how do I add songs

Subject: how do I add songs
From: GUEST,mikeg
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 07:02 PM

Subject: RE: how do I add songs
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 07:16 PM

To what?

Subject: RE: how do I add songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 07:48 PM

Hi, Mike -
The FAQ (click) has instructions on submitting songs for the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database.
It's best to search Mudcat to see if we might already have the song in the database or the Forum. If there's an existing thread on the song, post your version in a new message. Put ADD and the song title in the "subject" block for your message.
If there's no thread for the song, start a new one.
Be sure to give songwriter and copyright information, if applicable. Also be sure to specify your source for the lyrics.
If you have a tune for the song, that's even better. E-mail a MIDI to me for posting.
-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-
[e-mail]

Here's an e-mail I drafted on the subject:

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:
LYRICS 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 pace
• then the lyrics
• 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.

-Joe Offer, Sacramento, California-