OLGA, she’s a sweet girl

Now, now, she’s not my new special friend! OLGA is The On-Line Guitar Archive, a collection of user-supplied chords or tablature files for songs. The songs cover pretty much all styles of music, from JS Bach to Springsteen to Linkin Park. Since the site depends on submissions, not all the files are complete or completely accurate but I’ve found pretty good material here over the years.

OLGA long ago ran into Napster-like opposition from music publishers and, in fact, lost it’s original academically-hosted home after threats of a lawsuit from EMI. Indeed, for some time in the late ’90s OLGA was completely offline. Recently, the organizers incorporated to better meet any future legal threats. I’m really surprised the EFF isn’t helping them out but I have pointed out the possibility to them.