New Year, New (Old) Sounds in the Public Domain!
On January 1st, 2022, all sound recordings made before 1923 entered the public domain, an estimated 400,000 sound recordings that document the beginning of recording technologies and include a rich variety of musical styles, such as vaudeville, ragtime, and early jazz. Some notable examples highlighted by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections are “Crazy Blues,” performed by Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds in 1920, and a 1917 recording of “Dixieland Jass Band One-Step” by the Original Dixieland Jass Band. The 78 rpm records seen here are part of the Oberlin Conservatory Library’s James R. and Susan Neumann Jazz Collection, and the sheet music is part of the Stanley King Jazz Collection.
Learn more about the Music Modernization Act, passed by Congress in 2018, that allows these recordings to enter the public domain. Listen to pre-1923 sound recordings available at The Public Domain Review, the Internet Archive, and the National Jukebox at the Library of Congress. And lastly, join the virtual party for Public Domain Day on January 20th: A Celebration of Sound. Cheers!