public domain music

The Internet Archive audio collection

What's there: Large collection of recordings, ranging from “alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry recordings, to original music contributed by users.” (That quote is straight from the site.) There’s a ton here. Really.

Using what you find: Not everything you find here will be in the public domain, but some of it is. (Here’s a chilling example: the Jonestown Death Tape (FBI No. Q 042.) It’s up to you to read the information for the work you’re interested in. For example, you may share recordings from the Grateful Dead collection, but you may not use them commercially (which, by the way, includes offering them on websites with advertising).

Other works are licensed under Creative Commons licenses (for example, the Open Source Audio collection) — pay attention to the particular terms of whatever license the work’s creator selected. (For general info on the various “flavors” of Creative Commons licenses, see here.)

Library of Congress | American Memory collection

What's there: 24 collections in the Library of Congress’ American Memory include sound recordings. There’s a mix of spoken word and music recordings — you can hear person-on-the-street interviews made just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as recations to the September 11 attacks. What else? The stories of former slaves ... Thomas Edison’s sound recordings ... Northern California folk music from the 1930s ... and more. Check the list.

Using what you find: Many of the sound recordings in these collections don’t have copyright restrictions on them, but some certainly do. Each collection has a “Copyright and Other Restrictions” page that gives rights information specific to it. So read it. Oh, and if you’re planning to use a recorded interview commercially, be aware of the rights of privacy and publicity.

Metamath Music Page

What's there: Mathematical proofs set to music. Yes, you read that right.

Using what you find: All the music on this page, with one exception (which is named), has been placed in the public domain. You may use it any way you wish, for any purpose.

Musopen

What's there: Community driven music repository. MP3 recordings of public domain music. As the site puts it: “This project exists so that educational institutions and the general public can have free, unlimited access to all kinds of music that have expired copyrights.” Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early 20th century works.

Using what you find: The recordings on this site have been placed in the public domain, so there are no restrictions on what you may do with them. The site’s operators ask that you don’t directly sell the recordings for profit, though, and that you give credit to Musopen for any material that you use. Now, technically, you don’t have to do either of those things ... but I’ll leave that to your conscience.

Project Gutenberg recorded music

What's there: Downloadabe MP3s. Various works and artists, from Sophie Tucker to the US Marine Band to Giusseppe Verdi.

Using what you find: Many sound recordings here are in the US public domain, but not all. The bibliographic record for each work includes its copyright status, so take a look. If the work is copyrighted, a license will apply ... so always check the work’s Readme file. If you don’t, well, it’ll be your own damn fault if you get into trouble.

Wikipedia Sound/list

What's there: List of full length copyleft/public domain songs available on Wikipedia or the Commons (alphabetically sorted by composer). Classical works mostly, from what I can see. Ogg vorbis format.

Looking for a free player that supports ogg files? Check out Zinf.

Using what you find: Not all of these recordings are in the public domain. The ones that aren’t are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, or the (old) EFF Open Audio License 1.0. Basically, you may copy, redistribute, perform or modify the music, but you must give credit to the original performer and you may not change the license terms. (For general info on Creative Commons licenses, see here.)