Song Cage, on your desktop.
Song Cage Desktop is a native songwriting app for your dock or taskbar. It works offline, one keystroke puts it next to your DAW, and a MIDI keyboard plays chords and melody straight onto the timeline.
Also for Windows, and for Intel Macs. Also for Mac, and for Intel Macs. 14 days free, no card. Or write free in your browser.
Download. Sign in once. Write offline.
The same Song Cage canvas you already use on the web, in a native app that lives in your dock or taskbar and survives a closed laptop on an airplane.
Download & install
Native installers for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows. Lives in your Applications folder or Start menu. Cmd‑Tab or Alt‑Tab puts it next to your DAW and your browser.
Sign in once
Sign in once to start the 14-day free trial, or to unlock the licence you bought. The trial covers everything the licence includes, and after that first sign-in the app runs offline. With the licence or during the trial, your songs sync with the web app, and captures from the phone app land in the app's Ideas inbox.
Write offline
Open the app on a plane, in a hotel, at a coffee shop with bad Wi‑Fi. Chord palette, lyric editor, word panel, melody timeline, voice memos. All of it works with no network at all.
The full canvas, in a native app.
Song Cage Desktop is a native app for songwriters on macOS and Windows. It puts the full Song Cage canvas (chord palette, lyric editor with syllable splits, offline word panel, and a DAW-style melody timeline) in a real app that lives in your dock or taskbar and opens in one click, no browser tab. Everything works fully offline: write on a plane, in a hotel, or on stage with no Wi‑Fi, and your songs stay on your machine. The AU/VST3 plugin for your DAW and the full web app come with the same license, no second purchase. It runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs and 64-bit Windows PCs, installs in about 60 MB, and costs $79.
Melody capture: hum a line into your laptop mic and Song Cage writes the notes.
- Chord palette In‑key, borrowed, and secondary dominant chords for whatever key you're in. Suggestions rank against melody and surrounding chords.
- Lyric editor with syllable splits Each syllable carries its own pitch. Drag dividers and the melody re‑snaps to the grid.
- Offline word panel Rhymes, slant rhymes, synonyms, and word associations. No network call. Works on stage with no Wi‑Fi.
- Plug in a MIDI keyboard Play a chord and Song Cage names it and places it. Play a note and it fills the syllable under the cursor. Pick your device in the app; sustain pedal included. Browsers have no MIDI API on macOS at all, so this only exists in the native app and the plugin.
- Melody from audio, at full accuracy offline Hum or sing into your laptop mic, the app extracts the melody, snaps it to your key, and drops it on the timeline. Auto Chords harmonizes it. The full detection model ships inside the app, so it runs at full accuracy with no connection.
- Point it at a folder and it reads the whole tree Choose a folder of voice memos and notes and the desktop app walks it, subfolders included, and remembers the permission so you never grant it twice. A browser can only take the files you hand it each visit. See bringing your catalogue in.
- Native menus and shortcuts Cmd‑N for a new song, Cmd‑Shift‑M for Export MIDI, Cmd‑Shift‑P for Export PDF. Window position and size remembered across launches.
- Move a song as a file File > Export Song File saves a song as one .songcage.json file, and Open Song File brings it back as a new song, on this computer or another one.
The songs you already started are on a phone and in a notes app.
Most songwriters arrive with years of material scattered across Voice Memos and half a dozen note apps. Song Cage reads that folder, both halves of it, and gives you back something you can search.
One folder, recordings and words together
Point the desktop app at a folder and it walks the whole tree, eight levels deep, and remembers the permission between launches. A songwriter's folder is mixed, so one scan takes both: voice memos and written notes in the same pass, with no sorting first.
It reads what your notes app exports
An Obsidian vault is already a folder of Markdown, so there is nothing to export. Evernote gives one .enex holding a whole notebook and every note inside it becomes an idea. Notion, Bear, Google Keep and Docs, and the tools people use to get out of Apple Notes are all covered.
Every recording arrives with its notes found
Files land in the inbox in seconds, then the melody pass works out what you sang and names the key when it is confident. It is the same detection you get on a take recorded inside the app, running on your machine. Tempo and transcription are deliberately not guessed.
Then you can actually find one
The Ideas room searches inside lyrics and chord names, not just titles, and narrows by key, length, month, tags, and whether an idea has a melody or words. Most captures are named with a timestamp, which is what makes that worth having.
What you import yourself is never withheld. Point Song Cage at your own folder and that material is always there. How the ideas inbox works →
Runs natively on the computer you already own.
