Banded vs Setlist.fm: which is right for you?
Setlist.fm is the canonical source of setlist data and has been since 2008. Banded is a purpose-built gig diary. They overlap, but they were built for different jobs — here's how to pick between them, or use both.
Setlist.fm and Banded both let you keep a list of concerts you’ve been to — but they were built for different reasons, by different people, with different priorities. Treating them as direct competitors misses what each is actually for.
Short version: Setlist.fm is a setlist database that happens to track attendance. Banded is a gig diary that happens to show setlists. If you understand the difference, the choice gets easier.
What Setlist.fm is
Setlist.fm launched in 2008 as a wiki of setlists from live music events. The community contributes setlists; the database now spans millions of shows.
Each setlist has an “I was there” button. Click it, and the show is added to your Setlist.fm profile. Over time you build up a list of attended shows.
The strengths are obvious:
- Setlist data is incredible. For any meaningful venue, the setlist usually appears within an hour of the encore. Banded and most other apps use Setlist.fm as the upstream source.
- It’s been around for nearly two decades. Lots of people already have years of “I was there” data here.
- It’s free, with no ads beyond the basics.
The weaknesses are also obvious:
- The UX has barely changed since the late 2000s. It’s functional, but feels like a wiki rather than a product.
- No ratings, no reviews, no follows. Your attended-shows list is a flat catalogue. You can’t say “this gig was a 5/5” or “I hated the venue but loved the band.”
- No mobile-first experience. The mobile app exists but is largely a wrapper around the website.
- No sharing. The list is yours to look at; there’s no way to post it.
What Banded is
Banded launched in May 2026 as an iOS app specifically for keeping a gig diary. Every show you log has:
- A separate rating for the artist and the venue (each out of 5, half-star steps)
- An optional review in your own words
- Support acts, festival name, tour name, ticket price
- A shareable polaroid-style card for Instagram Stories
- Privacy controls (public, friends-only, or private)
The model is closer to Letterboxd than to a wiki. Your profile is the central artifact. People follow you to see what you’ve been to. You follow back to see what they’re going to. The feed shows friends’ recent gigs the way Letterboxd shows friends’ recent films.
Banded also shows the setlist for each show — pulled live from Setlist.fm and credited. So you don’t lose that data; you just stop being limited by Setlist.fm as the primary product.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Setlist.fm | Banded |
|---|---|---|
| Setlist data | Canonical source | Reads from Setlist.fm |
| Personal diary | Implicit (“I was there” lists) | Explicit, designed for it |
| Ratings | None | Yes, artist + venue |
| Written reviews | None | Yes, optional |
| Following friends | Limited | Yes, with feed |
| Sharing | None | Polaroid share cards for Stories |
| Year-in-review stats | None | Yes |
| Festivals | Same as any gig | Festival as parent + child acts |
| Platform | Web, iOS, Android | iOS only |
| Setlist editing | Yes — that’s the whole point | No |
Who should use which
Use Setlist.fm if you genuinely care about which specific songs were played, you enjoy contributing to a wiki-style database, and the gig-diary aspect is secondary. Lots of people in this camp.
Use Banded if you want a personal diary that other people can see and engage with, you want stats and a year-in-review, and you want to share gigs to your Instagram Story. The diary use case is the whole product.
Use both if, like most music obsessives, you want all of it. They coexist fine. Most Banded users with deep histories also have Setlist.fm accounts they refer to when filling in older gigs.
”Are you trying to replace Setlist.fm?”
No. We use their data. We credit them inside the app. The setlist database is a public good that nobody should try to replace, and the team running it has been at it for nearly twenty years. Banded fills a different gap — the diary one — that Setlist.fm was never trying to fill.
What’s missing in Banded
Honest answer: a couple of things.
- No Android version yet. Most likely 2027.
- No automated import from Setlist.fm’s “I was there” lists. You can back-date manually using our guide on logging past gigs, but the bulk-import is on the roadmap.
- Setlist editing. You can’t edit setlists inside Banded — for that you go to Setlist.fm and contribute upstream.
If those things are deal-breakers, you’re probably already in the “use both” camp anyway.
The short answer
Banded is the better gig diary. Setlist.fm is the better setlist tool. They’re complementary more than competitive.
If you want the diary part, download Banded. It’s free, iOS, takes about 30 seconds to set up. Then start back-dating — your future self will thank you.