layouts.
  • BandHelper offers several ways to show different documents or lyrics to different users for each song.
  • Users in your account can also enter their own versions of lyrics, notes, annotations, etc. that only they see.
  • By default, everyone in your account can view edit all the data in your account. You can restrict access differently for each user if needed (for example, letting subs only see the events they're playing).
  • And everyone in your account can use the web interface to view and edit data, subject to the restrictions you set for them. The web interface is optimized for managing data, while the mobile apps are optimized for practicing and performing.