From Grounds to Community: Free Music Resources Beyond the University Library

Amy Hunsaker is the Music & Performing Arts Librarian at the University of Virginia, where she supports the Music, Drama, and Dance Departments. Amy’s professional interests include the scholarly communications lifecycle, digital cultural preservation, and the role of women in music and the arts. She co-chairs the Music Librarian Association Legislation Committee and currently serves as Associate Co-Editor of Music References Services Quarterly 

When you were a student, chances are the library had your back with everything from streaming music databases to shelves of scores and recordings. But after graduation, it can feel a lot harder to find the same kind of access—especially without those student logins and library perks. Here is the good news: libraries, non-profits, and professional organizations around the world offer free resources that can help fill the gap, no matter where your post-college journey takes you. This guide to Free Musical Resources has been maintained by a cadre of UVA music librarians for over a decade.

Whether you want to improve your musicianship or learn a completely new instrument,  8notes.com has you covered. The site offers a large online library of free sheet music organized by skill level, instrument, style, and genre for both soloists and ensembles. Along with downloadable scores, the site provides beginner-friendly music theory tutorials and ear training exercises. Composer David Bruce established the site in 2001 with the dual intention of supporting musicians while marketing and disseminating his original compositions. Much of the content is provided freely by Bruce’s business, Red Balloon Technology, Ltd., but they also offer a paid subscription that allows users to access a larger selection of scores, and provides transpositions. Most of the arrangements and original compositions on 8notes.com are still under copyright, but the creators allow free use of the material if you provide attribution.

One of the largest collections of free, downloadable music scores can be found in the Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library. The site is managed by Project Petrucci LLC, named after Ottaviano Petrucci, composer of Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, the first known volume of printed music published in 1501. The website started in 2006 as a project to create a virtual library of music scores held in the public domain based on the wiki principle. Users can upload musical scores, submit their own compositions, listen to recordings, and exchange musical ideas. What began as a modest ambition to create an exchange for music and musicians has grown into a collection of over 820,000 scores and 91,000 recordings, representing over 27,000 composers and 2,000 performers.

Are you looking for music or audio clips for a video you are creating? Websites exist that offer downloads of royalty free sound recordings! Freesound is an online community-driven library where users share electronic, environmental, musical, and other sound samples for artists to use. Think of it as a shared sound bank: a space where creators upload everything from electronic beats and musical riffs to nature recordings and quirky noises, all free for fellow sound artists to explore.

Finally, one of my favorite online sources of free streaming music is the Great 78 Project, a community-driven initiative dedicated to preserving, studying, and rediscovering 78rpm records. Millions of short, three-minute recordings were made on 78rpm records from the late 1890s through the 1950s, and while the most popular songs have been reissued on LPs and CDs, countless rare discs still hold stories worth exploring. Launched by a network of volunteer collectors, the project is carried out in collaboration with the Internet Archive, George Blood LP, and the Archive of Contemporary Music, who oversee the selection, digitization, and long-term preservation of these recordings.

Finding affordable, high-quality resources to support your musical journey isn’t always easy. Whether you’re a student honing your craft, a teacher looking for reliable materials, or simply someone who wants to explore new sounds, these free resources can open doors to knowledge and inspiration. And remember, UVA librarians are always there to help -- even after you graduate!