Downloading public domain music?
March 17, 2011 9:33 AM Subscribe
Where can I download public domain music?
I am making a little video to put on YouTube, and I want to find some background music ... maybe jazz or opera or bluegrass or techno. Is there a good website where I can download music that is fully in the public domain, such that I can sample and reuse it however I want for free without asking permission?
I am making a little video to put on YouTube, and I want to find some background music ... maybe jazz or opera or bluegrass or techno. Is there a good website where I can download music that is fully in the public domain, such that I can sample and reuse it however I want for free without asking permission?
http://archive.org
also:
https://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos
posted by blue_beetle at 9:36 AM on March 17, 2011
also:
https://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos
posted by blue_beetle at 9:36 AM on March 17, 2011
Is there a good website where I can download music that is fully in the public domain, such that I can sample and reuse it however I want for free without asking permission?
Most public domain works are public domain because their copyright protections have lapsed, and as far as I know because of the extremely long copyright lengths, in the US at least there are no musical recordings where that has happened. Authors can choose to purposely make their recordings public domain but this is relatively rare. Also note that a modern recording of a public domain piece of music is still protected by copyright in the US, so even if you want to use something by Mozart which was written a long time ago you will need to make sure that the actual recording is public domain. Musopen is a project dedicated to purposely creating and collecting these kinds of public domain recordings, although for classical music and not the genres you mentioned.
Note that what you are trying to do (use music as the background for a video for free without explicit permission from the creator) does not require it to be public domain though. As blue_beetle's link says, most versions the Creative Commons license will allow you to use the music as long as you include an attribution, and blue_beetle's link includes has more links to places where you can download CC-licensed music in a variety of genres. CC-licensed music is good for this kind of thing because it clearly spells out what you can and can't do, whereas music on, say, music.metafilter.com is free to download but does not come with any kind of license to create derivative works (although you could always contact the creator to ask for permission explicitly).
posted by burnmp3s at 9:51 AM on March 17, 2011
Most public domain works are public domain because their copyright protections have lapsed, and as far as I know because of the extremely long copyright lengths, in the US at least there are no musical recordings where that has happened. Authors can choose to purposely make their recordings public domain but this is relatively rare. Also note that a modern recording of a public domain piece of music is still protected by copyright in the US, so even if you want to use something by Mozart which was written a long time ago you will need to make sure that the actual recording is public domain. Musopen is a project dedicated to purposely creating and collecting these kinds of public domain recordings, although for classical music and not the genres you mentioned.
Note that what you are trying to do (use music as the background for a video for free without explicit permission from the creator) does not require it to be public domain though. As blue_beetle's link says, most versions the Creative Commons license will allow you to use the music as long as you include an attribution, and blue_beetle's link includes has more links to places where you can download CC-licensed music in a variety of genres. CC-licensed music is good for this kind of thing because it clearly spells out what you can and can't do, whereas music on, say, music.metafilter.com is free to download but does not come with any kind of license to create derivative works (although you could always contact the creator to ask for permission explicitly).
posted by burnmp3s at 9:51 AM on March 17, 2011
The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
Incompetech.com by Kevin MacLeod
posted by MsMolly at 10:45 AM on March 17, 2011
Incompetech.com by Kevin MacLeod
posted by MsMolly at 10:45 AM on March 17, 2011
Is there a good website where I can download music that is fully in the public domain, such that I can sample and reuse it however I want for free without asking permission?
Something that you have to remember is that when it comes to recorded music is there are *two* copyrights involved. The first is the copyright of the recording. There are a number of sites (archive.org, jazz-on-line.com, etc) that let you download songs where the recording has become public domain.
The second is the songwriter's copyright on the song. Somewhat confusingly, the songwriter's copyright is the one that is important when it comes to video sync rights, like you want to do with youtube. So you could find a perfectly fine public domain recording (no one renewed the copyright), but when you go to use it, find out that the songwriter's copyright was renewed, and is still active. This is the problem that hit Nina Paley with Sita Sings the Blues. She used public domain Annette Hanshaw recordings, only to be told she couldn't distribute her movie without paying licensing costs for the songs, since various music companies had bought and renewed the songwriters' copyrights.
So if you want songs recordings you can do anything you want with, you need ones where both copyrights are now in the public domain. Assuming you are in the US, that generally means public domain recordings of songs that were written in 1922 or earlier.
The other alternative, as mentioned by blue_beetle, is to use properly licensed Creative Commons recordings.
posted by fings at 7:07 PM on March 17, 2011
Something that you have to remember is that when it comes to recorded music is there are *two* copyrights involved. The first is the copyright of the recording. There are a number of sites (archive.org, jazz-on-line.com, etc) that let you download songs where the recording has become public domain.
The second is the songwriter's copyright on the song. Somewhat confusingly, the songwriter's copyright is the one that is important when it comes to video sync rights, like you want to do with youtube. So you could find a perfectly fine public domain recording (no one renewed the copyright), but when you go to use it, find out that the songwriter's copyright was renewed, and is still active. This is the problem that hit Nina Paley with Sita Sings the Blues. She used public domain Annette Hanshaw recordings, only to be told she couldn't distribute her movie without paying licensing costs for the songs, since various music companies had bought and renewed the songwriters' copyrights.
So if you want songs recordings you can do anything you want with, you need ones where both copyrights are now in the public domain. Assuming you are in the US, that generally means public domain recordings of songs that were written in 1922 or earlier.
The other alternative, as mentioned by blue_beetle, is to use properly licensed Creative Commons recordings.
posted by fings at 7:07 PM on March 17, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jedicus at 9:36 AM on March 17, 2011