Public domain music is

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

to which no exclusive

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

rights apply.

Background

The length of copyright protection varies from country to country, but music, along with most other creative works, generally enters the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

50 to 75 years after the death of the creator. 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). In the United States, although case law regarding copyright abandonment is inconsistent, the law has generally assumed that copyright owners may dedicate their works to the public domain; however, this practice remains exceedingly rare. The most common way for a work to enter the public domain is for its copyright term to expire—this is the case for musical compositions published prior to 1 January . Sound recordings, on the other hand, were generally protected until at least 2022. Before 1976, sound recordings were not protected by national copyright law in the United States; instead, the protection of these works was under the jurisdiction of the state and local governments. This resulted in great variation in laws across the country, with some jurisdictions extending perpetual protection to sound recordings. Although the

Copyright Act of 1976 The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, ...

provided federal copyright protection to sound recordings created after 1972, it otherwise left state protections in place until at least 2067. The 2018

Music Modernization Act The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, or Music Modernization Act or MMA (, ) is United States legislation signed into law on October 11, 2018, aimed to modernize copyright-related issues for music and audio recordings due ...

further nationalized the system by extending federal copyright protection to pre-1972 sound recordings while also shortening their term of protection. Sound recordings made before 1923 entered the public domain on 1 January 2022; recordings made between 1923 and 1946 will be protected for 100 years after publication; recordings made between 1947 and 1956 will be protected for 110 years; and all recordings made from 1957 to 15 February 1972 will have their protection terminate on 15 February 2067. In the European Union and Canada, sound recordings were copyrighted for 50 years until 2013. On 1 January 2013,

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' single "

Love Me Do "Love Me Do" is the debut single by the English rock band the Beatles, backed by " P.S. I Love You". When the single was originally released in the United Kingdom on 5 October 1962, it peaked at number 17. It was released in the United States i ...

" entered the public domain. As of November 2013, European sound recordings are now protected for 70 years, which is not retroactive. In 2015, Canada changed the copyright length to 70 years. On 8 February 2016, a court ruled that the children's song "

Happy Birthday to You "Happy Birthday to You", or simply "Happy Birthday", is a song traditionally sung to celebrate a person's birthday. According to the 1998 ''Guinness World Records'', it is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He' ...

" was in the public domain and Warner/Chappell Music was required to pay $14 million to the song's licensees. In October 2020, American humorist

Tom Lehrer Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy and humorous, often Music and politics, political songs that ...

released his entire catalogue, dating back to the 1950s, into the public domain.

Copyright

For music, the involved rights are: *Authors (

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

lyricist A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income derives ...

s) — e.g. CISAC

members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

, AR: SADAIC, DE: GEMA, GB: PRS, US:

SESAC SESAC is a for-profit performance-rights organization in the United States. Founded in 1930 as the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, it is the second-oldest performance-rights organization in the United States.

, BMI,

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

*Performer **Mechanical rights — e.g. BIEM members (mechanical rights collecting societies), AR: SADAIC, DE: GEMA, GB: MCPS, US: HFA ***BIEM is the international organisation representing mechanical rights societies. Mechanical rights societies exist in most countries. They license the reproduction of songs (including musical, literary and dramatic works). Their members are composers, authors and publishers and their clients are record companies and other users of recorded music. They also license mechanical aspects of the downloading of music via the Internet. **Live performance — DE: *Publisher — e.g.

IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

members, AR:

CAPIF The Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers (, CAPIF) is an Argentine organization member of the IFPI, which represents the music industry in the country. It is a nonprofit organization integrated by multinational and independent ...

, GB: BPI, US:

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Process

There are several ways that a piece of music can be in the

: * If all rights in it have failed, as is the case for old pieces of music such as

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...

's 1924 composition ''

Rhapsody in Blue ''Rhapsody in Blue'' is a 1924 musical composition for solo piano and jazz band by George Gershwin. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the work combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects and premiered in a concer ...

''. * If the rights-holders have placed it into the public domain, for example through copyright abandonment or the Creative Commons Zero dedication. * If no rights ever applied to the music, possibly because the music predates the existence of intellectual property, as is the case for most

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

, or because it is otherwise ineligible for protection, as is the case for music performed by the various ensembles of the US military. 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 work In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of a first, previously created original work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent from ...

s without the permission of the copyright holder. Under

compulsory licensing A compulsory license provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of adjudication or arbitration. In essence, under a compulsory license, an i ...

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.

Sources

Inherently, all historical musical works (pre-) are public domain. 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 The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. 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: The

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

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 https://creativecommons.org/ in order to apply. Public domain musical works and recordings can be uploaded onto the

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a wiki-based Digital library, media repository of Open content, free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used ...

website.

References

External links