Category Archives: Audio Archive

Take Action: Defend the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive needs your help.

A coalition of major record labels has filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive—demanding $700 million for our work preserving and providing access to historical 78rpm records. These fragile, obsolete discs hold some of the earliest recordings of a vanishing American culture. But this lawsuit goes far beyond old records. It’s an attack on the Internet Archive itself.

This lawsuit is an existential threat to the Internet Archive and everything we preserve—including the Wayback Machine, a cornerstone of memory and preservation on the internet.

At a time when digital information is disappearing, being rewritten, or erased entirely, the tools to preserve history must be defended—not dismantled.

This isn’t just about music. It’s about whether future generations will have access to knowledge, history, and culture.

Sign our open letter and tell the record labels to drop their lawsuit. 

Internet Archive Responds to Record Labels: Stop Playing “Hide-The-Ball”

Yesterday, the Internet Archive submitted its response to the record labels’ recent motion, which seeks to add an additional 493 sound recordings to their lawsuit against the Internet Archive for preserving 78rpm sound recordings.

The Internet Archive’s position is clear: the labels have been engaged in a long-running game of “hide-the-ball” and their motion to file a second amended complaint should be denied.

The full response is available here (PDF); the entire docket is here (CourtListener).

Statement from Brewster Kahle, digital librarian of the Internet Archive:

    “More than 850 musicians have called on Universal Music Group to drop its lawsuit against the Internet Archive. Instead, the recording industry has decided to aggressively escalate its attack at a time when the Internet Archive’s preservation efforts have never been more vital.”

    Learn more about the lawsuit

    In 2023, major labels sued the Internet Archive for preserving 78rpm sound recordings. Learn more about the lawsuit, and why the Internet Archive is fighting back:

    What archivists and historians are saying:

    What musicians are saying:

    More:

    Public Domain Spotlight: LibriVox

    Access to cultural heritage is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. Founded in 2005, LibriVox stands out as a crucial resource, ensuring that our cultural heritage is freely and openly accessible. With its mission “To make all books in the public domain available, narrated by real people and distributed for free, in audio format on the internet,” LibriVox brings thousands of texts to modern audiences in audio form. The site operates on a volunteer basis, with community members dedicating time to record and independently publish these works. Each audiobook is dedicated to the public domain upon publication, reinforcing free and unrestricted access to our cultural heritage and history.

    LibriVox’s open structure supports preservation and accessibility. All of the recordings from the site cost nothing, have no limitations on listening time, and are devoid of DRM with the availability to download and keep forever. These positives are especially crucial as more aspects of our digital lives come under tighter corporate controls. The Internet Archive also serves and preserves the digital files in partnership with LibriVox and its community. We host a LibriVox collection full of audios, ensuring these adaptations are accessible.

    On a personal note, LibriVox has enriched my own experiences with literature. Their dramatic recordings of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner—complete with full casts—have brought these beloved stories to life in new and vibrant ways for your ears. These audiobooks have not only made revisiting my favorite texts more convenient but have also deepened my appreciation for these texts. They also have become a reliable companion giving me something to listen to during insomnia-fueled nights of tossing and turning in bed. 

    History and shared culture are worth preserving. LibriVox’s mission helps to make that preservation more accessible, available, and engaging for us all. LibriVox works utilize books provided by Project Gutenberg, an organization dedicated to making public domain texts available. Take some time to explore our LibriVox Collection and see what stands out to you. You might even find your next favorite book. Or, consider helping to build this rich collection by volunteering with Librivox. Happy listening.

    This post is published with a CC0 Waiver dedicating it to the public domain.

