Obtaining Out-of-Copyright Sound Recordings?

Question

Yes, this IS still a history question!

I am thinking about starting a video editing business, so I would like to make some sample videos. The problem is that I don't have much extra cash at the moment, so it wouldn't be exactly easy for me to get rights to use any modern recordings. Since the phonograpgh was invented more than 100 years ago, though, I am wondering if there are any recordings left from 100 years ago or more. If there are, they would be out of copyright and I could use them without requesting anyone's permission. It doesn't have to be music; I would be happy with anything at all.

Does anyone know where I might find some of these recordings, if they even exist anymore? Or do you have any other ideas about cheap ways to be able to use more modern stuff in my videos?

Answer 1

Sound Recordings

Sound Recording Rule of Thumb:
There are NO sound recordings in the Public Domain in the USA.

Records, cassettes, CD's, and other music recordings come under a general category called Sound Recordings or Phonorecords. The publication of Sheet Music placed a song or musical work under copyright protection. Sound recordings, however, were protected by a hodge-podge tangle of state laws, but were not covered under Federal copyright law. It was even determined that there was no federal criteria to actually "publish" a sound recording. This was fixed with the 1972 US copyright act which officially "published" all sound recordings in existence on February 15, 1972, and 75 years of copyright protection was enacted for essentially every sound recording created in 1972 or earlier. (1972 + 75 years = 2047). The Sony Bono Act of 1998 extended all copyright protection an additional 20 years. Therefore, the earliest that copyright protection will expire for any sounding recording in the USA is 2067 (2047 + 20 years = 2067).

Answer 2

the other responder appearantly never read the 1909 copyright law. congress made the pressing of phonograph records the exact same catagory as printing presses for written material (in fact they looked much the same). for magazines and newspapers, the typesetter did not get a copyright, that was reserved for the author of the story. same for music, the copyright was for the composer, not for the dude that "punched play-record" on a mechanical device.

in 1972 a special right for phonorecords was created to allow american recording labels to have a protection similar to the phonogram European nations had under the treaty of Rome. This was not imposed retroactively and is not exactly a copyright which would be base on the lifetime of a "creative author" and is distinguished by the circle p symbol as opposed to the circle c symbol. Any distributed recording prior to 1972 has no special protection. However the music recorded must have the rights of the composer respected no matter when it was produced, until those rights fall into public domain.