Chive is a sheet music library built for the person who keeps an ensemble's music: the
librarian with a scanner, a hard drive full of PDFs and a concert on Saturday. It files
scores and parts, makes them searchable, and answers the one question that matters before
a rehearsal — is the music for this concert actually here?
Individual players use it for their own collection too, with the same filing and the same
set lists. But the ensemble is who it is built around.
How the filing works
The slow part of a music library is not storage, it is typing. Drop a piece's folder of
parts into Chive in your browser and it proposes a name for every part, reads the title
and composer off the score, and shows you all of it before anything is saved. Materials
are one file and a title. None of it needs anything installed.
On a Mac, Chive Desktop can save you even
that: it watches a folder for you, files a folder of parts that lands in it as a piece and a
loose PDF as a material, and waits thirty seconds first so there is always a moment to cancel.
When a whole set arrived as one scanned PDF, Chive reads the page headings and proposes
where each part begins. You correct the boundaries before anything is saved — the
suggestion is a starting point, not a decision.
What you can do with it
Catalogue pieces and parts: composer, arranger, your own
tags, and a named part slot for every player, so a missing part is visible as a gap rather
than a surprise.
Search the whole library at once: pieces, materials and set
lists together. On Pro, and on paid ensemble plans, you can ask in plain language instead
of guessing how a title was spelled.
Library review: a standing list of pieces with no composer,
or no parts yet, likely duplicates, and composer names spelled two ways. It points; it never
edits.
Set lists: a concert in running order with its date, occasion
and venue. Mark it performed and it is written into each piece's performance history. Export
the order as a PDF, or straight to forScore.
Shared ensemble libraries: everyone reads the same shelf.
Owners and admins add, edit and remove music; members read it. Billing sits with the owner.
What Chive is not
Not offline, and not an app you install. Chive runs in a
browser and needs an internet connection. It works on a phone and can be added to your home
screen, but there is nothing to download from an app store. Adding music is browser work on
any computer; Chive Desktop, for the Mac, only watches a folder for you.
Not a way to pass music around. Sheet music is copyrighted.
A library is visible to its owner and to the ensemble it belongs to, and to nobody else —
there are no public share links, and nothing crosses between libraries.
Not a teaching tool. There is no assignment tracking and
no student role; an ensemble has owners, admins and members.
Get in touch
We're always looking to improve Chive and would love to hear your feedback or suggestions.
Feel free to email us: