Kennedy-Spaien, Dot Com

Podcasts, audio and video, really aren’t Podcasts without music. The question is, where to source your music?

Many people are aware of the Podsafe Music Network. It is a source of specially licensed music that can be used freely (as in beer) on your projects with some simple stipulations. The idea - a good one - is to help indie artists like Uncle Seth or Matthew Ebel to promote themselves. Anyone can be a Podsafe musician or band (I am, myself, under a secret identity!).

However there are alternatives for podcasters looking for free-to-use music besides Creative Commons or Podsafe licenses. The public domain.

Podcasters typically use music in two different ways, either playing songs in order to showcase them, or as background, mood music. For most old PD music, the first use would tend to be limited to very niche shows, but it’s really quite useful for the latter.

The main advantage of the public domain (other than the freeness) are that you may be familiar with the song or the artist already, or at least the genre. If you are quickly looking for something to set a mood -say something comical or ridiculous - you know you can just look for dixieland featuring kazoo, or a particularly bawdy old blues song. Want something frantic? How about some old bluegrass or a foxtrot? Classical and Marching music is great, too. You are unlikely to easily find modern pop or rock, or newer country music in the public domain, though.

Example: I’m Wild About That Thing by Bessie Smith

Where do I snag public domain tunes?

The Internet Archive 78s and cylinders collection
and
Public Domain 4 U

I know there are dozens of you out there who know more and better sources… So why not share in the comment section?