Music at the BPL: Audio

A guide to the Music Department at the Boston Public Library's Central Library in Copley Square, including resources and suggestions for searching our collections.

Alexander Street Press

Want to search all the Alexander Street Press music collections simultaneously? You can, just follow the link below.

Music & Performing Arts This link opens in a new window
Music & Performing Arts is the broadest and most comprehensive online music resource that cross-searches all of our Alexander Street Press music database subscriptions.

American Song
Classical Music Library
Contemporary World Music
Dance in Video
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
Jazz Music Library
Opera in Video

Sounds Recordings at the BPL

Along with physical sound recordings, access the streaming resources below anywhere with a valid BPL library card!

Streaming Audio

American Music This link opens in a new window
American Music is a history database that allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past.The database includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more.
Classical Music Library This link opens in a new window
Classical Music Library's growing collection of 50,000-plus tracks for listening and searching is supplemented by extensive reference materials and backed by a powerful suite of tools designed to support learning.
Hoopla Streaming Media This link opens in a new window
With Hoopla, you can borrow free digital video, music, eBooks, and audiobooks. Gain access to thousands of titles available for instant streaming or temporary download, and watch/read/listen on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. A Boston Public Library card and pin are required.
Jazz Music Library This link opens in a new window
Jazz Music Library will be the largest and most comprehensive collection of jazz available online, with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
Popular Music Library This link opens in a new window
Popular Music Library contains a wide range of popular music from around the world, including hundreds of thousands of tracks from major genres in pop music, including alternative, country, Christian, electronic, hip-hop, metal, punk, new age, R&B, reggae, rock, soundtracks and many more.
Smithsonian Global Sound This link opens in a new window
An international network of music audio archives and an educational resource that delivers the world?s diverse cultural expressions in an informative way via digital media.

Free Music Archive
An interactive library that provides high-quality, legal audio downloads from many genres. All the audio on this site can be downloaded for free and has been cleared for certain uses (remix projects, production soundtracks, etc.) that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws.
National Jukebox -- Library of Congress
The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge.
Live Music Archive at the Internet Archive
The Live Music Archive is an online library of live music recordings available for royalty-free, no-cost public downloads or live streaming.

These resources are all free, some require an account.

Grooveshark
Simple interface; start and customize stations like Pandora, choose songs like Spotify.
Pandora
Listen to playlists created by Pandora users; fine-tune with likes/dislikes and additional songs. Account required to create your own playlists based on songs/artists filled with similar music.
Last.fm
More like a radio station with an ability to search.
MixCloud
Lets amateur and professional DJs around the world broadcast online.
Slacker Radio
Works directly with record labels to offer great new music, news, sports and talk.
SoundCloud
Also includes sound effects and podcasts; made for people to share what they've recorded, not just professionals.
Spotify
Account Required. Radio + Jukebox: let Spotify choose your music or create your own playlists; also has curated playlists created by Spotify users.
TuneIn Radio
Access over 100,000 radio stations and podcasts more than four million podcasts streaming from every continent.

These sites require an account with service and usually cost money.

Streaming Audio presentation
A powerpoint with notes about how to use streaming audio resources on a computer or mobile device.
Streaming Audio class handout
A handout to accompany a Streaming Audio class.
Listening to Radio and Other Music Online
A presentation for those interested in learning more about how to listen to radio online and other music resources.