From the Mudcat FAQ:Posting Lyrics
The Digital Tradition Format
All lyrics and tunes submitted to the Mudcat Café are considered for inclusion in the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database, so it's best to post lyrics in Digital Tradition format:
- TITLE OF SONG IN ALL CAPS
- (Songwriter name, or "traditional," or "songwriter unknown" on the second line in parentheses)
- Skip a space
- Text of the song
- Any background information you'd like to include
- Please try to remember to include your initials (not your Mudcat name) at the end, so you can be credited for submitting the song.
- Also, please be sure to include information about the source of the lyrics you posted. If you got them from a songbook, name the songbook. If you got them from sheet music at the Levy Sheet Music Site or Bodleian Ballads or the Library of Congress or another extremely reputable Website, that's important information. If it's from a Website that includes a transcription of what somebody thinks they heard on a record they heard twenty years ago, it's likely to of questionable accuracy - but it still may have value to us. So, please, be specific about the source of your information, so that people can follow up on what you posted if there's a question.
I'm working on refining guidelines for submitting lyrics. Here's a copy of my e-mail to somebody: Hi - we'd love to have any folk lyrics you'd like to post at the Mudcat Cafe. All lyrics that are submitted stay in the forum, and people can find them using our search engines. Many of the lyrics are also "harvested" and included in the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database, which now has lyrics for some 9,000 songs (you can access the database in the blue DigiTrad search box you find on most Mudcat pages).
If you'd like to post a song, first check that database to see whether it's already there or not. Make sure you put the lyrics in a thread that has a title that's related to the song (like an ongoing thread that's collecting train songs, if that's appropriate; or a thread you start that has the song title as the title of the thread.). The SUBJECT line for the message with the lyrics should include this information:
Lyr ADD: title of song here
Ideally, you should follow the Digital Tradition Format: - song title on the first line IN ALL CAPS
- songwriter name (in parentheses) on the second line
- skip a space
- then the lyrics
- skip a space
- then any notes
- and then finish off with your initials
Yes, there are copyright questions, but we leave it to the operators of the Digital Tradition to deal with them. In the meantime, we ask people to feel free to post whatever lyrics they'd like in the Mudcat Forum - keeping in mind that we are primarily a folk and blues site.