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Songs

Last updated 2026-10-21

The Songs page is your church's song library. Add a song once, then use it in any Kids playlist or Slides deck. Fix a typo in the library and every playlist and deck that uses the song is fixed too.

One library for the whole church

Songs belong to your church, not to one application, so Songs has its own place in the menu, under Library. Anyone who has the Kids or Slides module can see the songs. Editors, admins and owners can add, change and delete them. Kids and Slides use the same library.

Adding a song

New song

Type it in: a title, the authors, the CCLI song number and copyright line if you have them, then the words in sections.

Paste lyrics

Paste the words from anywhere. Lines that are only a section name (Verse 1, Chorus, Pre-Chorus, Bridge, Tag, Intro, Outro, Interlude, Refrain, Ending, with or without [brackets] or a colon) start a new section. With no section names, blank lines separate the sections. If you leave the title empty and the first line is followed by a blank line, that line becomes the title. A line such as "CCLI Song # 1234567" and any line starting with a copyright sign, (c) or "Copyright" are moved into their own fields instead of the lyrics.

Import files

Choose several files at once, or drag them in. Supported: plain text (.txt), CCLI SongSelect lyric files (.usr) and ChordPro files (.cho, .chordpro, .pro; chords are removed). You get a review table showing the title, authors, CCLI number and number of sections for each file. Fix a title, skip a file, or choose what happens when a song is already in your library (same CCLI number or same title): skip it, replace the existing song, or import it as a copy. Nothing is saved until you press Save.

Sections and the play order

A song is a list of sections (Verse 1, Chorus, Bridge...). Each has a name and its words. Use the quick-pick buttons for common names, or type your own. The arrows move a section, the copy button duplicates it and the cross deletes it.

The play order is the order the sections are sung in. By default every section plays once, in order. To repeat the chorus after the bridge, add Chorus to the end of the play order, or press the repeat button on a chip. You can also move and remove chips. Reset to every section once goes back to the default.

Lines per slide

Choose Whole section to show each section on one slide, or 2, 3, 4 or 6 lines to break long sections into smaller slides. The preview at the bottom of the editor shows the slides that will result, as small cards labelled with the section name. It is a preview: the Church TV OS server makes the real slides, using the same rules.

Using a song in a Kids playlist

1. Open Kids, Playlists, edit a playlist and press + Lyrics.
2. Choose From song library, search for the song and pick it. You see how many slides it makes and a link to edit it.
3. Save the playlist.

Choose Typed lyrics instead if you want to type the words for this playlist only. Older lyrics items keep working exactly as before.

A song that a playlist or deck uses cannot be deleted. The message names them, so you can remove it from them first. The Songs page shows where each song is used.

Using a song in a Slides deck

In Slides, Decks, edit a deck and add a Song slide, then pick the song. The deck shows one slide per section, in the song's play order, using the deck's theme and background. The lines per slide you chose for the song decide how the words are split. Tick Show song title first to open with a title slide that holds until Next. A song that a deck uses cannot be deleted until you remove it from the deck. See Slides module.

Show the song title first

Tick Show song title first on a lyrics item to show the song name as its own slide before the words. It stays up until the leader presses Next. It works for library songs and typed lyrics. The styled title slide needs app version 1.3.0 or newer; older TVs show a plain first slide with the name instead.

Copyright and CCLI

What is not available yet

• There is no direct import from CCLI SongSelect or MultiTracks. Download a lyric file you are licensed to use and import it, or paste the words.
• The .usr reader is tolerant, but it is built from a description of the format. If a SongSelect file comes in wrong, paste its words instead and let us know.