Audio/music

Audio and music found on the internet has the same copyright protection as a music CD purchased from a shop. Copying, reusing or distributing this material will infringe copyright unless the copyright owner has given you their express permission. Getting into contact with the copyright owner is not always easy, so a few websites have developed licences which allow others to reuse their audio or music under certain terms and conditions. Always remember to check the terms and credit the material unless specified otherwise.

Resources A-Z

• Audio Library – No Copyright Music Channel – YouTube channel dedicated to search, catalog, sort and publish free music for commercial purposes, destined to content creators and filmmakers. Has over 900 free songs, sorted by artist, musical genre and mood.
• Bensound – Audio tracks which you can use for education purposes and e-learning with their CC licence. Make sure usage falls within the terms.
• ccMixter – is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.
• Creative Commons Search Creative Commons (CC) to search for music with CC licences on Jamendo. See this link for more information on licences.
• Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) provides free choral sheet music.  Most of the scores on CPDL are modern editions based on older works where copyright has lapsed, but some scores are newly composed and offered for download by the composer. Please refer to their copyright pages here.  
• Free Music Archive: offers free downloads under Creative Commons and other licenses.
• IMSLP – International Music Score Library Project from Canada. Provides music scores which can be downloaded to support music history, analysis, and harmony modules etc. Just be aware that the copyright term in Canada is currently life + 50 years whereas the UK is life + 70 years. However, the site will flag up disparities between duration in different territories.
• Mobygratis – free music for non-profit filmmakers.
• National Jukebox – Historical recordings form the Library of Congress. Historical sound recordings have been available to the public free of charge. These recordings can be streamed from the site but should not be downloaded and saved.
• Open Music Archive – Copyright has expired or is in the public domain.
• Ultimate list of Free Music – Page listing 34 websites of royalty free of Creative Commons licensed music

Please note that the website links have been compiled to highlight the range of websites available but are not endorsed by the University.

For more information please contact the University Copyright and Licensing Manager.