Public domain and copyright laws are complicated and can change. While the sites outlined in this article have done the heavy lifting for you to make sure what they're offering is in the public domain, it's always best to read the fine print before downloading anything to protect yourself against any possible legal complications. The information contained in this article is intended for entertainment purposes only.
Open Music Archive's songs are hosted in the UK and are in the public domain there. If you're accessing this site outside the UK, please know there may be different copyright laws in your country that don't permit you to download these files.
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Music and lyrics enter the public domain when all possible copyright protection has expired. Check out our Public Domain Music Lists. You can order any Proof of Public Domain Sheet Music Reprint for $5 or less. Pay music royalties to no one.
Only 1922 or earler sound recordings are presently in the public domain in the USA. If you need modern music tracks, we have thousands of professional music tracks you can quicklylicense for your video or voice-over project.
Our Public Domain Music Library has thousands of 1928 or earlier books, hymnals, periodicals, and sheet music. We can provide you an exact reprint of almost any public domain song. Be sure to get your PD Proof BEFORE you start your project !
The length of copyright protection varies from country to country, but music, along with most other creative works, generally enters the public domain 50 to 75 years after the death of the creator.[citation needed] Generally, copyright separately protects "musical compositions" (melodies, rhythms, lyrics, etc. as written in sheet music) and "sound recordings" (performances as recorded in audio files, CDs, and records).[2] Therefore, a recording of Rhapsody in Blue made in 2020 could be protected by copyright even though the underlying composition lies in the public domain.
In the European Union and Canada, sound recordings were copyrighted for 50 years until 2013. On 1 January 2013, the Beatles' single "Love Me Do" entered the public domain.[7] As of November 2013, European sound recordings are now protected for 70 years, which is not retroactive.[8] In 2015, Canada changed the copyright length to 70 years.[9]
If a piece of music does not fall within the public domain and is instead under copyright protection, most countries' laws forbid the reproduction, public performance, distribution, and creation of derivative works without the permission of the copyright holder.[16][17] Under compulsory licensing laws, some of these actions may in fact be lawful, but the infringing party would then be liable to pay royalties to the copyright holder for the use of their work.[18]
Inherently, all historical musical works (pre-1929) are public domain.[16] Classical sheet music, for example, is widely available for free use and reproduction. Some more current works are also available for free use through public works projects such as Internet Archive. This and similar projects aim to preserve and make readily available thousands of public domain music files, many of which have been recorded by projects dedicated to recording music for public use.
The Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization created for the purpose of housing the public domain. The Commons allows copyright owners to dedicate their works to the public domain either immediately or, with the "Founders' Copyright" (originally created in the first American copyright law in 1790), can obtain an exclusive license for 14 or 28 years (if renewed) of copyright protection in exchange for selling their work to the Commons for one dollar after that protection has expired. Copyright owners can fill out an online application at in order to apply.[19]
I was wondering if anyone has recommendations on how to go about finding public domain music? It is sort of hard to find it seems and just a big bank of public domain music seems to not exist. Any tips or recommendations would be welcome!
In 2022, experts estimate that some 400,000 sound recordings published before 1923 will enter the public domain! They will become free for all to download, remix, or use in a soundtrack.
Why celebrate the public domain? When works go into the public domain, they can legally be shared, without permission or fee. Community theaters can screen the films. Youth orchestras can perform the music publicly, without paying licensing fees. Online repositories such as the Internet Archive, HathiTrust, Google Books, and the New York Public Library can make works fully available online. This helps enable access to cultural materials that might otherwise be lost to history. 1927 was a long time ago. The vast majority of works from 1927 are out of circulation. When they enter the public domain in 2023, anyone can rescue them from obscurity and make them available, where we can all discover, enjoy, and breathe new life into them.
What happens when a work containing a character such as Sherlock Holmes enters the public domain, but that character also appears in still-copyrighted works? The law is clear that the original version of the character enters the public domain at the same time as the work that contained it, even if subsequent installments or episodes are still under copyright. But not every rights owner likes that answer! This was an important issue last year when the original Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain. It will be front and center next year when the first appearance of Mickey Mouse goes into the public domain. And it is a theme this year because in 2023 the copyright will finally expire over The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, which contains the last two Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. For years the Doyle estate has tried to prolong copyright over the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Now its character-copyright game is up.
For more information, including the interaction between expired copyrights and a different set of rules under trademark law, you can read our analysis of Winnie-the-Pooh and copyright and trademark claims over public domain characters here.
Unfortunately, part of this iceberg has already melted. As the story of our silent film heritage shows, the fact that works from 1927 are legally available does not mean they are actually available. After 95 years, many of them are already lost, evidence of what long copyright terms do to the conservation of cultural artifacts. For the material that has survived, however, the long-awaited entry into the public domain is still something to celebrate.
The works on our lists are in the public domain because of either a 1927 registration or publication with a 1927 copyright notice. Sometimes there is a 1928 or 1929 registration for a work published in 1927, but this does not prevent copyright from expiring over the original 1927 publication. For most of the featured works we were also able to track down the renewal data indicating that they are still in-copyright through the end of 2022 and affirmatively entering the public domain in 2023.
Foreign works from 1927 were still copyrighted in the US until 2023 if 1) they complied with US notice and renewal formalities, 2) they were published in the US within 30 days of publication abroad, or 3) if neither of these are true, they were still copyrighted in their home country as of 1/1/96. The foreign works on our list met these criteria.
Our site features books, movies, and musical compositions. There are also other creative works entering the public domain, including drawings, paintings, and photography. We have not listed them here because it was more difficult to track down complete copyright information for them.
A source of royalty free music for your audio and video projects. Making a new YouTube video or developing your website portfolio and need some good quality music? Free music public domain is a place for you to explore. Search among 22 different categories and download music of choice in three steps:
A large number of free public domain music for you to download and use. And, while not all of them are free, the ones that are clearly marked and easy to find. There are more than 1,400 royalty-free recordings for use in video, film and multimedia projects and about 20% of them are completely free. New music is being added each month.
A place of free public domain music, from the ones whose copyright has expired to the ones that are donated by generous artists to the music with CC0 license. Enjoy searching among almost 3000 tracks in 16 different genres!
A site that offers free classical public domain music you can browse by composer, performer, instrument, form and time period. All the music can be downloaded as an MP3 file. Apart from free music recordings, you can also download free sheet music files and textbooks too J
A collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds that exist for ten years. Here you can browse, download and share sounds and use them freely. Just as the WordPress is an open source, the Freesound Project is an open database for audio sounds and music.
Mubert is a one-of-a-kind, creator-focused platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate limitless royalty-free music for the content of all kinds. Using millions of high-quality music samples, a variety of worldwide license types, and endless capabilities for music customization, Mubert helps content creators find the best music for their projects with ease.
I hope this list of free public domain music websites saves you time finding free music and audio sounds for your next project. Be sure to check out our list of the top free photo websites too, to further save some time and make awesome new projects!
Here is just a handful of the works that will be in the US public domain in 2024.[2] They were first set to go into the public domain after a 56-year term in 1984, but a term extension pushed that date to 2004. They were then supposed to go into the public domain in 2004, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit another 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years.[3] Now the wait is over. (To find more material from 1928, you can visit the Catalogue of Copyright Entries.) e24fc04721
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