Adding Ideas to Songs - Docs

When an idea is ready to become part of a real song, you have two options:

Add to Existing Song

From the idea's menu, choose Add to Song. You'll search for and select a song, then choose which recording version to attach it to. If the song only has one version, it's selected automatically. If the song has multiple versions (e.g. an original and a remix), you'll pick which one the idea belongs to.

Create a New Song

Choose Create Song to create a brand new song from the idea. Songkeeper will create the song, create an "Original" recording version, and attach the idea's audio to it — all in one step.

How the File Copy Works

When you add an idea to a song, Songkeeper copies the audio file and creates a new recording file in the song's version. The original idea and its file remain untouched. This means:

The original idea stays in your ideas list — You can keep it as a reference, continue organizing it with tags, or delete it without affecting the song.
The song gets its own independent copy — The recording file in the song is separate. Deleting the idea doesn't remove it from the song, and deleting the file from the song doesn't affect the idea.
You can add one idea to multiple songs — If the same melodic hook works in two different songs, add it to both. Each song gets its own copy of the file.
Provenance is preserved — The recording file stores the idea's original provenance metadata (capture timestamp, device, file hash) so you always know where the audio came from.

Recording file type

Ideas are added to songs as demo recording files in the "recording" domain. They appear alongside other audio files in the song's file browser, where you can rename, move, or delete them like any other file.

Viewing Linked Songs

Once an idea has been added to one or more songs, a link icon appears next to the idea's title. On the web, clicking this icon opens a popover showing all the songs the idea is linked to, with clickable links to navigate directly to each song. On iOS, the idea's detail view shows a "Linked Songs" section listing every song the idea appears in.

You can also filter your ideas list to show only linked or unlinked ideas, which is helpful for finding ideas you haven't used yet.

If you remove the recording file from a song (by deleting it from the song's file browser), the link is automatically removed and the idea will no longer show that song in its linked list.

Version Selection

Both platforms handle songs with multiple recording versions properly. When adding an idea to a song:

Single version — The version is selected automatically. You'll see a confirmation of which version the idea is being added to.
Multiple versions — On the web, a dropdown appears (defaulting to the primary version). On iOS, you'll navigate to a version picker screen where you tap to select.

This lets you direct an idea to the right recording — for example, adding a guitar riff idea to the acoustic version rather than the electronic remix.

Add to Existing Song

How the File Copy Works

When you add an idea to a song, Songkeeper copies the audio file and creates a new recording file in the song's version. The original idea and its file remain untouched. This means:

The original idea stays in your ideas list — You can keep it as a reference, continue organizing it with tags, or delete it without affecting the song.

The song gets its own independent copy — The recording file in the song is separate. Deleting the idea doesn't remove it from the song, and deleting the file from the song doesn't affect the idea.

You can add one idea to multiple songs — If the same melodic hook works in two different songs, add it to both. Each song gets its own copy of the file.

Provenance is preserved — The recording file stores the idea's original provenance metadata (capture timestamp, device, file hash) so you always know where the audio came from.