Copyright free archive audio.

[Torcars]

I've been approached to help out with a project.

A start-up business that will involve music, an online radio station. I have to check if they have a PRS license to broadcast on line. Any advice on this appreciated.

What I really want to find out is if there is any source for copyright free audio. I'm thinking here about news archive of the big stories from the late 20th century. Kennedy being shot, man on the moon, Royal Weddings, stuff like that.

If not free, then does anyone know of a site where we can pay for stuff like this.

Thanks in advance.

[captain_cynic]

Torcars said:

I've been approached to help out with a project.

A start-up business that will involve music, an online radio station. I have to check if they have a PRS license to broadcast on line. Any advice on this appreciated.

What I really want to find out is if there is any source for copyright free audio. I'm thinking here about news archive of the big stories from the late 20th century. Kennedy being shot, man on the moon, Royal Weddings, stuff like that.

If not free, then does anyone know of a site where we can pay for stuff like this.

Thanks in advance.

Pretty much anything past 1930 is in perpetual copyright.

However you can try looking for Creative Commons licensed music (just make sure its licensed for commercial distribution). You can start here: http://freemusicarchive.org/faq

[Astacus]

Copyright subsists in any copyrightable ‘work’ for 70 years after the death of the author. So what you are probably looking for is audio that has been dedicated to the public. I don’t suppose there is much of that that is of interest to music radio listeners. Maybe news items from the very early days of radio?

The answer is to talk to a lawyer who works in radio and find out how the copyright licensing works for radio.
If you are serious about this don’t believe what you read from gezzers on the internet, because it will almost certainly be incomplete, inaccurate or just wrong.

[Torcars]

Cheers guys.

[ReverendCounter]

The PRS site should advise if you'll need a licence. The following either give guidance about accessing their archives or contain archive material.

There is overlap between the British Library and the BBC audio archives.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/radio-broadcas...
https://www.bl.uk/subjects/sound
http://www.bl.uk/nsa

http://bufvc.ac.uk/archives/index.php/collection/9...

https://archive.org/details/audio

It might help to google 'royalty free archive sound recordings' or similar, see what else is available.

[ReverendCounter]

Incidentally have you got access to iZotope RX? Might be worth considering if you're using old audio which will probably be very hissy/damaged by todays standards.

[Torcars]

Thanks for all the info. Useful links.

One of the people involved is actually innthe business of "cleaning up"bad quality recordings.

[ReverendCounter]

Not sure of it would help but Public Service Broadcasting might give some info about how they incorporated archive film and news audio into their music without paying out more than they earn in clearance fees etc.