The National Jukebox is spinning tunes – and you don’t have to drop any coin to get it to play. Today [May 10th] the Library of Congress and Sony Music Entertainment announced the launch of what’s being billed as “the largest collection of historical recordings ever made publicly available online.”
The new website provides access to more than 10-thousand historical recordings for free on a streaming-only basis – no downloads. It covers the first quarter of the twentieth century and includes music, poetry, political speeches and other spoken word recordings. Right now, it only includes recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company, which Sony controls.
The website itself is here.
More from NPR:
There is more well-known stuff: the first recording of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” with composer George Gershwin at the piano, Parts 1 & 2, from 1924; Woodrow Wilson’s speech on labor from September 24, 1912; Theodore Roosevelt’s speech on the farmer and the businessman from that same month and year; and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s 1917 recording of, “Livery Stable Blues,” considered to be the “first jazz recording ever released.”
And the song below was recorded 110 years ago today.
Nice!
Imagine how much better this would be if Congress didn’t keep extending copyright lengths and more stuff was entering the public domain.