I am looking for the best place to get background music to be used in student created videos. Help in finding Public Domain music would be appreciated.

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freeplaymusic.com has been very helpful for my students.
Thanks, I will check this one out.
Go to jamstudio.com This is a free limited access site where the students can create original music for use in projects. It's easy and fun. There are educator grants available for full access if you wish.
Musopen has public domain classical music recordings.

Besides public domain, you could also use Creative Commons music and just make sure your students give credit to the musicians in their work. Here's several sources for Creative Commons music:
Purple Planet
Magnatune
Creative Commons: Search OWL music search or SpinXPress
Would ALL hundred year old or older classical music be in the public domain?
Yes, the sheet music or score itself would be public domain, but particular performances may be copyrighted and require a license for use. You're deal with two different aspects of copyright here.

Musopen explains it this way:
"The copyrights that apply to music are complicated. Put simply, there are at least two copyrights to any sound recording of a musical work – the copyright on the underlying composition and the copyright on the particular performance. So, for example, if you perform the song “Imagine” by John Lennon, John Lennon’s estate holds a copyright in the sheet music, and you hold a copyright in your performance, but you are limited in doing certain things with the recording of your performance without John Lennon’s estate’s permission or a statutory license."

http://www.musopen.com/faq.php
Christy, Thanks for the info--I think intellectually I understand that.....but it is worth repeating.
It's not straightforward. If you find recordings from the US Marine Band or US Air Force Band, those recordings are in the public domain (produced by the government & paid for by taxes = public domain). So, if the music itself is old enough to be in public domain, then the recordings in those cases are safe too.

Generally, though, it's really hard to find truly public domain recordings where both the music and the specific performance are public domain. A collection of historical recordings would probably do it.

Honestly, music copyright is complicated enough that I generally think it's safer and simpler to just go with Creative Commons and cite the source. At least then you know what you're using is OK because the artist has labeled it clearly.
So a classical piece performed by a creative commons artist should be OK? haha! You could also go to the Library of Congress and search for music audio and find the original recording!!
Actually, yes, a public domain piece performed by an artist who releases the recording under Creative Commons would be OK (as long as you meet the terms of whatever Creative Commons license it is).

The Library of Congress does have some of the old Edison recordings which are terrific. Not necessarily the right thing for background on a student video though.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edsndhm.html
Who knows, better to be safe than sorry---I got a big handslap for using We Are The World in a presentation in front of the school board several years ago--- I've taught workshops on copyright and thought I was within the guidelines of fair use---it was then pointed out to me that the BOE was a public forum (which of course I knew)!!! Yikes.

I am a copyright-nazi when it comes to my kids!!
Hi Scott - Here are some we use for our HTML classes and for slideshows -

Partners In Ryhyme

Royalty Free Music

Music Resources from Digitales

Hope these help! Kim

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