One $79 license covers both platforms.
macOS
- macOS 12 or later
- Apple Silicon (M1 and later)
- Intel, as a separate native build
Windows
- Windows 10 or later
- 64-bit x64 installer
- Code-signed by Digital Candy LLC
Footprint & speed
- About 95 MB installed
- Around 250 MB of memory at idle
- Cold start under three seconds
A Tauri shell rather than Electron means it doesn’t carry its own copy of Chrome, so it stays smaller and lighter than a comparable Electron app. The app also updates itself: one click verifies the signature and restarts on the new version, free for the whole v1.x line.
Desktop app manualOne price.
Song Cage licence
The desktop app, the plugin and the full web app
- Included: Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows
- Included: Works fully offline
- Included: The AU/VST3 plugin, on the same licence
- Included: Free updates for the v1.x line
- Included: 30 days to change your mind
Card or PayPal at checkout.
What happens if Song Cage goes away.
Your license does not expire
Once you are past the 30-day refund window your copy holds a license that has no end date. It does not check in with a server to keep working, so the app opens and runs offline whatever happens to us.
Your songs stay on your machine
Songs written on the desktop app are stored locally. Export Song File saves any song as a plain file you can keep on a drive and open again on another computer, and PDF chord sheets and MIDI export out to files any other tool can open. Nothing you write is trapped in an account.
It is being worked on, and you can check
143 desktop and plugin releases have shipped since May, the latest being desktop 1.0.29. Every one of them is dated on the changelog.
Thirty days to change your mind
If it is not what you hoped for, email support@songcage.com within 30 days and it is refunded in full, no questions asked.
Song Cage is built by one person, and it started as the tool I wanted for my own songs. I use it every day, which is the most honest reason I can give you that it is not going to quietly stop.
Common questions.
How is the desktop app different from the web app?
It's the same Song Cage canvas. The differences are at the OS level: it lives in your dock or taskbar, it opens with one click instead of a browser tab, it remembers its window size and position, it has a native menu bar with keyboard shortcuts, and it works fully offline. The songwriting experience is identical to app.songcage.com. For the complete walkthrough, read the desktop app manual.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Songs are stored locally in the app. You can write on a plane, in a hotel, anywhere with no Wi-Fi, and your songs stay on your machine. To move one to another computer, export it as a song file and open it there.
Do I need a Song Cage account?
Only once, to start the 14-day trial or unlock a purchased license. After that the desktop app runs fully offline. The same account opens the full web app, which the licence also covers.
Does the licence cover the web app too?
Yes. One purchase of $79 unlocks the desktop app and the AU/VST3 plugin on macOS and Windows, and the full web app on your account: unlimited songs, PDF chord sheets and MIDI export, your phone captures in the web app’s Ideas inbox, and inviting collaborators to your songs.
The 14-day trial covers everything the licence includes, so you can try it properly before deciding.
Does the licence include Melody Rack?
No. Melody Rack, the plugin that turns a melody you hum into new melodic ideas, is a separate product with its own price. Once you own this licence it is $29 instead of $39, and the checkout applies that from your account.
What about Apple Silicon and Intel Macs?
There are two installers, one built natively for Apple Silicon (M1 and later) and one for Intel Macs. The download button gets the Apple Silicon one, and the line under it links the Intel build. Cold start is under three seconds on a 2020+ machine.
How big is the install?
About 95 MB installed on a Mac. The native shell is Tauri (not Electron), so it doesn’t carry its own copy of Chrome the way an Electron app does. Memory usage idles around 250 MB.
Will it auto-update?
Yes. A small banner appears in the app when a new version is available. One click downloads, verifies the signature, and restarts the app on the new version. You can also disable auto-update and check manually from the menu.
Is there a Windows version?
Yes. Song Cage Desktop runs on Windows 10 and later (64-bit). Download the installer. It's code-signed by Digital Candy LLC, works fully offline, and auto-updates just like the Mac build. One $79 license covers both platforms.
Windows shows “Windows protected your PC” when I install. Is that a problem?
No. That’s Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, and it appears for any newly released app until it has been downloaded enough times to build a reputation with Microsoft, regardless of signing. The installer is genuinely code-signed by Digital Candy LLC, the company behind Song Cage. To continue, click More info, confirm the publisher reads Digital Candy LLC, then click Run anyway. The prompt goes away on its own as more people install this version.
Does it use AI?
No. Chord suggestions come from music theory rules: voice leading, melody-chord-tone scoring, and progression patterns. Rhymes and synonyms come from dictionary lookups that ship inside the app. Auto Chords is a deterministic rule-based scorer. Same melody and key produce the same progression every time.
Try it free for 14 days
Download it for your Mac or Windows PC, or start writing in the web app right now.
Also for Windows, and for Intel Macs. Also for Mac, and for Intel Macs. Or write free in your browser.