    Public Domain Spotlight: Rhapsody in Blue

    Rhapsody in Blue stands as an iconic piece of American music with riveting orchestration, and a cultural footprint that reflects the modernity of the early 20th century. Beyond its artistic merits, the composition has provided numerous cultural touchstones, including its usage as the theme for United Airlines commercials, score backing for films such as “Fantasia 2000,” and countless memorable recorded performances, including a personal favorite by Leonard Bernstein. Among these recordings is a significant one performed by George Gershwin himself at the piano, with accompaniment by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

    Recorded on June 10, 1924, and released that October, this version is not just historic for its timing, produced shortly after the piece’s premiere in February of the same year, but also for its details. While today’s audiences might not find it unusual, the phenomenon of a composer or musical artist performing their own work is rare in the history of human experience. Until the late 19th Century, the only way to experience music was in a live setting. By 1924, it had become more and more commonplace to experience music through commercially available recordings. When listening to the 1924 recording by Gershwin, listeners today have a direct auditory link to the piece’s 1924 inception. This is in stark contrast to classical pieces by composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, who never had the opportunity to record their works. Our understanding of these compositions is shaped by interpretations that are decades or centuries removed from their original creation. Yet, Gershwin’s personal interpretation of his composition offers a unique connection to the moment of its creation, allowing us to hear the piano played with the intensity Gershwin intended. It invokes a feeling of closeness to a time long removed from the current moment.

    The accessibility of Gershwin’s 1924 recording is enhanced by its passage into the public domain. Such accessibility enriches our cultural heritage and allows for a deeper understanding of the moment in which it was produced. It is not some far-off German or French musical masterpiece, but a living document in which we can hear the direct influence of the composer. This direct access to Gershwin’s performance is an invaluable resource, providing a rare auditory bridge to the past. So, the next time you listen to “Rhapsody in Blue,” consider choosing the 1924 version performed by Gershwin. Imagine the uniqueness of that experience and the profound connection to history it offers, replicating the original sound and transporting us to the moment of a bygone era.

    Published with a CC0 Waiver.

    A Red-Carpet Affair: Celebrating Public Domain Day 2025 in 1929 Hollywood Style

    Lights, camera, preservation! On a star-studded evening at the Internet Archive, we rolled out the red carpet to honor the creative works from 1929 and the sound recordings from 1924 that entered the public domain in 2025. And what better way to celebrate than with a glamorous, Oscar-inspired soirée?

    Guests arrived in true 1920s fashion, riding in a vintage convertible before stepping onto the red carpet, where they were met by the spirited Raining Chainsaws street theater troupe, who transformed into a fleet of eager, old-time paparazzi—flashing cameras, barking questions, and adding a touch of whimsy and Hollywood magic to the night.

    📸 Check out photos from the red carpet!

    Inside the Internet Archive, attendees sipped on French 75s and Old-Fashioneds, classic cocktails that transported us back to the final, glittering moments of the Roaring Twenties. The theme of the night? 1929—the year of the very first Academy Awards—and we honored this cinematic milestone with an evening of film, history, and remixing of the past.

    🎞 Lecture by George Evelyn on Disney’s The Skeleton Dance
    Animation historian George Evelyn enlightened the audience with a viewing of The Skeleton Dance, the first of Disney’s Silly Symphonies. With its pioneering use of synchronized sound and animation, the 1929 short was a perfect reminder of how creativity from the past continues to shape the present.

    🎬 Public Domain Film Remix Contest Screening
    What happens when today’s creators remix yesterday’s masterpieces? Our Public Domain Film Remix Contest showcased the most inventive reinterpretations of public domain classics, where old Hollywood met modern storytelling in unexpected and thrilling ways. View all the winners, honorable mentions and submissions from this year’s contest.

    👀 Watch the livestream of the night’s festivities

    As the evening came to a close, guests toasted to the future of open culture, celebrating the power of preservation, creativity, and the public domain. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this dazzling night of history, cinema, and community!

    Virtual Public Domain Day Celebrates 1929 Creative Works & 1924 Sound Recordings

    On January 22, hundreds of people from all over the world gathered together for Singin’ in the Public Domain, a virtual celebration of the works that moved into the public domain in 2025. The event was co-hosted by Internet Archive and Library Futures.

