Open Access Audiovisual Materials
Compiled here are a list of resources where you can find A/V materials in the public domain.
Video
Archive.org – Feature Film Library
Archive.org – FedFlix
Films from the United States Government.
Archive.org – Moving Image Library
This library contains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts.
Archive.org – Prelinger Archives
An immense collection of ephemeral films, often home movies, shot on film in the US, throughout the 20th century. Founded by Rick Prelinger with a goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions.
Archive.org – Stock Footage Library
A collection of stock footage clips submitted by Internet Archive users. These clips are designed to be used in other videos.
CDC (USA) B-Roll Footage
CDC b-roll is produced by the United States Government and is in the public domain. This means that the footage is meant for public use and is not subject to copyright law protections. Permission is not required for use of public domain items. However, they do ask that you cite CDC as the source.
Critical Commons
Allows sharing & embedding, but not downloading. Some content may be under copyright.
DVIDS – NASA Media Archive
DVIDS is a great resource for media files. Their mission is to provide an accurate, reliable source for media organizations to access U.S. service members and commanders deployed in support of military operations worldwide.
Japanese Animated Film Classics
From the National Film archive of Japan. You may need to contact the archives for permission to use these films for scholarly projects.
Library of Congress – Moving Picture Resource Center
Public Domain Review: Video Search
Founded in 2011, The Public Domain Review is an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.
Science Cinema
Scientific videos featuring leading-edge research from the U.S. Department of Energy. Using innovative, state-of-the-art audio indexing and speech recognition technology, ScienceCinema allows users to search for specific words and phrases spoken within video files.
United States National Park Service B Roll Archives
University of Illinois – Center for Black Music Research
Includes oral histories and audio-visual collections
Vimeo – Creative Commons Library
Wikimedia Commons: Free Video Resources
Music
Free Music Archive (FMA) offers free access to open licensed, original music by independent artists around the world. Many artists accept Creative Commons attribution for licensing.
“FreePD.com – 100% Free Music – Free for Commercial Use, Free Of Royalties, Free Of Attribution, Creative Commons 0
* It is ‘copyright free’ to the extent that the law allows.”
Internet Archive’s Netlabels Collection
This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of ‘virtual record labels’.
Music, clips, and sound effects.
975+ Creative Commons no copyright music. Download Creative Commons royalty-free audio tracks and instrumentals for your next project.
All music is composed and produced by Jason Shaw. This music is royalty-free – completely free – for you to download and use (even for commercial purposes) as long as you provide credit.
Library of Congress National Jukebox
Audio recordings pre-1926 that are in the Public Domain.