Songware, on whatever the band brought.
Install it where you play, or just open a browser — that is the same app, running today. Every platform is on this page; the one you are on is picked out for you.
Start in the browser. Install later.
We could not tell what you are reading this on — no matter. The web app runs on all of it, and every native build is listed below.
Not the device you meant? Every platform is below, and the links work wherever you send them.
Six ways in, one library behind them.
Your bandmates do not have to be on what you are on. Send them the link for whatever they carry — everyone lands in the same session either way.
iPhone & iPad
App Store · iOS 15 or later
One universal build — the phone in your pocket and the iPad on the stand run the same app.
Android
Google Play · phones and tablets
For the drummer with the Android tablet. Same library, same live session, no second account.
macOS
Direct download · 1.1.3 · 44 MB · Apple silicon and Intel
The desktop build, for the machine you actually write and clean up charts on.
Windows
Direct download · 1.1.3 · 25 MB · 64-bit
Charts full screen on the desk, and a second window for the projector behind you.
Linux
Direct download · 1.1.3 · 60 MB · x64
Somebody in every band runs it, and almost nobody builds for them. We do.
Browser
No install · works today
Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox. Open a link and you are in — this is also how the people you invite join your live set.
The desktop builds are direct downloads, no store in between. Windows comes as an installer or a portable .zip, Linux as an AppImage or a .deb, both for 64-bit Intel and AMD machines. On anything else — an ARM laptop, a Raspberry Pi — the browser is the build. How each file installs
What to do with each file.
The stores handle this part on a phone. On a desktop the file is yours, so here are the two or three steps each one takes — and what to click if the operating system objects to an app it has not seen before. Your own platform’s guide is also up top, next to its download.
macOS — the .dmg
A disk image: it opens as a window with the app inside, and installing is dragging that icon into Applications.
- Open the downloaded .dmg. A window with the Songware icon and an Applications shortcut appears.
- Drag Songware onto Applications.
- Eject the disk image from the Finder sidebar and delete the .dmg — the app is in Applications now.
- Open Songware from Applications or Spotlight and sign in with the account you use in the browser.
- If macOS says it cannot verify the developer, right-click the app in Applications and choose Open, or go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. It asks once.
- To remove it, drag Songware from Applications to the Bin.
To check the file arrived intact, this command has to print the same value:
shasum -a 256 Songware-1.1.3-macOS-universal.dmg9796d1de085bb241312be5478981c0c5bb68bc3d997db1bf3c659fd209ad2c37
Windows — the installer
A normal setup program for 64-bit Windows 10 or 11: run it, click through, and Songware lands in the Start menu.
- Run the downloaded songware-setup file.
- Follow the installer — it takes a few seconds and needs no choices unless you want a different folder.
- Open Songware from the Start menu and sign in.
- If Windows shows a blue “Windows protected your PC” screen, click More info and then Run anyway. That is SmartScreen reacting to an installer it has not seen many times yet, not a finding about the file.
- To remove it, use Settings › Apps › Installed apps, like any other program.
To check the file arrived intact, this command has to print the same value:
certutil -hashfile songware-setup-1.1.3-x64.exe SHA25665d2f23e3ccdeb193159e326fd79549fa5b55137354b2ec8872909ee6798c1b4
Windows — the portable .zip
The same app without an installer: unpack the folder anywhere — a USB stick, a shared drive, a machine where you are not allowed to install programs — and run it from there. Nothing is written to the system.
- Unpack the .zip into a folder of your choosing.
- Run songware.exe inside it and sign in.
- Keep the folder together — the .exe needs the files next to it.
- If Windows shows the blue “Windows protected your PC” screen, click More info and then Run anyway. That is SmartScreen reacting to a program it has not seen many times yet, not a finding about the file.
- To remove it, delete the folder.
To check the file arrived intact, this command has to print the same value:
certutil -hashfile songware-windows-1.1.3-x64.zip SHA25696bf012ebed034c68fc2da58cc5adf5921a84acb293a5ff803e9e3a4439dc0c3
Linux — the AppImage
One file that is the whole app: nothing gets installed, it runs from wherever you keep it, and deleting the file uninstalls it. It works on any distribution.
- Make the file executable. Once, from a terminal in the folder you downloaded it to, or through the file’s Properties › Permissions in your file manager.
chmod +x Songware-1.1.3-linux-x64.AppImage - Run it. Double-click the file, or from the terminal:
./Songware-1.1.3-linux-x64.AppImage - Keep the file somewhere sensible, such as ~/Applications, so it is still there next time.
- AppImages mount themselves through FUSE. If it refuses to start with a message about libfuse, install it (on Ubuntu or Debian: sudo apt install libfuse2) or run the file with --appimage-extract-and-run.
To check the file arrived intact, this command has to print the same value:
sha256sum Songware-1.1.3-linux-x64.AppImagef6b19edebdbca59c31f4535ce3a0c2e3efec7ff35e5fb9e0b1e86675137dbc6c
Linux — the .deb
The package for Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and their relatives. It installs to /opt/songware, adds Songware to the app menu and pulls in what it needs.
- Install it with apt, which also fetches the dependencies (GTK 3, libsecret, mpv, ffmpeg). The ./ in front of the file name matters.
sudo apt install ./songware-1.1.3-linux-x64.deb - Open Songware from the app menu, or run songware from /opt/songware.
- Double-clicking the file in a software centre works too, where the distribution has one.
- To remove it: sudo apt remove songware.
To check the file arrived intact, this command has to print the same value:
sha256sum songware-1.1.3-linux-x64.deb10633768df64c5ecf0c6811b09d10f2a92f3efe10c743315391a2b2085035b55
Nothing to install, ever
The browser build is the full product, not a preview. Anyone you invite signs in and joins a live set from a link, with no app on their phone.
One account, one library
Sign in anywhere and the same songs, songbooks and sets are there. Nothing is per-device, nothing needs re-importing.
Free to install
Songware is free to install on every platform. A subscription is started inside the iOS or Android app.
What a plan costs, and what it costs after tax, is on the pricing page.
Installed? Now go run a set.
Build one setlist, hit Prepare live, and see whether the whole room follows. One rehearsal is usually enough to know.