If you find the "13,000 tunes" download buggy (missing styles, wrong chords, messy filenames), consider the official PG Music add-ons. They are cleaner and play perfectly out of the box:
No single official link exists for a "13,000 tunes" collection, as this specific number often refers to large, third-party user-compiled libraries rather than an official PG Music product.
While the official Band-in-a-Box UltraPAK includes thousands of styles and "MIDI Fakebooks," it is primarily a tool for generating music based on chords you input. If you are looking for the massive song collections often discussed in forums, here is how to navigate the current landscape. 1. Official "Real Book" & Fakebook Options
PG Music offers official add-ons that include song files (SGU/MGU format) with chord progressions already entered, allowing you to use their high-quality "RealTracks" (recordings of real musicians) for accompaniment.
MIDI Fakebooks: These are official sets of hundreds of songs that can be loaded directly into the software.
Song Titles Browser: Modern versions of the software include a "Song Titles Browser" that can search for the chord progressions of up to 50,000 popular songs to help you recreate them. 2. Large Third-Party "13,000+ Tunes" Links band in a box real books 13000 tunes link
The "13,000 tunes" or "Real Book software" packages found on the web are typically unofficial collections of MIDI-based song files created by the user community over decades.
Band-in-a-Box Backing Tracks. Free download. RealTracks Only
This is a digital collection of roughly 13,000 songs (often sold as a compressed package or on a USB hard drive by PG Music). It contains the chord progressions and lyrics for the vast majority of the standard jazz repertoire ("The Real Book," "The Fake Book," etc.) formatted specifically for Band-in-a-Box.
Important Clarification: This does not contain 13,000 audio tracks. It contains 13,000 Band-in-a-Box song files (.SGU/.MGU). When you open a file, the software reads the chords and generates a brand-new backing track using whatever RealStyle (RealDrums, RealTracks) you have installed.
If you cannot afford the official set, you do not need a shady "link." You can build your own library for free using: If you find the "13,000 tunes" download buggy
If you are a jazz musician, a cocktail pianist, a guitar student, or a vocalist looking to sharpen your improvisation skills, you have likely heard the whispers of a holy grail: a collection of over 13,000 tunes formatted for Band-in-a-Box (BIAB). You may have searched for the elusive "band in a box real books 13000 tunes link."
Stop searching for broken torrents or sketchy forums. Let’s talk about what this collection actually is, why it changes everything for practice, and how to get it working legitimately on your machine.
Yes, this costs money (typically $150–$300 depending on the package). But consider this: hiring a live rhythm section for one afternoon costs more than that. With the legal version, you get lifetime updates, virus-free files, and professional-quality arrangements that actually sound like the Real Book.
For decades, musicians have chased a paradoxical dream: the ability to practice improvisation with a world-class, responsive rhythm section, available 24/7, without needing to split the gig money. For those in the know, that dream has a name: Band-in-a-Box (BIAB).
But even within the loyal BIAB community, a holy grail exists—the fusion of the software’s powerful engine with the canonical library of jazz standards. This grail is often whispered about in forums and Facebook groups as the “Band-in-a-Box Real Books 13000 Tunes Link.” No single official link exists for a "13,000
If you have stumbled upon this phrase, you are likely searching for the ultimate practice tool. This article will explain exactly what that link represents, why those 13,000 tunes are a game-changer, how the Real Book integration works, and—crucially—where the legitimate path to this treasure lies.
For the uninitiated, Band-in-a-Box (by PG Music) is an intelligent music accompaniment software. You type in the chords (e.g., C, Am7, Dm7, G7), pick a style (e.g., "Jazz Swing," "Bossa Nova," "Blues Shuffle"), and the software generates a professional backing track of bass, drums, piano, and guitar.
The "Real Books" are the legendary collections of lead sheets—melodies with chord symbols—that jazz musicians have used for decades. The term "Real Book" originally referred to illegally compiled underground volumes of jazz standards. Today, it refers to the legal, published standards every working musician must know.
1. "Garbage In, Garbage Out" (Copyright Issues) It is important to understand that PG Music does not own the copyright to the songs. They license the mechanism to display them. Consequently, they cannot ship these files with the melodies written out (due to copyright restrictions on the notes/heads).
2. Computer-Generated Errors While 90% of the tunes are accurate to the standard changes, there are occasional errors. You might find a chord labeled as "Cmaj7" when the standard harmonic analysis suggests "C6," or occasionally a wrong chord in a bridge. These are usually based on specific editions of fake books, so if your band plays a different version, you will have to edit the chart.
3. Visual Presentation If you print these out to hand to a pianist or bassist, they will look like a computer printout, not a published piece of sheet music. It lacks the polished layout of a Hal Leonard book.