Public Domain Day 2026
1925 was a watershed year for the recording industry. The Jazz Age was in full swing and beginning in March, 1925, widespread adoption of electrical recording meant greater fidelity and new realism for recordings. DAHR documents over 11,000 recordings made in 1925–an all-time high for the industry.
All recordings published in 1925 enter the public domain on January 1, 2026. This includes over 2,800 recordings that have already been digitized by the UCSB Library for free public access. They will be made downloadable by the UCSB Library in our commitment to open access and free use of the public domain content we steward.
Recordings entering the public domain in 2026 include important recordings from one of the most vibrant periods in American recording history. Recorded with microphones for the first time, the Class of 1925 had a new vibrancy and unlike earlier acoustic recordings, fewer have faded into obscurity. Entering the public domain are recordings from sessions by jazz and blues artists including the first recordings by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, recordings of the “Charleston” by groups including the Golden Gate Orchestra, and songs by blues legend Bessie Smith. Classical music recordings by superstars of the era, including recordings by cellist Pablo Casals, Irish tenor John McCormack, and violinist Fritz Kreisler are now free to repurpose. The year is also rich in recordings for immigrant Americans and foreign or "ethnic" markets, such as the great Neapolitan singer Gilda Mignonette, Hawaiian guitarist Frank Ferera, and the first wave of electrical recordings by tango orchestras made in Buenos Aires like those by Orquesta Típica Fresedo. Finally, familiar names in country music like Uncle Dave Macon, and Ernest Stoneman have works entering the public domain. The variety and quality of 1925 recordings is remarkable.
For a complete list of the over 2,200 artists whose works are now in the public domain, click here.
A complete list of over 2,600 recordings from 1925 digitized by UCSB is available here.
These recordings can all now freely be by the public for any purpose, including reissues, film and TV soundtracks, remixes, or scholarship beyond what fair use would have allowed. These recordings are entering the public domain due to a change in the law under the Music Modernization Act of 2018 which created a public domain for sound recordings for the first time.
This is the fourth tranche of recordings that are entering the public domain under the Music Modernization Act. The first group of recordings entered the public domain on January 1, 2022 and included all sound recordings made prior to January 1, 1923; the second group entered the public domain on January 1, 2024; and the third last January. Over 132,000 recordings documented in DAHR are now in the public domain, over 32,000 of which have been digitized by UCSB.
The public domain is an important part of the copyright law of the United States as expressed in the U.S. Constitution, which allows anyone to freely use creative works after the author’s limited monopoly expires. Research has shown that the economic value of extremely long copyrights benefits a tiny number of rightsholders, while the benefit of the public domain drives the creation of new artistic content and fosters scholarship.
Due to the delay between the recording and release of recordings, some records made in 1925 may not have been issued until early 1926. DAHR documents recording dates, but issue dates are not always known. These lists of Public Domain recordings do not constitute legal advice.