Century of sound
January 09, 2022

All sound recordings prior to 1923 entered the US public domain

All the copyrights to all the sound recordings made prior to 1923 in the US have expired on January 1, 2022, according to the Music Modernization Act, passed by US Congress in 2018. For the first year under the new rule, some 400,000 recordings stretching back to the 19th century have suddenly become available, NPR reports. Check out all pre-1923 recordings on Internet Archive here, and the Library of Congress’ Citizen DJ project here.