Planning Center Music Stand Reviews

As a guest musician I just wanted to edit out the non musical items (it's called music stand for a reason) and have only to songs we were doing on the screen, well when I deleted the temps I did not want, it changed the whole service on Planning Center, well this messed up the schedule. Why can't we just be able to make changes on music stand only? I didn't want to change the whole service because I'm not the person making the schedule. Can we have an option for this?

Rod terrell

I don’t know what you guys just did, but we have 6 different iPads at my church, and we use Music Stand every day and love it.

As of today, all of the iPads simultaneously can’t open music stand anymore. PlanningCenterMusicStand crashes immediately while trying to load. Please fix this. Our iPads are older and do run on iPadOS 12.5, but that’s above the minimum system requirements you have listed.

We have other devices that aren’t crashing, but after the last update many of ours don’t work now.

PlanningCenterMusicStand is very useful when I’m on stage playing, but when I draw in notes and hit done, sometimes my notes disappear, and I have to draw them all over again, and other times,when I erase things that I drew in, and hit done, it puts them back, will there be a fix for this for the iPad?

I’m running the latest version of iOS, using an iPad Air M1 processor

I have been experiencing this issue, throughout the last several updates to iOS, and it has not improved.

Years ago, PlanningCenterMusicStand was ok. Subsequent updates have made it worse, while apps like Unreal Book continue to advance functionality without adding bugs. At some point, Music Stand removed the ability to zoom with 2 fingers while in annotation mode, which adds steps and takes time. None of my other apps of similar use are like that. They are smooth and streamlined for professional musicians who need to work quickly. This one is not. The last couple of updates have been pretty buggy as far as PlanningCenterMusicStand taking way too long to "think" while making annotations. Or even turning a page in annotation mode. Meanwhile, I have none of these problems with similar apps. This latest update seemed like an improvement until I started working with it for a bit. It is actually worse. I’ve never had PlanningCenterMusicStand work so slowly as it does now. I spend so much time staring at a loading screen while I could move on to other things. The writing tool just flat out doesn’t work half the time until I exit PlanningCenterMusicStand and return. I am unfortunately tied to it with various church gigs, but even then, if I can avoid using it, I do.

I’ve been using this for a month, there is 1 glitch and there are a few things that would make it more useful. The glitch that needs to be fixed: When I open PlanningCenterMusicStand and choose the pdf song versions I need, there needs to be a save button. When I exit PlanningCenterMusicStand and return, it usually changes them. I have to have this ready to go prior so others aren’t waiting to start worship. The requests that would make it more useful: 1) when zooming in on a 2 page song they nearly always needs to be zoomed at different levels but the program won’t allow it so it would be helpful it it could be zoomed by the individual page; 2) sometimes more than 1 version of the same song is needed. For example, a keyboard player may need written piano music (like for an intro, bridge, instrumental, etc.) in addition to the chord sheet. There are a few ways around it but it’s a pain (like adding the song more than once in each version but there again, close PlanningCenterMusicStand and it doesn’t remember it and you get 2 of the same thing or something else you didn’t want. Plus adding a repeat song to the list confuses others). I’m glad to have PlanningCenterMusicStand though. I keep detailed notes on my written music and my copy gets lost often when others file it, so this way it is saved and I don’t have to fumble my paper each week!

Overall PlanningCenterMusicStand works fine and does what it needs to do. I do like that it saves notes that I can see next time we play a song. With that said, the Apple Pencil support is just awful. It does not focus solely on the tip of the pencil, meaning the rest of my hand making contact with the iPad while writing is marking up other areas of the screen. The eraser function is not easy, and the actual marks on screen lag significantly behind the pencil. It is really quite painful to make notes, especially with my iPad on the stand..

I have been using planning center for years 5 to 6 years I think. Music stand is extremely handy for having all the right info in a consolidated place for everyone. It’s great live. I use a Bluetooth pedal to change backs and toggle the metronome for our in-ears. (I’m not a backing tracks and que sort of person.) It is perfect for that. As I flip music the metronome goes with magic. My one suggestion that would put this thing up to 5 is if the metronome started on the next measure when you change songs. Right now when you go to the next song it hiccups so even if your playing the song at the same tempo you can’t go straight into the next song smoothly. Somebody at planning center let me know you guys are working on that and I will hark this the greatest app ever or at least since flappy bird and vine.

PlanningCenterMusicStand used to work perfectly but I’m running into a major bug. I trigger the metronome with a midi pedal, line 6 helix. It used to be that you didn’t need to click the metronome icon and have the module at the top of the screen, now it won’t work unless you do. Even worse when I have the metronome open and try to start it, I’ll press my midi switch and I get a blip of noise and it turns right back off.

PlanningCenterMusicStand has great functionality and I would love to give it a five star review if these bugs are fixed.

With the new update, when I chose annotations from the same song in a different key then try to make edits on the current file it also imports annotations I erased months ago on top of the annotations making the annotations I spent a lot of time on in the past useless. I can’t erase part of a line anymore-only the whole thing. It says pixel erasing is not available in annotations. I do like the ruler. How can I get the last version back? I don’t have an apple pen and this version is horrible on my iPad Air 2.

