The song files we host are all publicly available in the download section. The songs are organized by various aspects to make them easy to find. Each file includes a note at the bottom about the license under which it was published. This tells you what you may do with the song without having to ask its author(s). But no matter which license was chosen: you may sing and perform all of these songs in filk contexts (= at cons, in circles (including online), or at home). What else is permitted and what isn’t is governed by the respective license. (For anything not permitted by the license, you need to ask the copyright holder(s) for permission.)
All files are available in 3 versions:
- 🎸 as a ChordPro file (i.e., as lyrics including chords), for use in songbook apps
- 📝 as a text file that contains only the title, lyrics, and credits, but no chords or additional metadata. This is particularly suitable for people who want to sing along in circles or who sing a cappella.
as a pdf file suitable for printing, for people who prefer that.
The text and pdf files as well as the html pages are generated from the ChordPro files by script. Unlike the ChordPro files, they’re not manually curated. If you notice errors or inconsistencies: feel free to contact us, and we’ll see if we can adjust the script. (Email to librarian @ filksongbook.com would be great, thanks!)