Guidelines

Introduction

To keep things short: have look at the example and you should know howto add and edit setlists the correct way!

General

Names

Setlist.fm only supports the latin alphabet. There is currently no support of other alphabets (e.g. Cyrillic, Japanese or Chinese). Whenever using names, no matter if for songs, venues or artists, always use the transliterated version. So please use e.g. Olimpijski instead of Олимпийский

The Setlist

Rules of thumb

1. One song per line
2. One free line before each encore
3. Check your spelling
4. No comments such as "great song" or similar
5. One song per line!
6. No enumerations
7. Have look at the example

Tag Overview

Songnames

Songs often differ in titles depending on the source where you read it. E.g. the song What's the Frequency, Kenneth? can be found in numerous places with or without question mark, with or without comma and so on. If you're unsure what the correct title of the song is, please do the following:

1. Look at the cover of the disc
2. If you don't own the disc, search the title at the following websites, compare the results and then choose wisely
   
   • Musicbrainz
   • Wikipedia
   • Amazon
3. Look at the artist's song statistics by clicking on the Statistics-Tab and correct existing errors, thanks in advance mate ;-)

As far as capitalisation is concerned: Whenever in doubt, the Capatilisation standards from musicbrainz.org apply.

If a song's name on the date of the concert differed from the name that was eventually used (might happen to new songs that didn't appear on an album yet), the album name should be preferred. Please have a look at this thread in our feedback forum for a full discussion about this topic.

If you really don't know the title, have a look at how to add unknown songs.

Covered songs

If one or more songs of the setlist are covered songs, it's possible to mark them as covered by writing @Cover[artistname] after the song. E.g. @Cover[The Beatles] for a Beatles Cover.

As alias there's also the @Song[artist name] tag. Users often got confused with the @Cover tag because it's also used to annotate a song that was originally performed by another band/project of the artist. E.g. whenever Paul McCartney plays a song by The Beatles it should be annotated as a The Beatles song. As writing Eleanor Rigby @Cover[The Beatles] just doesn't feel right (as Paul wrote the song), you can write Paul McCartney @Song[The Beatles].

Note that @Cover and @Song have exactly the same output. So it doesn't matter which one you use.

Songs performed with other known musicians (e.g. special guests)

If other well known musicians joined the main act on stage to perform one or more songs, it's also possible to mark those songs. Just write @With[artistname] after the song. E.g. @With[Johnny Cash] if Johnny Cash happened to join the main act on stage

Additional information for songs

Some songs of a setlist are really special and deserve additional information attached. You can do that by writing @Info[info] after the song. Currently, the following additional information is allowed:

• Different leadsinger e.g. @Info[Keith Richards on vocals]
• A very special change of the instrument. If e.g. Mick Jagger plays one or two songs on a harp, write @Info[Mick Jagger on harp]
• Songs played in a different manner (e.g. acoustic) e.g. @Info[Acoustic]
• Premieres of a song played live
  1. First time ever played live e.g. @Info[Premiere: First time ever]
  2. First time on tour, but not in the first concert e.g. @Info[Premiere: Tour debut]
  3. First time on a continent e.g. @Info[Premiere: First time in Europe]
  4. First time after a looooong time e.g. @Info[Premiere: first time since 1977]
• Something very special happened. E.g. @Info[Tim DeLaughter fell from stage]
• If you've got suggestions how to enhance this list, write to the email address below

Tape (Intro/Outro)

A lot of artists choose to play an intro music before they hit the stage. This sound usually comes from a pre-recorded tape and isn't part of the setlist. Nevertheless it's interesting to know what you heard as intro (or outro or intermission).

Please use the @Tape tag for the following purposes ...

• Pre-recorded intros
• Intros that don't appear on the setlist
• Pre-recorded intermissions (e.g. a video between two songs)
• Pre-recorded outros

... and the following ways

• Known Song e.g. Rock and Roll @Tape
• Known Song with info e.g. Rock and Roll @Tape[First verse only]
• Known Song from different artist e.g. Also Sprach Zarathustra @Tape @Cover[Richard Strauss]
• Unknown song e.g. @Tape

Snippets

Sometimes artists just play a few lines of a song (often covers) - so-called snippets. Then the following rules apply:

• If the snippet is sung for itself (i.e. not as intro or to finish another song) it should be added as song for itself with an @Info saying that is a snippet.
• If the snippet is an intro for another song, appears in the middle or is used to finish the song, then the snippet should not be added as song for itself. An @Info should be added to the main song (e.g. The Remedy (I Won't Worry) @Info[With "Wonderwall" snippet by Oasis).
• If song consists of snippets of two or more songs which all have about the same length, they should be added as medley (see below).

Additional information for gigs/concerts

If it's a really special event or something really special happened that affected the entire concert (or at least had big impact on some songs) it's possible to write a sole @Info[text] in the very last of the setlist. Here are some examples of very special things that are noteworthy:

• A concert with a very special occurrence. E.g. Bob Dylan playing in front of 100,000 people for the peace in the Basque Country or Elton John's 60th show in Madison Square Garden on his 60th birthday
• An unusual happening. E.g. the concert started with a (considerable) delay due to a bomb warning
• A surprise concert
• A concert had to be canceled

Unknown songs

If you're sure there was a song between other songs, but you don't know the title, then write @Unknown in the line where the song should be. Note that ...

