Public domain playlists

It’s often over-looked, but music is in the public domain. Hour and hours of music are available to listeners, and it’s all free of charge. That’s right, people that want it can have it. I’ll link below to a couple of Spotify playlists, but I have add one caveat.

With music, it’s possible that a song is in the public domain, but a particular performance of it is not. This means that, the score of Beethoven’s fifth symphony can be yours to have, no cost, but a contemporary recording of it being performed will still be protected by copyright. That individual performance by those particular musicians on that date and time impact the way copyright can be applied. Just be careful once you start downloading stuff from the internet.

I’m all for the public domain, and believe it to be an incredible resource. By contrast, I’m also all for people being compensated for their efforts, especially in the arts. It can be tough to make it as a creator/artist. Don’t make it harder by stealing their work.

Serious stuff aside, here are public domain playlists from Spotify:

Please, browse this stuff. There some absolute gems in here, and not just classical. Early jazz, blues, and folk music that are excellent fill out these playlists as well. You might be surprised at what you end up liking. Enjoy!