Where Can I Find Media I Can Use For My Project?
When I’ve taught courses on video production or had consultations with students about media projects, one of the recurring questions is where can I find media that I can use, in particular music.
Luckily there are a number of resources that one can visit when searching for royalty free or public domain audio, video and images.
Below are some of my favorites. You can find more at Marquette’s Multimedia LibGuide. If you know of other great resources for royalty free or public domain media, please leave the link in the comments section.
Audio
Free Music Archive — Library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. Every MP3 on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses. The Free Music Archive is a platform for collaboration between curators and artists, including radio stations, netlabels, venues, artist collectives, museums, music festivals and more. The site combines the curatorial approach that these organizations have played for the last few decades, with the community generated approach of many current online music sites.
Mobygratis — The artist Moby has created this resource for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short. There is a selection of over 200 tracks, some unreleased, some from his back catalogue and new releases, available to license for free via a simple online application system.
Soundzabound — Provided as part of Wisconsin’s BadgerLink program, this site offers copyright-compliant, royalty-free music and sound effects available for students and educators in Wisconsin to use in multimedia projects. The content runs the gamut from genre specific beats to sound effects.
Images
Freeimages.com — Freeimages was launched in February 2001 as an alternative for expensive stock photography. The idea was to create a site where creative people could exchange their photos for inspiration or work. The site has evolved into the massive community you see today — there are over 2,500,000 registered users and around 400,000 photos online.
Government Resources for Science Images — Most images are protected by copyright and cannot be reproduced without permission from the copyright owner. The exceptions are U.S. Government images, which generally are in the public domain and free from copyright. This site includes an index of image gallery’s produced by various government agencies covering science and technology topics.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog — The Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress houses extensive collections of digitized photographs, illustrations, and ephemera from important events in American history, the majority of which are in the public domain.
Video
Pexels — Completely free stock videos. All videos uploaded on Pexels are licensed under the Pexels license. This means you can use them for free for personal and commercial purposes.
Prelinger Archives — Need some old news reel footage or snippets from government public service productions like Duck and Cover, then this is the collection for you. Over 60,000 “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films, many in the public domain.
Wikimedia Commons — The backbone of media for Wikipedia, includes videos, audio and images. The database contains 10,519,061+ of freely usable media files, however some media may be subject to certain restriction.
