EBBA is the single most indispensable database for seventeenth-century ballads. Though it can be tricky to search and navigate, its resources are unparalleled.

Broadside Ballads Online is the nearest equivalent to EBBA for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; though in some ways more rudimentary it is extremely accessible.

The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection is based on US publications, but many of these are re-issues of English scores. As such, its large archive, dating back to 1780, is often the easiest way of accessing Georgian and Victorian sheet music digitally.

Mainly Norfolk is a great guide to any traditional or folk-adjacent songs that have appeared on record, via its Song Index. It stands out for its detailed commentary on different interpretations of the same song.

Mudcat is an idiosyncratic and rather formidable old-school discussion board. For those prepared to brave its interface – and its contributors – the rewards are immense: it pools a vast wealth of wisdom (and occasional hearsay). More formal and focused, but in similar vein, are MusTrad and Contemplator.

Three Acres and a Cow is a comparatively small but thoroughly charming site with an illuminating collection of resources.

Antiwar Songs is a brilliant international community-constructed archive of protest songs, featuring – to date – more than 34,000 songs and 25,000 commentaries.

The Warrior Women Project is a collaboration between EBBA and Wayne State University, built around the songs used in Dianne Dugaw’s seminal work Warrior Women.

The National Chartist Hymn Book is a single collection of sixteen songs – but for anyone interested in nineteenth-century working-class protest, it is unmissable.

The Yorkshire Garland Group is dedicated to a single county’s songs – but then, that county is Yorkshire. Better still, most songs come with lyrics, score, and a recorded performance, as well as commentary.

The Danish Peace Academy features, among other things, three remarkable endeavours by Holger Terp: WWI Songs; Peace Songs; and, best of all, the Greenham Common Peace Camps Songbooks. The first port of call for anyone interested in Greenham Common songs.

Union Songs is one man’s anthology, and correspondingly rudimentary in presentation and detail, but it contains an unparalleled collection of songs (and resources) on its theme, many of which are English.