Runs on or stops after

Choosing, for each song in a setlist, whether the show carries straight on or stops.

Every song in a setlist has a two-way switch in Backstage › Setlists:

Runs on

The default. When the song ends, the show carries on into the next song in the setlist without anyone touching anything.

If that next song is somewhere else in the arrangement, Downstage asks Live to jump to it during the song's final bar, and Live makes the jump on the bar line. If it already follows in the arrangement, Live simply plays on.

Stops after

When the song ends, the show stops. Use it where you talk to the crowd, change instruments, or wait for a cue.

On the show screen the song carries a small Stops after label, and the Next card reads Next · after it stops, so nobody is surprised by the silence.

The last song in a setlist stops at its end whichever way the switch is set, as long as the set has a STOP locator to stop into.

What "the end" is

A song ends at its SONG END locator if it has one, and otherwise where the next song begins. If the song should finish before the next locator — because there is a gap, or a count-in for the next song — add a SONG END. See Song end and stop markers.

If "Stops after" is greyed out

Stopping cleanly needs somewhere silent for Live to stop into: a locator named STOP, in a few empty bars. Without one, the option cannot be chosen, and the page says so.

Add a STOP locator after your last song and the option becomes available within a couple of seconds. Why it works this way.

Changing your mind mid-show

The switch can be changed while Live is playing, including for the setlist on stage. It applies from the next song; the song that is playing keeps the ending it started with if it is already in its final bar.

To override it once, on the night: tap another song before the end to jump there instead, or hold Stop.