Resources
Copyright and public domain resources
Copyright Basics (The Ohio State University Libraries Copyright Services)
Public Domain Day (Center for the Study of the Public Domain, Duke Univ. School of Law)
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has made available a list of digitized public domain works and collections from member institutions.
More than 300 popular songs with modern and traditional harmonization for both study and performance are freely available in The Public Domain Song Anthology
HathiTrust has made thousands of public domain items available, including music scores:
Determining public domain status for music
When determining copyright status of music, it’s important to understand that separate copyrights may exist for musical compositions and sound recordings. Due to the different treatment of musical compositions and sound recordings under federal copyright law, it is possible for a single piece of recorded music to encompass multiple copyrights with different terms of copyright protection. Below you will find charts summarizing these differences. For a fuller explanation, please read our blog post: When does music enter the public domain in the United States?
Musical compositions:
| Date of publication | Total term of federal protection |
| Pre-1925* | Currently in the public domain in the U.S. |
| 1925* – March 1, 1989 | Musical compositions published during this period were subject to various formalities. If these formalities were not met, works would enter the public domain. See our blog post for more information. See also Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States for more detailed information. |
| March 1, 1989 through 2002 | If created after 1977: term is life of the author + 70 years and, for works of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. |
| March 1, 1989 through 2002 | If created before 1978 and first published between March 1, 1989 and on or before December 31, 2002: term is life of the author + 70 years and, for works of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. Copyright shall not expire before December 31, 2047. |
| After December 31, 2002 | Life of the author + 70 years. For works of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. |
*Musical compositions first registered or published in the United States during this time would receive a maximum term of protection of 95 years from the date of publication. As a result, this date will increase every year moving forward, until reaching works published in 1977.
Sound recordings:
| Date of publication | Total term of federal protection |
| Pre-1923 | Through December 31, 2021 |
| 1923 – 1946 | 100 years from publication |
| 1947 – 1956 | 115 years from publication |
| 1957 – February 14, 1972 | Through February 15, 2067 |
| February 15, 1972 – March 1, 1989 | Sound recordings published during this period were subject to various formalities. If these formalities were not met, works would enter the public domain. See our blog post for more information. See also Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States for more detailed information. |
| After March 1, 1989 | Life of the author + 70 years. For works of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. |
