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Musopen is a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. They provide recordings,sheet music and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Their mission is to "set music free". At Musopen, they obtain recordings of public domain music that have no copyrights so that visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music. Most of the music is of classical piano or symphony pieces. Clips can be searched by Composer, Performer, Instrument, Period or Form. Downloading clips requires users to have an account, which is free. The audience for this site is open ended. Anyone from Elementary School students to the oldest of the population can easily discover music which can be used in any project they wish. It is very easy to search and download the .mp3 version of the music for use in project creation. The quality of the offerings it is excellent. Additionally, being Classical in nature, they do not "get in the way" of an overall project. This is extraordinarily beneficial if using the music as a background piece. This blessing is also the limitation; you do not have a wide range of genres from which to choose. If you want something outside the Classical field, you should investigate other free-music sites. To test this resource, I created a test podcast with the free application Audacity in which I spoke into a microphone to record my voice. I was then able to add a piece from this site as background music for the podcast. It worked very well. Teachers and students will find this to be just one of the many uses for music from this site. It is appropriate for similar presentations whether they be Prezi productions or videos published on YouTube-type sites. The only limitation is the range of possible music styles. If a classical piece is your preferred choice, however, Musopen is a wonderful site to visit

Download royalty free music for use in films, YouTube, and other projects, with no copyright restrictions.

This site offers free downloads to music offered up by various artists for use in video projects both commercial and personal. If the music is to be used for commercial use, Jamendo simply reminds its users that all artists are protected under the Creative Commons License. I covered this license in my other post, however this license isn't only about attribution. The license allows the creator of the content to identify the exact usage for their material in commercial use. This allows the downloader of the music to still download the music for free, but with a blanket of customized protection for the artist. The audience I would use this site with would again be a high school broadcasting class. Many high school newscasts that are shown within the school every morning do not follow copyright laws. If the students producing these newscasts used Jamendo to download the music content for the newscast, the students would not only stay legal, but learn a very important broadcasting rule that would stick with them throughout their career. The quality of the content on Jamendo is mostly very well done. However, as with any music website, most of the music downloaded depends on user preferences. The production quality is usually very well done since these artists are attempting to push their music to the public to get their sound and style of music to the larger audiences.

This site offers royalty free background music for just $0.99 for each track. In addition, the site has over 1,000 free music teaks available for download. The site offers numerous music genres to pick from and will let you hear a sample of the track before you download. I have used this site in the past for videos and have been very pleased with the selection of music this site offers and how easy the site is to use. This site may be best suited for older students, but could be used with elementary aged students with teacher assistance. This site is great source to use when helping students create video projects. For example, last semester I created a documentary video focusing on the Cherokee Native Americas. Jewel Beat had several tracks of Native American background music to choose from. Add this music to my video made my work more authentic. I think student will enjoy being able to pick out their own music to add to their video without worrying about infringing on copyright holders. One possible problem I see with this site is that most of the music tracks cost $0.99. While this is not very much, this could lead to problems when helping a room full of students create videos especially since it would involve the use of billing a credit card. It may be best to just mention this source to your students as a possible choice.

Freeplay Music is a wonderful site for downloading copyright-free music. It allows people to search by CD title, style of music, or feel/mood. Users can preview either a short snippet of the song (usually 30 seconds) or the song in its entire length. If the user doesn't like that particular song, s/he can continue scrolling through the suggested titles or click on other search options offered under the songs themselves. Once the person finds the song s/he wants to use, s/he has numerous options for download. All songs are downloaded as an MP3, but it is up to the individual to determine how much of the song s/he might want. The benefit of this site is its vast library. There are thousands of songs to choose from. The site states that all songs, with the exception of the Indie Artist section and the Sound Effects library, are available for educational use. The downside for the students is that it is mainly instrumental music. Students will try to search for contemporary "radio hits" and will come up short. I usually explain that those songs, while popular, often can be distracting to the video, slideshow, or website the student is creating. Freeplay Music offers a great selection of "background" music for educational projects. This site is perfect for middle school or high school. It could used by all subject areas as a supplemental component to almost any technology- based or Web 2.0 project. I can see Freeplay Music providing songs for Glogster, Prezi, Weebly, PhotoStory 3 for Windows, MovieMaker, or several other possible programs/sites.

