Public domain music

Music is considered to be in the if it meets any of the following criteria:

Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 by Johann Sebastian Bach

In the U.S., any musical works published before 1922, in addition to those voluntarily placed in public domain, exist in the public domain. In most other countries, music generally enters the public domain in a period of fifty to seventy-five years after the artists' death. (Public domain rights must be verified for each individual country.) It is important to note the distinction between "musical works" (sheet music and other compositions) and "sound recordings" (audio files, CDs, records), as virtually all sound recordings will not fall into public domain until 2067, unless explicitly placed into the public domain by its creators or made by an employee or officer of the United States Government acting under their official duty.[1]

If a piece of music does not fall within public domain and is under copyright, then it is unlawful to:

For more information on general public domain, see Public Domain.

Rhapsodies, Op. 79 (Brahms)

Sources/Projects

Inherently, all historical musical works (pre-1922) are public domain.[2] 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 copyright law in 1970), 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 https://creativecommons.org/ in order to apply.[3]

Public domain musical works and recordings can be loaded onto the Wikimedia Commons website.


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.

Music on the Creative Commons:

Copyrights

For music the involved rights are:

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.pdinfo.com/Copyright-Law/Public-Domain-Sound-Recordings.php
  2. 1 2 "Copyright and Public Domain". Public Domain Information Project. Haven Sound, Inc. 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "CC0 - Creative Commons". Retrieved 2016-10-06.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.