thumb|right|The crossed out copyright symbol with a musical note on the right hand side is the free music symbol, signifying a lack of copyright restrictions on music. It may be used in the abstract, or applied to a sound recording or musical composition.

Free music or libre music is music that, like free software, can freely be copied, distributed and modified for any purpose. Thus free music is either in the public domain or licensed under a free license by the artist or copyright holder themselves, often as a method of promotion. It does not mean that there should be no fee involved. The word free refers to freedom (as in free software), not to price.

The Free Music Philosophy is available for those who prefer a formal approach.

Some free music is licensed under licenses that are intended for software (like the GPL) or other writings (the GFDL). <!-- Richard Stallman wrote that this is not a great idea. --> But there are also licenses especially for music and other works of art, such as Free To Use's Free To Use License, EFF's Open Audio License, LinuxTag's Open Music License, the Free Art license and some of the Creative Commons Licences.

History

Before the advent of copyright law in the early 18th century and its subsequent application to music compositions first, all music was "free" according to the definitions used in free software or free music, since there were no copyright restrictions. In practice however, music reproduction was generally restricted to live performances and the legalities of playing other people's music was unclear in most jurisdictions. Copyright laws changed this gradually so much so that in the late 20th century, copying a few words of a musical composition or a few seconds of a sound recording, the two forms of music copyright, could be considered criminal infringement.

In response, the concept of free music was codified in the Free Music Philosophy

  • Dogmazic – free and non-free CC licenses, GNU GPL
  • Free Music Archive – free and non-free CC licenses
  • Jamendo – free and non-free CC licenses, Free Art License
  • Incompetech - CC BY, paid licenses available
  • Loca Records
  • Magnatune
  • Opsound
  • Musopen
  • NoCopyrightSounds

Notable bands distributing their music under free or close-to-free conditions

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Note that some licenses, such as CC BY-NC, are not free by definition. However, works under these licenses are listed here as being related to the topic.

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! COLSPAN=2| Title !! Licenses

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| ROWSPAN=2 |Nine Inch Nails ||The Slip ||CC BY-NC-SA

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| Ghosts I–IV || CC BY-NC-SA

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|COLSPAN=2| Ophur ||

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|COLSPAN=2|Severed Fifth || Creative Commons

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|COLSPAN=2| Twisted Helices ||

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|COLSPAN=2| subatomicglue ||

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|COLSPAN=2| Brunette Models ||

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|COLSPAN=2|Kimiko Ishizaka || Creative Commons Zero license – Public Domain

|-

|}

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See also

  • Copyleft
  • Deezer
  • Free Culture movement
  • File sharing
  • Independent record label
  • Guvera
  • Libre.fm
  • ListenBrainz
  • Lists of record labels
  • List of largest music deals
  • List of musical works released in a stem format
  • Mutopia Project
  • Music industry
  • Music recording sales certification
  • Open music
  • Open Music Model
  • Podsafe
  • We7
  • Wolfgang's Vault

References

  • The etree.org wiki: etree pioneered the standards for distributing lossless audio on the net.
  • Free Music Licenses