Resources on this site do have restrictions for use. Please read the details in the terms of use page: http://freeplaymusic.com/licensing/termsofuse.php.

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-program/ Royalty free music is a paid website that allows educational institutions free access to their website through their Free Music for Education Program. The major obstacle in using this website would be getting over the hurdle or having technology services approve the website and have a link placed on the school's website for students to obtain access. Teachers can use the website to teach students about the copyright rules and laws Once approved students of all ages would have a huge catalogue of sound effects and downloadable music and from a variety of genres at their fingertips. .

Educators who wish to use resources from this site need to visit this page: http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-resources.html

This is a resource for music. It will allow usage of videos, music, and images and other content for free. It offers free copyright license that is available for any use. Songs and copies of music could be made for friends. They could also be used in videos. This resource could be used in upper elementary, middle, and high school. It could be used to help students create Animoto videos or digital stories in different content areas with music backgrounds. It legally allows people to share music. There may some stipulations to music that is licensed under a No Derivative Works license which prohibits transforming or changing the music. This resource can be used for anyone. It is a copyright free resource. : 

I've used Incompotech a few times for projects of my own and I'm happy to say that it's a great resource for free music. It has very detailed, yet basic, instructions on how to attribute the music to the creator and features some neat tracks (although some are little cheesy). Having used this one before, I can commit to saying that I'd venture to try this one out with middle school students and definitely high school students. With plenty of up-front modeling and lots of reinforcement along the way, I think this would be a great resource to make student-produced video  go from quiet and boring to emotional and energetic. As with any download, it would be important to know that the school offers each student enough storage to save these files, but that'd be the only major issue with this resource. None of the tracks have words (to my knowledge) so everything is school-appropriate. It's easy to use and is even searchable by genre and "feel".

This website offers a collection of out of copyright recordings, which would greatly serve to enhance a podcast. The site is easy to navigate and allows the user to download the audio file (MP3) to his/her desired location. After this file has been downloaded to the computer, students could then import the file into Audacity in order to edit the audio file to better fit their podcast. Student created podcasts would be a great way for middle school and high school students to convey their ideas or topics to a class. These can be done as individual or group projects. I especially see this type of activity being well suited for a Social Studies context, especially as a way to present research information. The correct application of music, to serve as an intro in a podcast, could greatly assist in the development of a polished final product. However, I would recommend sticking with the instrumental music for most uses within the educational context. But, the creation of a podcast within a history course could be enhanced with the accurate incorporation of time appropriate music. I believe for these music files to be incorporated into a podcast, to benefit the listener, the creator must have a working knowledge of Audacity. However, with the ability to pair Open Music Archive with Audacity can give the individual the tools necessary to create a product that would benefit learners through the multimedia platform.

The title rhymes with crescendo. This website allows artists to display their music and share it with others. The intended audience is anyone who has an ear for music as well as they want to display the music with others. The rules of the website are simple: You can copy, distribute, advertise and play this track as long as you: Give credit to the artist Don't use this album for commercial purposes Distribute all derivative works under the same license This website is only possible due to the use of Creative Commons licenses. I found that the sound quality of the tracks was high quality and each user has easy access to the music. In addition, it's a great tool to use when editing and searching for different styles of music overall.

Resources on this site protected under International Copyright Laws and are royalty free, but there may be constraints of use for any particular item. Users of resources on this site are advised to refer to the terms of use of each item within the repository. See this page: http://www.jamendo.com/en/termsandconditions

Soundzabound is website that has royalty free music for schools. offers a variety of music, audio themes, and sound effects for all levels of education. Such music can be used for podcasts, PowerPoint, videos, video yearbooks, digital storytelling, web design, and so much more. There are different types of license that can be purchased. A school for purchase a site license for teachers and students or a the district make a purchase for everyone in the district to use. Middle schools and high schools would benefit from this site because they can use such sounds to create a product for competitive events.

