This is not a complete feature list!

• Automatically transpose chords to any key
• Print sheets with regular chords and capo-ed chords together
• Customize any font face, size, bold, italic, underline, etc. for any sheet elements including title, author, chords, lyrics, copyrights, and more.
• Keep track of a song’s title, author, copyright, ccli #, tempo, time signature, theme, focus, capo position, user defined fields, and more!

• Present any song, specifying the order of slides, such as verse 1, then chorus, then verse 2, then the chorus again, etc.
• Present any passage of the Bible verse by verse
• Present a timed loop of slides, for use in situations such as automatically displaying announcements, verses, Q&As, etc.
• Present any combination of songs, scriptures, or loops back-to-back using sets.
• Fully customize font styles and sizes as well as shadowing and outlining for easy reading against colorful backgrounds
• Change the background color or background image to any image file

Many people have asked me, “Why are you doing this for free?” Well, I derive my response from a verse in the Bible. “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mat. 10:8b) In this passage Jesus is sending out His twelve disciples, encouraging them to give freely, since so much had and would be given freely to them. I find that the same principle can still apply to me. Out of the abundance of blessings that God has given me it is not asking much for me to give a little back to His kingdom–or anyone else for that matter. Therefore OpenSong exists as an offering. It is free to any and all. While it is not the extent of my service to the King, it is a part that I intend to continue providing, God willing. He could do it without me, but I am so glad that He saw fit to use me.

The concept of OpenSong started when I began searching for software to present song lyrics on our new projector at church. PowerPoint looked fine, but took a long time to setup, and changing songs and sets of songs on the fly was near impossible. The next best (read: cheapest) solution was PowerWorship which auto-creates the PowerPoint slides from the lyrics. This saved a lot of setup time, but on-the-fly setup was still very difficult. At that point, I began trying the church projection software ($$$) out there. I started with WorshipAssistant which also managed song chords. This was a great feature, but the presentation options were really lacking. Then I tried EasyWorship which had much more capable presentation options, but lacked any chord management. Of course, the price made the sell a bit harder too. I tried MediaShout. The price was impossible for our church to afford, but I thought I’d at least give it a try. It was... complicated. After a while I got the hang of it but it’s whole focus was on presentation. I wanted something that could also solve some pratical issues for my church. That was it. I decided to take the plunge and... do it myself. By the way, those other software programs are all great. If they meet your church’s needs, go with them. They all cost money (except PowerWorship) and I don’t blame them for that. They have to pay developers, or feed their families, or whatever. My family will be fine without me charging for OpenSong, but donations are always nice...

Since the first public release of OpenSong, there have been thousands upon thousands of downloads. I hope that OpenSong continues to evolve to meet the needs to churches and individuals throughout the years to come. It is licensed under the GNU Public License which means even the source code for compiling OpenSong is free and available and no one can improve upon it (not even me) unless their source code remains free and available as well.

There are a lot of plans in the works: a Linux version, PowerPoint integration, video, CCLI reporting, etc. Stay tuned! If you feel called to help... HELP!

Sean Lickfold