

Let’s say you found out that a classical piece like ‘Fur Elise’ is no longer copyrighted and you want to use it for a YouTube video or any other content. Using public domain classical music for your projects That’s why, for example, in 2008, compositions by George Gershwin became public domain, together with other pieces like Beethoven’s 5 th Symphony, Tchaikovsky and other artists who passed away more than 75 years ago. It belongs to everyone and no one, but it is still risky to use because many companies still try to claim these songs, even if the copyright protection period ended because these artists have been dead for more than 50 years.Īfter all, there is a law that says music composed by a composer who has been dead for 75 years becomes public domain. If a piece of music has become part of the public domain, that means that it belongs to the people. And that is probably why you can hear it being sampled and being used in projects. But lucky for you, most of the popular classical pieces like Mozart’s ‘Fur Elise’ are now considered to be a no copyright music. However, it can take a long time for this to happen. Once the copyright protection that covers original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works of authorship ends, these pieces are now part of the public domain.

And at this point, you can freely use, copy, distribute, adapt and perform these songs in public without permission or paying a fee. However, there are instances when classical pieces, even the popular ones, become public domain. If you’re a content creator creating videos, films and other forms of media, the musical score and background music should always be licensed-especially if you don’t want your content to be muted or worse, taken down. Whether you produce content or not, you probably know that you can’t legally use music with copyright protection on any project without permission or a license, whether it’s a classical or modern piece. You might be able to use Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart and other composers’ widely-known classical songs on your tracks, but there are also some lesser-known royalty-free classical music loops and samples that are available without copyright protection.
