How to lower the paper waste as a musician
I have been a musician most of my teenage years both as a solo-musician but also in bands and I know how much work we used to put into maintaining our material. Once or twice a week we would add new songs to our lists and then afterwards update the existing once we had. Besides updating the library of lyrics and chords we would custom make every setlist to fit the event we were playing at.
As You can imagine we used up quite a lot of paper and ink wasn’t cheap i can tell you, but it was the only way we knew how to do things. Now years later when I look back at that time I wonder if there are ways that we can improve our use of paper and both help the environment and at the same time make our jobs as musicians easier. When we use paper we participate to deforestation all around the world. Companies take down more trees in order to fill the demand but that is not the way we should be going. We should be going the opposite way so that we plant trees instead of removing them.
Trees has a positive effect on our CO2 problem. They take and bind the some of the CO2 and turn it into breathable air. In other words they are functioning as a purifier, so why would we self-sabotage something that helps us stay alive?
Underneath here I have listed some services that You can use in order to lower the use of paper or eliminating it completely in your work:
Songbook Pro (App)
If you have an Android device you can use Songbook Pro which is an app where you can write lyrics with chords and setlists. This way you lower the use of paper by keeping your material in a digital version on either phone or tablet.
Read more about the app here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.songbookpro.songbookpro
SetlistR (Progressive web application / Website)
With SetlistR you can create beautiful lyrics with visual chords, customized setlists for every event and groups where you can share all your band-material between members directly in the cloud. SetlistR is an all-in-one web application you can access from every device and because it is a progressive web application it allows you to install their service as an app.
SetlistR comes in a free and paid version.
Read more about SetlistR here: https://setlistr.app
OpenSongApp (App)
OpenSongApp is another take on an app where you can create lyrics with chords and setlists directly on your device. A songbook app designed for and musicians, singers, worship leaders, etc. that allows you to view chord charts and lyrics on your Android device and use it as a portable music songbook.
Read more about the app here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.garethevans.church.opensongtablet
