Sheet Music Library

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The sheet music library plugin is a framework that leverages WordPress to post sheet music online in a structured way. Using a sheet music custom post type and taxonomies for composers, genres, difficulties, and orchestrations, you can upload, organize, and share sheet music in a native-feeling interface. In addition to the taxonomies, each “piece” object includes PDF-based score and parts upload (with automatically-generated preview images), and audio upload and/or Youtube/Vimeo embeds to showcase recordings. The native WordPress block editor facilitates additional information, be it a sentence explaining the arrangement or a multi-paragraph essay describing a work complete with multimedia content.

On the front-end, this plugin provides default styling and filtering to display sheet music content in a way that is compatible with most themes. Customizations ranging from visual tweaks with CSS to custom themes that implement the sheet_music post type directly with custom templates allow for infinite possibilities. Blocks are also available so that you can optionally build custom layouts with the site editor and block themes.

Whether you’re a composer/arranger publishing your works online, a community or school orchestra sharing music with your members, or work with music in any other way, the Sheet Music Library plugin provides an easy, flexible way to manage and share your content.

Note that this plugin was designed with classical music in mind in particular, but it can be used in much broader contexts. It was built for the Cello Expressions Sheet Music Library, which provides a good example of what it can do and how it can look on the front end. The backend UI is just as much of a reason to try this plugin, with its seamless integration with WordPress core features.

Download

Latest version: Download Sheet Music Library v2.0.1

Sheet Music Library has been downloaded times through WordPress.org.

Installation

  1. Take the easy route and install through the WordPress plugin installer OR
  2. Download the .zip file and upload the unzipped folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  3. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  4. The “Sheet Music” post type is now available and can be used to add content. Plan on taking some time to either look at some different themes to find one that works well with the default styling, add some custom CSS to clean up the styling, or build a fully custom theme with custom templates for the sheet music post type. The plugin also includes all of the blocks necessary to create sheet music post templates in the site editor, if you prefer to start from scratch.
  5. Install the Front Page Custom Post Type plugin to show sheet music posts on your front page: https://wordpress.org/plugins/front-page-custom-post-type/. Or, add a link to the “Sheet Music” post type archive to your menu via the customizer.
  6. The [all_sheet_music] and [latest_sheet_music] shortcodes can be used to add a table-style summary of all music on the site, and you can use the standard WordPress archive/taxonomy views to present music as well.
  7. Add the “Sheet Music Library Playlist” widget to your sidebar to facilitate audio-based music discovery on your site.

Screenshots

  1. Table view display with the Twenty Fifteen theme (as of version 1.1, this includes audio players as well).

    Table view display with the Twenty Fifteen theme (as of version 1.1, this includes audio players as well).

  2. Archive (search, taxonomy, author, date, etc.) view with the Twenty Fifteen theme.

    Archive (search, taxonomy, author, date, etc.) view with the Twenty Fifteen theme.

  3. Single piece view with the Twenty Fifteen theme.

    Single piece view with the Twenty Fifteen theme.

  4. Taxonomy administration for sheet music posts (classic editor).

    Taxonomy administration for sheet music posts (classic editor).

  5. Custom field administration for sheet music posts (block editor).

    Custom field administration for sheet music posts (block editor).

  6. Automatic, contextual sheet music audio playlist widget on a taxonomy page (showing an "orchestration" term).

    Automatic, contextual sheet music audio playlist widget on a taxonomy page (showing an “orchestration” term).

Changelog

2.0 – 4/1/2023

  • Enable the Block Editor for the Sheet Music post type. Sheet music data remains managed within a meta box below the post content, matching the 1.2 interface.
  • Update minimum WP version to 6.1 for custom taxonomy compatibility with the core query and terms blocks.
  • Add editor blocks for each component of the default sheet music template filtering display.
  • Refactor post template filtering to use the same rendering functions as the new sheet music library blocks. Default front-end output display should not change.
  • Add block patterns for use in sheet music query loop blocks.
  • Add block patterns for use in theme templates, for sheet music post type single and archive views.
  • Add collections taxonomy, not displayed by default, for use in query blocks and optional display in custom templates.
  • Add a playlist block pattern to improve the workflow of adding playlists to posts in the block editor, until core provides feature parity with the classic editor playlist functionality.
  • Add UI options in the customizer to disable content filtering and to disable default styling, for use when sheet music templates are set up via block UI and the site editor.
  • Add file date modified display to all file download buttons.
  • Minor adjustments to the direct download unavailable message box.
  • Add styling to support small audio players, which can be enabled through the .condensed-audio CSS class and is included in some block patterns.

1.2

  • Add the “Sheet Music Audio Playlist” widget, which automatically compiles the sheet music audio present on a given page into a playlist. This is particularly helpful on taxonomy and search views.
  • Add the “Sheet Music Recent Audio Playlist” widget, which displays a playlist of the most recent audio posted. The sheet music associated with these posts is not directly available, so this widget is best used alongside a recent posts widget.
  • Add a way to display a message in place of the PDF download buttons on a piece-by-piece basis, where some music is not freely and publicly available.
  • Introduce the ability to remove attachments from a piece in the post meta box.
  • Minor keyboard accessibility improvements in the piece files meta box.

1.1.1

  • Fix enqueuing admin assets for custom post meta UI.
  • Add missing localized strings for JS.

1.1

  • Add audio players to sheet music in the table views from the [all_sheet_music] and [latest_sheet_music] shortcodes.
  • Add support for translations via plugin language packs.

1.0

  • Initial public release.