    Watch:

    Speakers include (in order of appearance):

    • Natalia Paruz (The Saw Lady), musician
    • Lila Bailey, Internet Archive
    • Jennie Rose Halperin, Internet Archive
    • Sean Dudley, Internet Archive
    • Jennifer Jenkins, Center for the Study of the Public Domain
    • Vivian Li, Innovator in Residence, Library of Congress
    • Tim Findlen (Roochie Toochie and the Ragtime Shepherd Kings), musician
    • Kathleen DeLaurenti, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University’s Arthur Friedheim Music Library
    • Colin Hancock (The Joymakers), musician
    • Ayun Halliday, Necromancers of the Public Domain
    • Simon Close, WYNC & Public Song Project
    • Dorothy Berry, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
    • Theo Unkrich, Internet Archive

    Vanishing Culture: Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications

    The following guest post from curator and amateur radio enthusiast Kay Savetz is part of our Vanishing Culture series, highlighting the power and importance of preservation in our digital age. Read more essays online or download the full report now.

    A selection of cassette tapes from the “Ham Radio & More” radio show digitized by DLARC.

    Amateur Radio has been a hobby for well over 100 years. For as long as there has been an understanding of electricity and radio waves, people have been experimenting with these technologies and advancing the state of the art. As a result, the world has moved from wired telegraphy to tube radios to telephones—fast forward a century—to GPS and high-speed digital communication devices that fit in your pocket.

    Advances made by amateur radio experimenters have propelled the work of NASA, satellites, television, the internet, and every communications company in existence today. People fiddling with radios have pushed forward technological advances the world around, time and time again.

    And yet, the people making these efforts, doing these feats, aren’t always the best at documenting and preserving their work for the future. That’s where Internet Archive comes in.

    I’m the curator of the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications. DLARC is a project of the Internet Archive, and my job is to find and preserve this rich history of radio and communications. DLARC collects resources related to amateur radio, satellite communications, television, shortwave radio, pirate radio, experimental communications, and related communications.

    In the two years since the project launched, DLARC has preserved thousands of magazines and journals, manuals, product catalogs, radio programs, and conference proceedings. These materials were scattered worldwide, often inaccessible and in obsolete formats. We’ve digitized material that was on paper, cassette tape, reel-to-reel tape, CD-ROMs, DVDs. We’ve digitized video from 16mm film, VHS, U-Matic, Betacam and even more obscure video formats.

    We’ve built a collection of more than 140,000 items and made them available to the world. Researchers, academics, and hobbyists use the library to learn from the rich history of this 100-year-old hobby.

    Learn more about DLARC

    One reason this preservation is necessary is that the people creating history don’t always realize at the time that they’re creating history. In 1977, the creators of Amateur Radio Newsline—a weekly audio news bulletin—probably didn’t realize that their project would still be going on in 2024, 47 years later. And for all of their amazing work, if they had realized they were documenting history, they might have made more effort to save those recordings: the first 20 years of their work are missing. (DLARC has found some recordings from 1996, then most of them since 2012.)

    Sometimes creators do recognize the importance of their effort. For more than six years, Len Winkler hosted Ham Radio & More, a radio show about amateur radio. Winker recorded every episode on cassette tape and managed to digitize many of the shows himself. However, the process of digitizing hundreds of episodes is tedious and he wasn’t able to complete it. With his approval, DLARC stepped in to finish the job. They’re all online now, more than 300 episodes including interviews with many notable names in the radio community.

    There have been other huge successes: the entire 43-year run of 73 Magazine is digitized and online thanks to the publisher, Wayne Green, who donated the collection to Internet Archive before his death. Most issues of The W5YI Report, a ham radio newsletter that was published for 25 years, are online as well.

    Download the complete Vanishing Culture report.

    Attempting to preserve material years, or sometimes decades, after the fact makes systematic preservation nearly impossible. For every success story of content saved and archived, there is a heartbreaking story of loss. When amateur radio enthusiasts die, their media collections are often disposed of by survivors who don’t have any connection to amateur radio. File cabinets and bookcases full of (sometimes irreplaceable) materials are emptied into recycle bins.

    Another challenge to preservation and access is membership organizations that keep their material behind paywalls. They sometimes prevent any of their information from being lent in an online library, which it is their right to do. However while they actively thwart efforts at preservation, it remains unclear whether those groups are adequately preserving their own history.

