Sound Archives
The past is still playing.
Discover vintage music and historic recordings from independent archives. Stream jazz, blues, folk, and early sounds with original sources and rights context.
780 recordings and excerpts from 7 collections.
National Jukebox
Full-length early recordings from the Library of Congress National Jukebox, selected from its official 100-recording sample dataset. 100 catalog recordings.
Open Music Archive
A collaborative archive digitising and sharing out-of-copyright sound recordings. 71 catalog recordings.
National Jukebox: Jazz
Jazz, ragtime, and roots-of-jazz excerpts from the Library of Congress National Jukebox. 339 catalog recordings.
Jazz Classics
A community-audio compilation of jazz recordings hosted by the Internet Archive. 101 catalog recordings.
Free 20s Jazz Collection
A Gathacol Radio collection of 1920s jazz recordings shared through the Internet Archive. 123 catalog recordings.
First Sounds
Humanity’s earliest playable recordings, recovered from experimental inscriptions made before the phonograph era. 19 catalog recordings.
UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive
Expert-curated recordings from the first years of the commercial cylinder, selected from UCSB’s Recorded Incunabula programs. 27 catalog recordings.
Rights vary by recording and jurisdiction. Verify the original archive record before reuse; inclusion is not a blanket copyright-free guarantee.
Listening and search use JavaScript. Audio streams from the source archives; Sound Archives does not host the recordings.