You might ask this important and confusing question: “When does music classified as public domain material?“. Typically as a background:
1.) All music for licensing are copyrighted materials. Whether they advertise themselves as “royalty-free”; the music is not a public domain material and the work is still copyrighted. You need to agree to the license or the terms of conditions stipulated by the music publisher before you can use the music.
2.) The length or term of copyright is not fixed by a number of years for all countries. Instead it depends on a variety of factors such as the country where the author resides or the type of work (anonymous, work for hire, etc.)
Source: Copyright term article in Wikipedia
3.) You can reuse public domain music or incorporate it with your composition without requiring a license. Some popular hit songs are based on the arrangement and structure of public domain music.
4.) A good example of public domain music are classical works made by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and all those classical composers for which the copyright already expires.
5.) As a short and easy definition, music will fall into public domain if the term of copyright expires.
Copyright Expiration and Public Domain Music
This can start to sound complicated because of the variety of factors involved that determines the life of a copyright. The term of copyright is an important indicator whether the music now belongs to public domain. However in the Wiki source article mentioned previously; below are minimum and maximum terms of copyright:
1.) Life of the author + 50 years
2.) Life of the author + 70 years
Another source (US Copyright website) mentions the life of copyright in terms of fixed years after first publication or creation date for anonymous, work for hire authors or work done using pseudonyms.
3.) Fixed years after publication (for anonymous, work for hire authors) = 95 years after publication date.
OR:
120 years from the creation date depending on which expires first
So if the author lives for around 90 years, the entire life of copyright has a minimum of 90+50 or 140 years and a maximum of around 90+70 = 160 years. This is true if the work is not created by an anonymous author.
Take note that this will differ from one country to another. The complete list of copyright term per country is shown in this Wiki summary. If the author is anonymous, it is either 95 years after the work is first published or 120 years from the date of creation (as shown in US Copyright website).
This is one of the main reasons why most classical music works (done by Beethoven, Mozart, etc.) now belongs to public domain. The work is more than 200 years old. Be careful when using “alleged” public domain music because it can get you in a legal trouble with the original authors. For example a song “All by myself” has been written by Eric Carmen with some lines and melodies borrowed from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. At first, Eric thought the music was already in the public domain but it was not. As a result, Eric Carmen made an agreement with the original authors.
Source: “All by myself” at Songfacts
How to really check if the music is now in public domain?
So lets asked again, when does music fall into the public domain? Below are the suggestions which help you find a more accurate answer than relying on assumptions:
1.) You need a strong documented/legal proof that the music already exceeds the life of the copyright. In this case, consider using the worst scenario which is the earliest possible date of expiration. Contact the copyright office and asked for documents. Of course prepare to spend for some research work. You can start by knowing how to perform a song copyright search.
2.) Visit this website to know whether the music is in the public domain:
There is still no guarantee of accuracy and it is better to read their terms and conditions or consult an entertainment lawyer before commercially using any public domain music.
3.) Optionally you can go to either go to the government copyright website and do some research about the underlying copyright. You need to do an extensive copyright search.
What you are going to see next is a search form for the Library of Congress Public catalog. You need to click on “Other search options”, now you have the form, you can enter any of the above information obtained about the underlying music recording. For example, you can enter the surname of the creator, songwriter or even the title of the work. For example purposes, say someone is interested to know my catalog whether it now belongs to public domain, and they will enter any phrase in the catalog name at the box.
Copyright records
Then in the search result, for example click “Emerson Roble Maningo Song Catalog”, and hence you have this following information obtained:
Date of Creation: 2008
Date of Publication: 2009-01-01
Nation of First Publication: United States
Combining the above information with the life of the author, you can pretty estimate the expiration of the copyright.
Is there a Public Domain Sound Recordings for Classical Music?
One of the most commonly asks question: “Is there a public domain sound recording for a classical music?” The short answer is NONE. The primary reason is complex:
a.) While the music piece itself (or with lyrics) might be in the public domain, it does not mean that the “recordings” of that song are also in the public domain. Remember that the copyright of music/lyrics is different from the copyright of its recordings.
Since two copyrights are different, it is possible to have different owners. The songwriter or music publisher owns the copyright of the music/lyrics; while the recording label or producer owns the copyright of the sound recording. If the songwriter is also the music publisher and the recording producer (such as many independent artist today producing recordings at home) , then that artist owns both the copyright of the music/lyrics and the sound recording.
b.) Sound recordings are not protected by US Copyright law before February 15, 1972. They are protected by state laws. You can read the details here.
According to that article, public domain sound recordings may start to appear in February 2067. So you really cannot use any sound recordings in your project without obtaining permission from a sound copyright owner whether the work falls below the following classification:
a.) Classical music recordings (done by Mozart, Bach, Handel, Beethoven) ,etc.
b.) Any traditional folk songs and jazz music.
c.) Any foreign music from other countries.
Is there any way you can obtain the sound recording of your favourite classical music piece without paying a very expensive license fees from the sound recording copyright owner? First, you need to do research very carefully. I recommend the following steps:
Step1.) Ensure that the classical music piece (the music itself not the sound recording), is now in the public domain. You can go to this website.
And then click “Browse by composer”. Navigate until you will see the music sheet of the classical piece.
Step2.) If you see that the copyright is now in the “public domain”. Download that piece of music sheet and consult a copyright attorney or copyright expert regarding the authenticity of the sheet music in the public domain.
Step3.) If the music piece is indeed a public domain work; you have the right to create a sound recording out of that public domain work.
Methods on how you can create your own sound recording of a classical music
There is a lot of ways you can create a sound recording out of classical piece of work:
a.) Hire an orchestra to publicly perform the music and record it. Pay them under work for hire agreement and then you now own the sound recording copyright of that classical piece. Bear in mind that hiring an orchestra might get costly in some countries or simply not available.
b.)Another inexpensive way is to hire a musician to transcribe the musical piece into a sound recording using music software such as Notion 3. Then the exported wav file can be copyrighted as a sound recording work. You can read my Notion 3 review music notation software.
Once you have that sound recording in physical form (CD, etc.); you can now submit and register it to copyright office. The sound recording copyright of that classical music piece is now rightfully yours.
Content last updated on July 24, 2012