    Some material is preserved intentionally, but a good amount was saved purely by accident. The material we recover and digitize has come from attics and basements, from libraries discarding obsolete material, from long-forgotten FTP sites, from scratched CD-ROMs, and from the estates of people who have passed.

    So we float where the radio waves take us, trying to preserve the past as much as possible, while encouraging today’s content creators to consider how to make their material accessible to future generations.

    About the author

    Kay Savetz is curator of Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. DLARC is funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications to create a free digital library for the radio community, researchers, educators, and students. If you have questions about the project or material to contribute, contact kay@archive.org.

    Welcome to the Public Domain in 2025

    Image credit: Montage of materials moving into the public domain in 2025. Duke Law Center for the Study of the Public Domain.

    Celebrate the public domain with the Internet Archive in the following ways:

    • Register for our Public Domain Day celebrations on January 22 – both virtual and in-person.
    • Submit a short film to our Public Domain Film Remix contest.
    • Explore the works that have entered the public domain in 2025, below.

    On January 1, 2025, we celebrate published works from 1929 and published sound recordings from 1924 entering the public domain! The passage of these works into the public domain celebrates our shared cultural heritage. The ability to breathe new life into long forgotten works, remix the most popular and enduring works of the time, and to better circulate the oddities we find in thrift stores, attics, and on random pockets of the internet are now freely available for us all.

    While not at the same blockbuster level as 2024 with Steamboat Willie’s passage into the public domain, works from 1929 still inhabit strong cultural significance today. The works of 1929 continue to capture the Lost Generation’s voice, the rise of sound film, and the emerging modern moment of the 1920s. 

    Musical Compositions

    Show tunes and Jazz dominated the year with many standards that we remember today first being published. While best known for the 1952 film of the same name, Singin’ in the Rain was first published in 1929 and serves as the inspiration for our remix contest this year. George Gershwin also officially published (and copyrighted) his suite An American in Paris following a premiere in late 1928.

    Below is sheet music for some popular compositions of the time.

    Literature

    Reflections on World War I continued with A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, the first English translation of All Quiet on the Western Front, and Richard Aldington’s Death of a Hero. William Faulkner published his modernist novel The Sound and the Fury. A. A. Milne followed up 1928’s The House at Pooh Corner by adapting The Wind in the Willows into the play Toad of Toad Hall. Detective fiction thrived in 1929, with The Maltese Falcon serialized in Black Mask, Agatha Christie captivating readers with The Seven Dials Mystery, and the first Ellery Queen novel, The Roman Hat Mystery, making its debut. Explore our 1929 periodicals to find more hidden detective gems.

    While not a towering work of literature, the first set of comic strips featuring Popeye also are joining the public domain. Popeye first made an appearance in Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929. Initially just a side character for an adventure arc featuring gambling and sailing, Popeye rose quickly to fame. By February 4, 1931 the Thimble Theatre would feature a subtitle, Starring Popeye, before being renamed just Popeye later on.

    Below is a further selection of works from the year:

    Dive into Archive’s literary collection to unearth more classics from 1929.

    Films

    Last year Mickey Mouse made a splash with Steamboat Willie cruising into the public domain. This year TWELVE more Mickey shorts join to flesh out the notable events of Mickey’s young career. He speaks his first words in The Karnival Kid, he wears gloves for the first time in The Opry House, and Ub Iwerks leaves the studio at year’s end with Wild Waves. Disney animation also kickstarted their Silly Symphonies series with the haunting tales The Skeleton Dance and Hell’s Bells.

    In 1929, if your film wanted to have any attention it needed sound. Musical films were everywhere with The Broadway Melody winning the second ever Best Picture award at the Oscars, The Hollywood Revue introducing the world to “Singin’ in the Rain”, and the Marx Brothers making their big screen debut with The Cocoanuts.

    Below is a list of more significant films from the year:

    Our film remix contest is ongoing until January 17, 2025, so please upload your submissions! Read more here.

    Additional resources

    In honor of Public Domain Day, this post is published with a CC0 Waiver dedicating it to the public domain.

