Ask HN: Where do you find free music?
2 bjourne 2 9/4/2025, 5:51:12 PM
Free as in "You're free to remix, remaster, sample, and do whatever you want with this recording as long as you let everyone else do the same and you don't pass off this recording as your own." Like a Free Software analogy for music. Does it exist? Where do you find it?
So, I am considering creating songs for religious and political groups (the kind and gentle kind, IMNSHO. Anything expected to go viral (5 or more copies, LOL) I would choose the classical (scores available as well as those few CC performances) and for informal (let's jam) use, anything goes, as "fair use".
Is classical music "limiting"? Well, look at the countless movies with classical music "snuk in". The most famous is probably Mozart's Piano Concerto 21, now nicknamed "Elvira Madigan".
The converse, music composed for movies, is undoubtedly still under copyright, so use only with small groups at home, with all the Alexa's and Home Pods powered off. (phones too?)
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_score
Under Artistic Merit.
FWIW, there are some fine pieces listed under "Classical Music in Movies" when you search.
Favorites from this list? Too many to list, but it all started for me with Fantasia, of course.