Fretlist started as a band tool.
For a couple of years I played with my buddy Ruud. We kept our songs on a WordPress site we built ourselves, and for every song we noted who played what: guitar or uke, capo or not. Each of us had our own view of the same song.
That idea became the foundation of Fretlist for Bands. It has been the point on the horizon since the day I started building this. I wrote more about those early days in why I built Fretlist.
Then Fretlist grew into an app for one musician at a time. Today it goes back to where it started. Bands are coming to Fretlist, and you can ask to join before everyone else.
Fretlist for Bands is open by request until 1 November. Leave your email and I'll set your band up.
A setlist app for bands
A band in Fretlist is one shared library. The songs and setlists live in one place, and everyone in the band opens the same ones on their own phone, tablet or laptop.
What makes it work is what stays your own:
- Your own key. The song keeps the band's key. Press + or - and only your chart moves. The rest of the band still sees the key it was in.
- Your own capo and instrument. The guitarist reads it with a capo on the second fret. The bass player reads it without one. The singer gets the song without chord diagrams.
- Your own notes. Every song in a band has a My notes block. Only you see it, whatever role your bandmates have. Your notes also show in Play Mode.
The band also gets a key of its own for each set. "We play it in A tonight" is set once on the setlist, and the whole band reads it that way. If you chose your own key for that song, you keep it. Play Mode shows the difference with a badge, like Transpose -2.
And there is a Band panel on every song. One line per bandmate, with their instrument and capo, so you see at a glance who plays what before you count in.
Micha, who plays in a band, put it like this:
"Very cool to have the personal notes option in a band. This is something I always missed on SongbookPro."
Getting your band in
Starting a band takes one step for your songs: on the new band's dashboard, Import your personal library copies or moves everything you already have, folders included. Then you invite your bandmates by email.
A band holds up to 15 people, including you. Your bandmates pay nothing. They join with a free account and see every song and setlist the band has.
Open by request now, for everyone on 1 November
Right now Bands is open to a first group, by request. You ask, I set you up, and you get started. During Early Access it costs nothing: no card, nothing to choose.
On 1 November, Fretlist gets paid plans and Bands opens for everyone. Bands is €58 a year (or €7 a month) for the whole band, not per person. The pricing post has the full picture.
Here is the part that matters if you're reading this before 1 November. Everyone who signs up before 1 November is an Early Access user. Early Access users get half price for life on any plan: Bands for €29 a year, if you subscribe by 1 December. That rate stays yours for as long as you use Fretlist.
So if you play in a band and you have been meaning to try Fretlist, this is the month to do it.
Two steps, both free. Create your account before 1 November to lock in Early Access. Then request access for Bands and I'll set your band up.
What stays the same
If you play on your own, nothing changes for you. Your personal library stays yours, and every plan has every feature. A band is something you add, not something you have to move into.
I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. A band of two in a WordPress site turned into this. I can't wait to see what your bands do with it.
Dear John