Play your set from smartChord and let everyone in the room read along. Your band, your choir or your workshop group opens a link in any browser and always sees the song you have open right now – the whole set list, from the first song to the last.

How it works

smartChord sends the song you currently have open to smartchord.de. Everyone who has your link follows along in their own browser: phone, tablet, laptop, or the TV in the corner. When you move to the next song of the set list, every screen follows within a second or two. Your audience can sit right next to you or on the other side of the world.

You hand out the link once. It stays the same for the whole set list, so nobody has to scan anything again between songs.

Both sides need an internet connection. There is no shared Wi-Fi to join and no IP address to type in.

What you need

• smartChord with a set list
• An internet connection, on your device and on theirs
• Nothing else. No account, no registration, and no app install for your audience

Start the broadcast

1. Open your set list.
2. Tap the link icon in the toolbar.
3. Choose View song online for chords and lyrics, or View lyrics online for the lyrics alone.

smartChord opens a private session right away, before the first song. That is on purpose: you can hand the link to your audience while people are still finding their seats. Until you open the first song, they wait on a friendly waiting screen.

You can switch between the two modes at any time, and your audience follows automatically.

Invite your audience

A dialog with a QR code and a link appears.

• Hold up the QR code and let everyone scan it with their phone camera.
• Tap Share to send the link by messenger, mail or chat.
• Or tap Copy and paste the link wherever you like – into the chat of your band, or onto the screen behind you.

Everyone who opens the link sees your set list, right away and without any setup.

Tip: lost the QR code? Tap the link icon in the set list again and choose Info, and the dialog comes back. On the song screen the link in the Live bar does the same.

While you play

The Live bar at the bottom of the song screen shows the address your audience is watching, so you can see at a glance that the broadcast is running. In the set list itself, the link icon stays switched on.

• Move to the next song of the set list, and every viewer follows automatically.
• Change the way the song is displayed, and that reaches your audience too.
• There is nothing to press again, and nothing to hand out again. Play your set.

What your audience can change

Every viewer adjusts their own screen, and nothing they change affects anyone else.

• Columns, 1 to 4. One column on a phone, three or four on a TV.
• Text size, with A- and A+, so the song stays readable from a distance.
• Fullscreen, with the button or the F key. Esc leaves it again.

These settings are remembered on their device for the next time.

There is deliberately no light or dark switch. The song arrives with your colors already applied, so your audience sees it exactly the way you set it up in smartChord.

End the broadcast

Tap the link icon in the set list and choose Off. Your viewers see that the session has ended, and the link stops working. On the song screen the X on the right of the Live bar does the same.

Switching it off also clears the mode, so the next song you open does not start the broadcast again.

If you forget, a broadcast ends by itself two hours after the last song change. Should you stay on the same song for longer than that, simply start it again.

Good to know

• The link belongs to the broadcast, not to a single song. It carries your whole set list.
• Scrolling is not synchronized. Everyone scrolls through the song at their own pace.
• If smartChord was closed and you start the broadcast again shortly after, it carries on with the same link – your audience keeps watching. After a longer break you are asked whether to Keep session or to start a New session. Keep it and the old link stays valid; choose a new one if nobody who received the old link should be able to follow along.
• If the app was closed for good in between, the set list switches its online mode off by itself. Nothing breaks – just switch it on again, and hand out the new link.
• If a message tells you the live server is busy, wait a minute and start the broadcast again.
• Try it once before the gig: start a broadcast and open the link on a second device.

Your privacy

• Only the song you are showing right now leaves your device. Not the rest of the set list, and nothing else from your library.
• It is kept in a temporary file on the server and removed automatically after two hours.
• The link lets people read, never write. Only your device can change what is shown, protected by a secret that never leaves the app.
• Your audience needs no account and is never asked to sign up.