    Celebrate the Public Domain with the Internet Archive

    On January 1, 2025, creative works from 1929 and sound recordings from 1924 will enter the public domain in the US.

    1929 marked the last gasp of the roaring 20s and ushered in the Great Depression, a major economic crisis that would span the next 12 years. One thing we can see nearly a century later is that, in good times and bad, human creativity, knowledge, and culture persist. That year, Virginia Woolfe published her groundbreaking essay, “A Room of One’s Own,” advocating for female freedom of expression. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opened in New York City, featuring the works of Van Gough, Cezanne, and Gauguin. Major movie studios put out not one, but two musicals starring all Black casts: “Halleluja” and “Hearts of Dixie.” Disney continued the Mickey Mouse trend with a dozen new animated shorts. And of course famous songs like “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “Singin’ in the Rain” topped the charts.

    Celebrate the public domain with us:

    1. Creators: Enter the Public Domain Film Remix Contest

    We invite filmmakers and artists of all skill levels to celebrate the public domain by creating and uploading 2–3 minute short films to the Internet Archive! Top entries will be awarded prizes up to $1,500. Contest details.

    2. Virtual Celebration: January 22nd @ 10am PT

    Join us on January 22 to get “that glorious feeling” of singin’ in the public domain! We’ll have an amazing virtual lineup of academics, librarians, musicians, artists and advocates coming together to celebrate this new class of works being free for everyone to enjoy. Register now!

    3. In-Person Celebration: January 22nd @ 6pm PT

    Please join us at our headquarters in San Francisco for a Celebration of the Public Domain! This year, we’re honoring 1929 — the year of the very first Academy Awards, held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, CA. Put on your finest attire and get ready for an award-worthy evening. Register now!

    4. Explore the public domain

    Check out our recent post for links to the newly opened public domain resources at the Internet Archive.

    Additional resources

    • Learn more about what’s moving into the public domain in 2025 from Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle of Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
    • Public Domain Review has a festive countdown to 2025.
    • Interested in what’s happening with the public domain in Europe? Communia is hosting a one-day event on January 9 in Brussels.

    Top Ten Most Popular Grateful Dead Recordings at the Internet Archive

    By Herb Greene – Billboard, page 9, 5 December 1970, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27041998

    As the Grateful Dead are honored at the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast on Sunday (airing December 22 at 8:30pm ET on CBS & streaming), we’re celebrating their legacy with a look at the top ten most popular recordings in the Internet Archive’s Grateful Dead collection. Home to over 17,000 live recordings spanning decades of performances, this collection reflects the band’s rich history, their loyal taper community, and the boundless creativity of their legendary shows. From mesmerizing jams to unforgettable setlists, these recordings represent the enduring magic of the Dead—and the timeless connection between the band and their fans. Listen in and rediscover the music that has kept the Grateful Dead’s spirit alive for generations:

    Top Ten Grateful Dead Live Recordings at the Internet Archive

    1. Grateful Dead Live at Barton Hall, Cornell University on 1977-05-08 (1.3M views)
    2. Grateful Dead Live at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium on 1973-06-10 (1.2M views)
    3. Grateful Dead Live at Dane County Coliseum on 1973-02-15 (1.0M views)
    4. Grateful Dead Live at The Centrum on 1987-04-03 (782k views)
    5. Grateful Dead Live at Boston Garden on 1977-05-07 (772k views)
    6. Grateful Dead Live at Swing Auditorium on 1977-02-26 (741k views)
    7. Grateful Dead Live at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium on 1977-05-09 (704k views)
    8. Grateful Dead Live at Hollywood Palladium on 1971-08-06 (555k views)
    9. Grateful Dead Live at Soldier Field on 1995-07-09 (551k views)
    10. Grateful Dead Live at Barton Hall – Cornell University on 1977-05-08 (545k views)

    Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the legendary concert at Barton Hall, Cornell University, on May 8, 1977 appears twice on the list. The collection often features multiple recordings of the same show by different tapers from different vantage points in the crowd. A note on #10 indicates that recording was made “10 Feet From Stage=Great Instrement [sic] Pickup.”