Capture Song Ideas Before They Disappear
A chord progression, a melody, a lyric line: get it down before it fades. Start with whatever you have. Song Cage connects chords, melody, and lyrics from wherever the idea begins: no setup screens, no required workflow, no lost ideas.
There Is No Step One
Songs don't start the same way twice. Sometimes a chord change clicks first. Sometimes a melody appears. Sometimes a lyric line lands fully formed. Song Cage doesn't impose a workflow: open the app and start with whatever you have. Chords, melody, lyrics: every one is both an entry point and a development tool. Everything connects from wherever you begin.
- Start with chords, lyrics, or melody: any order
- No setup screens, no required steps
- Everything connects: chords inform melody, melody informs chords
- Works on desktop and mobile: capture ideas anywhere
Sheet View and Timeline View: Switch Anytime
Sheet view for quick lyric and chord capture. Timeline view for arrangement and melody. They're two windows into the same song: edit in one, see it in the other. Switch whenever your workflow changes.
- Sheet view: lyrics and chords, side by side, fast entry
- Timeline view: arrange sections, place melody, see structure
- Changes sync instantly between views
- Switch with one click: no data loss, no re-entry
Record Audio In-App: Capture the Melody Before It Fades
Sing or hum directly in the app. The recording lives alongside your chords and lyrics: no separate voice memo app, no lost files, no syncing. When the melody is in your head, hit record and keep writing.
- Record voice memos directly inside your song
- Audio stays attached to chords and lyrics
- No external apps, no file management
- Play back anytime to recall the melody
- Or hold a button and sing a single note straight onto a syllable
Point Song Cage at the Folder and It Reads All of It
Most songwriters arrive carrying years of material: a phone full of voice memos, and words scattered across two or three note apps. Choose a folder and Song Cage walks the whole tree, taking recordings and written notes in the same pass, because a songwriter's folder is mixed and sorting it first would be our problem leaking into your afternoon.
Files land in the inbox in seconds. The melodies fill in behind them, so every recording arrives already labelled, timed, and with its notes and its key found. Tempo and transcription are deliberately not guessed: a recording arrives as a recording, and what it becomes is still yours to decide.
- Voice memos and written notes in one scan, no sorting first
- Obsidian, Evernote, Notion, Bear, Google Keep and Docs, and Apple Notes exports
- Or send them straight off your phone by pointing its camera at a code on screen
- Imported audio is backed up to your account with the licence, and stays on your machine without it
- What you import yourself is never withheld behind a purchase
An Inbox Is Only Worth Having If You Go Back to It
Two hundred captures named with timestamps is not a catalogue, it is a pile. Search reads inside your lyrics, section tags and chord names rather than only the titles, and prints the matching line underneath so you can see why a result came back. Narrow by key, by length, by whether an idea has a melody or words, by the month you recorded it. The filters compose, so “E minor, under thirty seconds, has a melody, from March” is a question you can actually ask.
Finished songs get the same treatment from the other end. File each one in a folder for the record you are making or the session it belongs to, tag it with as many labels as it needs, and filter the list down by them.
- Search inside lyrics and chord names, not just titles
- Filter ideas by key, length, month, tags, and whether they have a melody
- One folder per song, shown as a tree in the song menu, with no nesting to get lost in
- Several tags per song, and filter the list by any combination
- The same folders appear on your phone, so the two never disagree
Common Questions
What’s the fastest way to capture a song idea?
Open Song Cage, pick a key, start writing. No setup, no tutorials, no required steps. You can begin with chords, lyrics, or melody: whatever comes first. The app adapts to how you work, not the other way around.
Can I record audio in Song Cage?
Yes. Record voice memos directly in the app alongside your chords and lyrics. Sing or hum a melody idea and it stays attached to your song: no separate voice recorder app, no lost files, no syncing.
Can I import the voice memos I already have?
Yes. Point Song Cage at a folder and it walks the whole tree, subfolders included, reading voice memos and written notes in the same pass. Every recording arrives labelled and timed, with its melody detected and its key named where the detector is confident. On the desktop app it remembers the folder permission between launches; in a browser you hand it the files each visit. There is also a phone door: a code appears on screen, your camera opens a page, and the recordings come across without installing anything.
Which note apps can Song Cage read?
An Obsidian vault is already a folder of Markdown, so there is nothing to export first. Evernote exports one .enex file holding a whole notebook, and every note inside it becomes its own idea. Notion gives Markdown plus CSV, Bear gives whichever of Markdown, text, RTF or Word you pick, and a Google Takeout gives Keep as HTML and JSON with Docs as Word files. Apple Notes has no bulk export of its own, but the third-party tools people use produce formats on the list. PDF and Pages are deliberately excluded, because a file that appears and then fails to import is worse than one never offered.
How is Song Cage different from a notes app?
Notes apps lose musical context. Song Cage keeps chords, lyrics, melody, and rhythm connected in a single document. You can switch between a sheet view for quick lyric and chord capture and a timeline view for arrangement, something no general-purpose notes app can do.
Everything Works Together
Melody
Six ways to put a tune on the page, including holding a button and singing it.
Lyric Writing
Rhymes, slant rhymes, and synonyms. Click any word and the tools appear instantly.
Collaboration
Share songs with co-writers and stay in sync automatically: chords, lyrics, and arrangement.
Start Capturing Song Ideas Today
Free for one song in your browser. No credit card required. Open Song Cage and start writing.
Start writing for free →Or buy the licence: Song Cage for Mac and Windows, AU/VST3 plugin included.