Rehearse the live version, not the album cut

The short answer: every song in BandVolt keeps its full version history, and each setlist can now point at whichever version you choose. Rehearse to the extended live arrangement, play the abridged edit in the short slot, and drop unreleased songs straight into the set - something a streaming playlist can never do. Setlists are free on the Basic tier.

Most bands do not play their songs the way they recorded them.

The album cut fades out; live, it ends on a big ringing chord. The single is 3:12; the live version has the extra chorus and the guitar solo that has grown a bar every tour. The festival slot needs the abridged edit that gets to the drop faster.

So why does everyone rehearse to the recording?

The playlist problem

The default rehearsal tool for a lot of bands is a streaming playlist. Build the set on Spotify, run through it in the room, done.

Except a playlist can only hold what has been released - in the released form. Your extended live arrangement is not on there. Your abridged festival edit is not on there. And the new song you are road-testing before release? Definitely not on there.

You end up rehearsing to a version of the set nobody is going to play.

Any version, per setlist

In BandVolt, a song is not one file - it is a version history. The album master, the live arrangement you bounced from the last soundboard recording, the abridged edit, the demo of the unreleased one.

When you build a setlist, you choose which version of each song that setlist uses. The same song can be the album cut in one set and the extended live arrangement in another. The Friday club set and the Saturday festival set can run completely different edits of the same songs - built from the same library, no duplicate uploads.

Rehearsals that match the show

This is where it pays off. Put the live versions in the rehearsal setlist and the band runs the set exactly as it will happen on stage - real lengths, real endings, real transitions. Timings add up to the actual slot length, not the album’s.

Playback mode still shows key, BPM, lyrics, and time signature for every song. Now it is also playing the right recording.

Unreleased songs welcome

Because setlists pull from your band’s own library, anything you have uploaded can go in the set - including songs nobody outside the band has heard. Road-test the new single for a month before release day. No workarounds, no “skip this one on the playlist, we’ll run it from my phone.”

One library, many sets

Version selection works everywhere setlists already work: sets link to gigs and rehearsals on the shared calendar, everyone sees the same running order, and when the slot changes you edit once and the whole band sees it.

Build a setlist from the versions you actually play - free on the Basic tier.