• ... it may stand alone or together with @Info, @Cover or @With. E.g. @Unkown @Cover[The Beatles], if you sure the song was a beatles song but you can't remember the name
• ... @Unknown @Info[Acoustic] is the same as @Unknown[Acoustic]
• ... it gets ignored when combined with a song name. E.g. Baby's In Black @Unknown will result in just Baby's In Black

Medleys

If medleys (a mix of different songs as one song) were performed, seperate the songs with space-slash-space e.g. In The Army Now / Rockin' All Over The World / What' You're Proposin'. Please note that

• adding an @With, @Info or @Cover results in affecting the whole line, not just the one song.
• there is one space before and after the slash
• you should not write Medley: at the beginning
• there should be no spaces if the slash is part of a song title that is not a medley. e.g. the Led Zeppelin song White Summer/Black Mountain Side.

Sets

Sometimes artists split their performance into several different parts or (sub-)sets. You can mark them by writing @Set[setdescription] or just @Set in a single line (without any song!). Some examples are:

• The concert is split into two parts divided by a pause. Write @Set[First part] and @Set[Second part] in the line before the first song of each part.
• A bigger set (about 4 or 5 songs in a row) is played acoustic and then the setlist is continued regularily (e.g. electric). Write @Set[Acoustic set] in the line before the first acoustic song and @Set into the line before the first song of the continued regular set.

Artists

When creating a new setlist from scratch, it's necessary to select an artist. There, only already existing artists are allowed. Just start typing the first characters of the artist's name and our cool autocompletion feature will give you hints which artist to choose; then simply click on the right artist and go on with the venue. Note that for the autocomplete-feature javascript has to be enabled in your browser.

Venues

General

• Location names should be in the local language (e.g. Olympiastadion instead of Olympic Stadium). If the location contains letters not supported, please use the transliterated version (e.g. Olimpijski instead of Олимпийский).
• City names should be in the English version where possible (e.g. Vienna instead of Wien)

Format

Start typing the venue where the concert took place and our cool autocompletion feature will suggest you some existing venues. Please note that the venues should have the format [location], [city], [state-code], [country] for US and Canada venues and [location], [city], [country] for non US venues. E.g. Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA or Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna, Austria. But don't worry, the format of the city should be detected automatically.
If the venue isn't in the list, there are two options:

New Venues

1. Use the link below the textfield and follow the instructions there to add a new venue (preferred way)
2. Write the venue into the textfield using the format mentioned above (important!) and try to save the setlist. Maybe you're lucky and the system successfully detects the location, city and country. If it doesn't, please refer to 1.

Renamed Venues

Always use the name the venue had on the day of the concert. E.g. if a venue's name was National City Pavilion on the day of the concert and now is PNC Pavilion then use the former.

Festivals

If you really don't know what a festival in general is, please start by reading the Wikipedia Entry.

Festivals and occurrences

There are dedicated pages for festivals and festival occurrences. E.g. the festival could be Glastonbury Festival and the occurrence Glastonbury Festival 2011. So each festival has at least one occurrence and each occurrence belongs to a festival. Even if the festival just takes place once.

What's considered a Festival

All of the following points must apply to be considered as a festival:

• Dedicated festival name
• At least two performing artists
• Definite start and end dates

Naming Convention

A festival has a name it is known by and might also have a full or official name. E.g. Glastonbury Festival and Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. As displaying the full name all over page wouldn't be user friendly, the short name is mandatory and the full name isn't. Please note that it's very important not to include any enumerations or years in the name as it's the main name for all occurrences.

When creating a festival occurrence, enumerations are fine. E.g. 22th Foobar Festival or Glastonbury Festival 2011. If there are no enumerations in the official name then adding the year as last part of the name is ok. If there are doubts about the official name of the festival or occurrence, please refer to the official website first. If still in doubt, post it to the forum and it will be discussed.

For touring festivals, such as the Sonisphere Festival, it's important to add the location to the occurrence. E.g. the festival name will be Sonisphere Festival and has occurrences such as Sonisphere Poland 2011 or Sonisphere Germany 2009.

How to Add

Adding a new festival shouldn't be neccessary in most cases. As a lot of festivals already are in the database. However since this is a new feature (started end of August 2011), it'll take some time until all festivals are in.

Here's how to add a festival:

1. Add a setlist of one of the festival's gigs by visiting the add page.
2. Choose the venue. It's important to choose the correct venue. E.g. take Worthy Farm, Pilton, England for the Glastonbury Festival. Be sure not to choose a venue with Festival or anything like that in the name.
3. Select the date of the concert.
4. After selecting venue and date the festival name appears below the date - if the festival already exists. If it doesn't a checkbox will appear. Check it.
5. Fill out the rest of the setlist form.
6. If the festival name appeared, everythings fine. Just hit submit.
7. If you checked the checkbox, hit submit and you'll get to a form where you can select and add a festival (if there are autocorrections there will be a link at the bottom of the page).

Example

The screen shot below will result in a setlist for The Rolling Stones's concert in Charlottesville on October 6, 2008, where they played 18 songs (with one encore of 2 songs). They played a set of 4 songs on the B-stage, one of those being a Bob Dylan cover. To the song Brown Sugar, Sheryl Crow joined the stage. Additional information is added to the song Sweet Virginia which ended in an unplanned sing-along after the song had ended. Moreover, the concert had to be suspended due to a bomb warning, which is described in the @Info in the very last line.

P.S.: Yepp you Stones geeks, you're right, they actually played 20 songs in Charlottesville. Sheryl Crow didn't join the stage and the intro, outro and intermission (If It Makes You Happy) tapes weren't played - but the bomb warning is a fact!

More questions?

Post your questions to the appropriate Forum - or for private/personal questions, Email us either in English or German ... or Spanish or French (but expect an English answer then ;-)) at help [at] setlist [dot] fm