Cover to Cover: Filker Song Swap vol. 1 AND Cover to Cover: Filker Song Swap vol. 2 are officially complete and available FREE on Bandcamp!
Redeem early-access codes here!
Filker Song Swap and Social Justice Bards are not affiliated with Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation; we’re just fans and supporters!
Sign up for the mailing list for future alerts!
2025 Song Swap Info:
Let’s cover each other’s original songs! I got the idea from the Saving Music Live Twitch Community yearly albums. Please sign up for the mailing list or follow the Facebook or Discord groups to get the sign up for when it’s released.
Contact me with questions! If you don’t have a place to host your songs or link them online, message me and you can send them to me directly.
Time frame (subject to change):
27 March – Submission form released
18 April – Submissions close
20 April – Listening period starts
16 May – Ranked choices due
17/18 May – Draft Drawing Stream! (TBD)
21 September – Recordings Due
Mid October – Album Release
Ways to Participate:
-Submit an original song AND cover a swapped song
-Submit a song only
-Cover a song only
Songs must have original lyrics and music, or have a tune in the public domain. Unfortunately, we’re not able to include parodies or other TTTO songs on this project. Songs don’t have to be specifically fandom or genre related, and songs you’ve released previously are absolutely fine to submit! Songs containing adult language or themes are welcome but will be given an [explicit] tag.
For submitting a song, a rough demo–even on a phone–or link to a video or live clip is totally fine. This is just to let people know how it sounds; only other people in the swap will hear it.
This project is open to anyone–regardless of skill level–if they’re willing to commit and record their track and feel comfortable recording or learning to record. Just do your best with the tools you have.
Please join the Social Justice Bards Discord or the Filker Song Swappers Facebook Group for help recording or to find collaborators!
The primary mode of contact will be email.
By submitting a song:
-You agree to have your work included for non-commercial purposes on the Streamer Song Swap Album, released via Bandcamp
-You agree that your work and the album may be used as a fundraiser drive reward (benefitting the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, via Tiltify Campaign)
-You agree that your submission can be shared with other Song Swappers for listening while making your draft picks
You can absolutely team up and collab with other people! Whoever is running point for the group should fill out the form. (It’s also fine to find collaborators after the draft as well; the main thing is knowing who the point-person is for each song so we can track everything!)
If you are an solo writer but also part of a band or group that plays collectively, it’s okay to submit for both as long as a different person runs point for each.
We encourage you to submit two songs for people to cover; only one song will be picked in the draft, but that increases the pool for folks to pick from!
How it works: after the submission period closes, all the songs will be compiled on a big playlist and you’ll have several weeks to listen and send us your ranked choices. Songs will be assigned via a draft where the musician will have their name picked from a hat and given their top choice or the next choice down if someone else picked their top choice! Once song gets picked, it’s taken off the list along with that musician’s second song. (Don’t worry; you don’t need to know any of this now!)
If we have a large number of participants, we may split Volume II into two releases as a double album. If you have a preference for which group you’d like to be in if this happens, let us know on the submission form! (Don’t worry; this won’t be set in stone! It’s just to give us an idea.)
Madison reserves the right to contact folks to curate or content moderate song submissions before the final song pool is made public, if needed. Being part of the album or fundraiser is not an endorsement of any individual or their content, but I take responsibility for addressing concerns!
This project is not for profit, but if you have permission from the original songwriter you can place your covers for sale after the fundraiser is complete. You may release your tracks to private communities like Patreon or perform them live/online before the album is released.
A note on deadlines: this is a project for fun and community, so if you find yourself unable to finish your track or need help, let the album team or the group know as soon as possible! While we don’t want this project to be high pressure, the reality is that if someone drops out, it means another member won’t get their song covered–UNLESS we work together to find a new volunteer to take over your track OR help you finish yours as a collaboration! So please, ask for help! Every track that’s supposed to be covered WILL get covered, but you can help reduce the workload of the producing the album.