Are the Sounds on Citizen DJ Free to Use, and What Rights Apply?

Updated

Yes—Citizen DJ is built around free-to-use audio and video collections from the Library of Congress, and thousands of public domain recordings were added in 2022. That said, "free to use" is not one single license across the whole site. Rights status can differ from collection to collection, so the practical rule is: the sounds are free to use, but you should check the specific collection's notes before you publish or distribute anything.

What Citizen DJ actually offers

Citizen DJ is a project by Brian Foo, created as part of the 2020 Innovator in Residence Program at the Library of Congress. It invites the public to make music using free-to-use audio and video collections. The idea is that by embedding these materials in hip hop music, listeners can discover items in the Library's vast collections they likely would never have known existed.

You can work in two main ways:

  • Remix in the browser — combine sounds with beats directly on the site, no extra software required.
  • Browse and download — pull sounds into your favorite music software to use on your own terms.

The collections and their rights context

The site asks you to select a collection to start. Each one comes from a different source, which is exactly why rights can vary:

Collection Type What it contains
Inventing Entertainment Music and spoken word Early motion pictures and sound recordings of the Edison companies: 341 motion pictures, 81 disc sound recordings, plus photographs and original magazine articles
Variety Stage Music and sketches 61 motion pictures (animal acts, burlesque, dance, comic sketches, dramatic excerpts, physical culture acts, tableaus), with copyrights dating 1897–1920
The Joe Smith Collection Interviews More than 200 celebrated singers, musicians, and industry icons discussing their lives and music, donated to the Library in 2012
Free Music Archive Music A rights-free music site archived by the Library as part of its Web Cultures Web Archive
MusicBox Project Music A nonprofit project founded in 2010 to document and preserve musical history and advance music education

The Free Music Archive collection is described as rights-free music, and the 2022 addition of thousands of public domain recordings strengthens the free-to-use case for those specific items. The Edison and Variety Stage materials are early works whose copyrights date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Joe Smith Collection consists of unedited interview recordings.

How to check before you use a sound

Because the site mixes collections with different origins, do this before releasing a track:

  1. Pick your collection and open its page.
  2. Read the collection description for any rights or usage notes tied to that source.
  3. Note the date and origin of the specific item—early motion pictures and recordings from the 1897–1920 range sit in a very different position than a donated interview from 2012.
  4. Keep a record of which collection and item you used, so you can explain your source later if needed.

Common sticking points

  • "Free to use" ≠ "no rules at all." The site frames its materials as free-to-use, but individual collections can carry their own conditions.
  • Interviews are not the same as music. A spoken interview recording and a public domain disc recording may not share the same status.
  • The 2022 public domain additions are the clearest case. If you want the least ambiguity, start with the thousands of public domain recordings flagged as added in 2022.
  • Downloading for your own software is supported. The site explicitly offers browse-and-download so you can use sounds with your favorite software—this is an intended use, not a workaround.

Bottom line

Citizen DJ is designed for exactly this: making music from free-to-use Library of Congress collections, with public domain recordings added in 2022. Treat the site as free-to-use, but treat each collection as its own case, and check the collection notes before you publish.