Added request: Please bring back the ability to copy in one song and paste into another for drawings. It is still possible to do with text annotations but not drawings.

I use the tools to write myself reminders on the music, but when I click done for it to save, it will oftentimes say “error saving” and then it deletes ALL of my notes. It’s MADDENING!!! PLEASE fix this. I had to leave my iPad on airplane mode ALL of this week for our Christmas program JUST so my iPad wouldn’t delete my notes. When music stand connects to the internet, it deletes a lot of my notes. VERY frustrating. This didn’t’t happen until about 3 months ago, but now it happens nearly every time I make a new notations on the music charts themselves.

PlanningCenterMusicStand has been a game changer for our team! We love it and use it all the time.

I do wish we could save “per song” / “per user” choices of how the metronome works. For example if I have a song in 6/8 time at 80bpm and it helps me to see the flash at “2x” - but the very next song is best viewed at “1x” (normal)... it doesn’t do that. Future update!?

Thanks Planning Center - you guys are great!

Please allow all iPad versions to use PlanningCenterMusicStand. Most churches that use PlanningCenterMusicStand buy older versions for their teams so they have enough for everyone. It is annoying to suddenly not be able to use PlanningCenterMusicStand when the iPad you have can no longer use PlanningCenterMusicStand . PlanningCenterMusicStand is essentially a PDF reader and does not need constant updates that force ministries to constantly update expensive equipment like iPads.

When songs with 2 pages, (lyrics and chords) are in landscape, and I have a 1 page song in the line up, it won’t let me turn the page to the 1 page song. Most times I have to go to the end of all the songs in the line up, and then make my way back to the 1 page song. This is a problem when we are in the middle of a set. Thanks in advance for fixing this. Lisa

Is there any way to prevent the audio files from advancing to the next song automatically? I would like to use Music Stand to run my loops since I’m already using a foot controller to turn pages. You have the skip file feature which is helpful, but really would prefer to just toggle the audio on based on which song is selected, while not having to worry about it starting the next one in the playlist during a service. Thoughts?

Thanks for all you do to serve the church!

Love using PlanningCenterMusicStand from my iPad Pro. Let’s me see things clearly and has proven invaluable to our whole team. No more photocopying or paper shuffling.

I’d like to suggest a feature which I call Performance mode. When we are in the middle of a worship service PlanningCenterMusicStand can too easily go into edit or resize mode when I’m merely trying to change the page. If we could turn on something to indicate we’re performing now, temporarily lock out edit features it’d be great. Trying to hit cancel on a zoom or tap to get out of edit mode while playing is a challenge.

There needs to be an option to fade out the audio player within Music Stand. I love using this resource and use it every weekend where I lead, however, one thing I wish I could do is add MP3 files of Ambient Pads into a song, and start and stop the pad from my foot switch, and have the pads fade in and out when started/stopped. I can start the pad with how the audio player works now, but it would be great to be able to have an option to fade the MP3 file out when stopped, instead of an abrupt stop. This would allow me to control the pads with my feet, which would be much easier!

UPDATE: The latest update you mentioned appears to have solved my problem. You were correct in the assumption that I was using an Apple Pen. Thank you so much for the quick fix! I am adjusting my review accordingly to reflect the awesomeness of your app. Thanks!

OLD: I have never had problems like this prior to this update, but now every other time I hit “done” after making annotation, all annotations get erased. Not just on the one page I am on, but multiple pages get erased.

This wipes out a lot of my work and is extremely frustrating. Please fix as it makes PlanningCenterMusicStand useless. Prior to this I have been a big fan of it. Here’s hoping for a quick fix!

Thanks for a great app but help with a few remaining bugs please. PlanningCenterMusicStand takesover 40 seconds to save edits and the edits briefly disappear and the music then briefly disappears. Also, will lose edits occasionally - and will hang up and need to be manually closed. Running your latest version (updates automatically). Keep up the good work! Thanks!

I have been using music stand for over 3 years and I love it. It has been a can’t live without tool. BUT . . . Starting back in February I have been having an issue with getting changes in my chord charts from planning center and my iPad Pro. Once I download my set to my iPad I can not update my changes from Planning Center unless I uninstall PlanningCenterMusicStand from my iPad and then reinstall it. I wish someone could help me resolve this issue. Any takers?

It’s time to update my review. I am not sure where the glitch was weather with apple or PlanningCenterMusicStand but it no longer exists. Right after your last update 3 days ago. When I make changes in planning Center I can now update my iPad without uninstalling PlanningCenterMusicStand and then reinstalling it. Today was the first time in 8 months my iPad has updated. Hallelujah Parise the Lord!!!!! This is now working the way it was before February of this year. This will literally save me hours of time and a ton of frustration.

The update caused me to lose my notations, but Matt and the support team there worked hard to find me a temporary work around and they are in the process of sending out an update to permanently fix the problem. So what started out as a 1 star review, they have turned into a 5 star rating. Thanks guys!!!