This is a free web-based resource which includes images, audio, and visuals. This resource can be used for all grades. This resource allows anyone to create a free slide show very quickly. You can use your own images and music, or you may use music they have provided. This resource also allows you to add text to the slide show you create, you are able to embed different things, and you even have some control of transitions. This resource can be used to introduce a topic to your students. You could create a slide show with texts and sounds to introduce a social studies lesson. For example, let's say you wanted to teach students about Athens, Greece. You could use this resource to upload pictures of Ancient Greece to display its architecture and add text to label what the picture is displaying. You could also use it in reading as a storytelling slide slow. You could even allow your students to create an "All About Me" project. They would be able to upload pictures of themselves, family, pets, and anything else that allows people to get to know them. This resource can be used in ways. It is a fun, free, and almost effortless resource that allows teachers to easily integrate technology in their classrooms. As I reflect, there could be some difficulties or problems that arise with using this resource. Since this resource is easily accessible to anyone, students may upload inappropriate content into their slide show or add inappropriate music. To avoid misuse, I recommend teachers require students to get their slide show approved by a teacher before showing it to the class or sharing it with anyone else. Also, there is only a limited amount of music available that is provided by the website. Due to this issue, teachers or students may struggle finding and uploading their own music. Teachers should also monitor what content is being uploaded to make sure the slide shows meet the fair use laws. As with any form of media, teachers have to be sma

There is a wide variety of copyright free music that is free for some educational uses and some student uses as well as personal YouTube videos. However, there is a price involved with using the audio clips in other formats. You can search by music type, and then you are presented with a great selection. You can also upload a video clip and apply your audio selection to it. Another useful tool is the ability to create playlists of your favorite selections. Music can add that extra element to a presentation or lesson and this would be a wonderful site to use for that. This site could be used in any subject area and all grade levels.

This is a great resource for instrumental jams. I have used a few for animoto when I didn't want any lyrics, but wanted a certain beat or mood to go along with the images. It would be great for students making movies as well as the music is categorized i.e. blues, horror, dramatic, tense... and it allows a full preview before downloading along with a fairly large collection of free music.

Originally shared by Julia Hollins on 15 Jul 13. The original post was removed and this one shared instead, due to technical issue with the original post. This site provides free music, photos and videos. The second criterion is it had to be a repository. Repositories are large storage spaces for indexing, retrieving and managing visual information. The user may find a database using any of the text-based meta-search engines. These were extremely helpful in locating the three sources used for evaluation. The third criterion used to evaluate online video and photo repositories was whether or not the content progressed into developing a visual information retrieval system. Some of the methods for retrieving digital images and videos were easier than others. Some queries used features such as colors, textures, shapes, motions and spatiotemporal compositions (Chang, Smith, Beigi, & Benitez, 1997). Lastly, the fourth criterion used to evaluate the online photo repositories was whether it had multimedia features. The repository databases classify information according to the domains that use them. For example, online repositories used by museums, libraries, archives and photo stock differ by the following features: 1) automation, 2) abstraction, 3) content collection, and 4) generability and categorization.

Users of this site should be advised that resources are royalty free. Please check the legal details on the following page: http://www.pond5.com/legal/

I re-located this resource, that has been around since the year 2000, while searching for AUDIO files for adding to multimedia presentations for but, the site also advertises that, "you can find over 1,000 pages of free resources, tutorials, PowerPoint templates and backgrounds, graphics, sounds for presentations and much more for everyday use and productivity." The sound clips are simple enough for students in grades 5 - 12 to use however, many of the other resources are probably more appropriate for educators. After brief teacher modeling, middle & high school students could easily click on the midi sound files, listen to the preview that opens in Windows Media Player, right-click on the sound title they wanted, "save-target-as" to a file, and insert the free sound clips into their multimedia presentations. Students will also appreciate the wide variety of clear-quality, relevant sounds, a few of which sound like renditions of background hip-hop/rap music that I believe they would enjoy like, "Dr. Tekno," "Nightfunk," and "R&B Bassbeat." In the "Terms of Use" the owner, Nan Shastry, states that "items marked 100% free" can be downloaded free for "personal or business or educational use" but users may not resell downloads, make available as downloads on your website, or link to items without prior permission. While the sound files and many other resources are 100% free, students who try to branch out and download many of the PowerPoint backgrounds or animated graphics will encounter zip file popups that ask/require them to evaluate "WinRAR" software for a 40-day trial before purchasing it, to continue using the download. Educators could mitigate this problem by distributing a list of preferred download link titles from the site that students could easily access without any difficulty or, by simply instructing them to click "cancel" or "close" on any of the downloads that require purchasing.