Answers/Glossary/Public domain
Glossary · Copyright
Public domain
Public domain works are works whose copyright has expired or never existed, free for anyone to use without permission or payment. In the United States, works published in 1930 or earlier are in the public domain as of 2026.
United States copyright terms move forward one year at a time. Works published in 1929 entered the public domain on January 1, 2025; works published in 1930 entered on January 1, 2026. Anything published in the United States in 1930 or earlier is free to use as of 2026. Works created more recently generally run for the life of the author plus 70 years, so nothing composed in living memory is close.
The trap in music is that a song's two copyrights expire on different clocks. "Happy Birthday to You" and countless folk and classical works are public domain compositions — but a 1985 orchestral recording of a Beethoven symphony is a fully protected sound recording of a public domain composition. You may re-record the composition freely; you may not lift the recording.
Pre-1972 sound recordings have their own regime. The Classics Protection and Access Act, Title II of the Music Modernization Act of 2018, brought them under federal law with a staged expiry, and recordings first published before 1923 entered the public domain on January 1, 2022.
Publishers also file arrangements of public domain works. An original arrangement can carry its own copyright as a derivative work, protecting the new material only — which means the source melody stays free while a particular arrangement of it does not.
The misunderstanding: "it's old, so it's free." Verify both copyrights, and verify the specific recording you plan to use. Distributors and Content ID will not accept "I thought it was public domain" as an explanation.
I check dates before I sample anything old; do the same, and ask a lawyer when money is on the line.
Related terms
- Derivative workA derivative work is a new work based on one or more pre-existing works — a remix, a translation, an arrangement, a sampled…
- Musical compositionA musical composition is the song itself — the melody, harmony, structure and lyrics — protected as its own copyright separate…
- Sound recordingA sound recording is the fixed capture of a performance — the master — protected as its own copyright separate from the…
- Sample clearanceSample clearance is the process of obtaining permission to use part of an existing recording in a new work.
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
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