Frequently Asked Questions

Is this free to use?

Yes. An optional donation of $5 per piece used is suggested and highly appreciated. You do NOT need a PayPal account to make a donation! Just a credit card.

Music in the Public Domain

USER GUIDE: MUSIC

Pubdomain an online music library of copyright free music (public domain music) giving the world access to music, without the legal hassles common today. A great deal of music has expired copyrights, but almost no recordings of this music is in the public domain. So that our visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music, we aim to record or obtain recordings that have no copyrights.

"There ought to be but one large art warehouse in the world, to which the artist could carry his art-works and from which he could carry away whatever he needed..." - Beethoven

PDR reports musical works for which the United States copyright for the original version reviewed has expired, lapsed, or failed to vest initially. Expiration of U.S. copyright is not determinative of copyright status in foreign countries. When a musical composition's copyright expires, it is only the original version of the composition that can be presumed to be public domain. Later arrangements of the composition may be covered by separate copyright, and unauthorized uses of such arrangements would be infringing.

The expiration of a song's copyright does not inject any commercial recording of the song into the public domain. A master use license from the owner of the master recording (generally a record company) and often union re-use fees would be required before one could commercially exploit a particular commercial sound recording of a PD song.