Images, Music, & Copyright

The Brooks Library has access to several databases that contain either music or information about music: Databases For Subject: "Music".  The three databases that provide access to music or other audio are:

Brooks Library's music collections include both sheet music and recorded music. Performance of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, does not require permission from the copyright holder. Additionally, musical compositions created before 1923 require no permission to perform regardless of your intended use, but a post-1923 recording of a pre-1923 work may need permission to be used in a derivative creation like a video (and particularly so if displayed outside the classroom).

Fair Use rights provide you with significant latitude in making use of copyrighted knowledge for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research - but these rights become more nebulous and vague the further outside of the classroom or newsroom you are.