Do you like music ? Then you will love this site which offers hundreds of thousands of old digitized records to listen to and download! Enough to (re)discover treasures that have fallen into the public domain.
Edith Piaf, Elvis Presley, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra… so many great names in music who are not about to be forgotten but many of whose works have, however, fallen into the public domain. However, it is not necessarily easy to find period recordings, made between the beginning of the 20the century and the 60s. Streaming services like Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music offer well-stocked catalogs, but which unfortunately do not go back that far. You can then scour the flea markets to find that rare gem, which may take you a lot of time to get your hands on 45, 33 or 78 rpm vinyl records in good condition… which you will then have to digitize yourself to enjoy it anywhere and anytime without the hassle of a turntable.
To make your task easier, the Internet represents a much more practical solution. Especially with Internet Archive, a website that, for years, has been working to preserve works of all kinds. And in the music department, this non-profit organization contains many unsuspected treasures available for free, not only for listening, but also for downloading. Thus, nearly half a million (463,752 precisely) 78 rpm records were recently put online with the help of George Blood LP, a company specializing in digitization.
All have been digitized “as part of major project 78, for conservation, research and discovery”, indicates the site in the preamble on the page dedicated to this immense online discotheque. However, not all of the works present have fallen into the public domain. Thus, the site specifies that “any copyright that may exist in these materials has not been transferred to the Internet Archive”. And to emphasize that“It is the user’s responsibility to determine whether permission may be required for a given use of these materials, or whether such use is permitted by law”.
However, nothing stops you from rummaging through and retrieving these digitized records for your personal use. So, how about this compilation of jazz classics by Billie Holiday from 1937, this recording of Our Love Affair by Frank Sinatra from 1940 or even this version of Don’t be cruel of Elvis from 1957, all with the characteristic crackles of records of the time. Enticing, right? To take advantage of it, nothing could be simpler. Just go to the page dedicated Internet Archive then conduct a search. When you’ve found your gem, you can listen to it using the integrated player.
If you like the title you can also download it. In the vast majority of cases, you can download a file in FLAC (compression without loss of quality) or MP3 format by clicking on the small download arrow placed next to the title name in the left column.
Internet Archive’s mission is to safeguard cultural heritage in digital form. In addition to music, there are books, newspapers, films, software, video games and even Web pages (today there are 735 billion). As with Wikipedia, everyone can participate. Not all works are freely accessible. Books in particular are the subject of particular attention. Those published before 1927 can thus be downloaded freely. The site says hundreds of thousands more can be viewed online. A site to keep carefully in your favorites.