Good Public Domain Christmas Music?

November 3, 2005 10:07 AM

I need to find some christmas music I can use for a corporate e-card without paying royalty fees.

I have been on the internet archive and creative commons sites but most work is not licensed for commercial work or sounds lousy (poor composition or it's midi).

By the way, this is somewhat for a good cause, because the higher-ups said that if we can put the card together without any costs (i.e. no designer but me), the money they would normally spend will go to charity.

posted by BigBrownBear to media & arts (5 comments total)

There's no such thing as a sound recording that is out of copyright (and never will be), so you're basically out of luck.

You can:

a) try to find someone who has written and recorded their own christmas music, and explicitly disclaimed copyright protection;
b) pay $10,000 or more for the privilege of using some recorded christmas music, through the normal music clearance agencies;
c) ignore copyright, use whatever you can find;
d) create your own recording, from some old tune from a dead white European composer;
e) don't use music for your card.

Hope this helps. I'd pick e), since things that play music unexpectedly are annoying.
posted by jellicle at 10:38 AM on November 3, 2005

FeelsLikeChristmas.com looks like it might work for you. They have free mp3s, contributed directly by the artists. On their front page, they indicate "non-profit uses of all kinds are generally OK." The selection's not huge, but you could probably find something that would fit.
posted by alyxstarr at 10:57 AM on November 3, 2005

The song "Toyland" is in the public domain. Create your own recording (hey, how about a corporate group sing-a-long?) and use that.
posted by chocolatepeanutbuttercup at 11:29 AM on November 3, 2005

I might be getting too into podcasting for my own good, but my first thought was the Podsafe Music Network.

There's actually been an effort to create new Christmas music that's not tied down by the major labels and copyrights. Some original stuff, some based on public-domain carols and the like. You might just want to search for the keyword "Christmas" and see what comes up.
They're technically creating the music for the podcast community, but since many actually use generic Creative Commons licensing, your use might fit with some.
posted by pzarquon at 1:18 PM on November 3, 2005

jellicle - why is there no such such thing as an audio recording that is out of copyright? I came across some audio recording on the internet archive from the 1920s and they are identified as no rights reserved and in the public domain. I can use these, right?

I came across all kinds of great stuff on the podsafe music network and other sources sited by creative commons, but the catch is that this is for a for-profit corporation.
posted by BigBrownBear at 4:10 PM on November 3, 2005