Research Guides: Dance: Finding Music for Dance

Finding Music for Dance: Websites

There are several websites devoted to curating music for dance:

Dance USA Resources on Music and Choreography
Dance USA created several webinars on finding and securing rights for music for dance. They have also compiled links to many resources for music that is suitable for dance.

Creative Commons Music
Creative Commons is a system that allows you to legally use “some rights reserved” music, movies, images, and other content — all for free. CC offers free copyright licenses that anyone can use to mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry.
Sound For Movement
soundFORMovement exists for the dance and film communities — so that movement artists can have professional music at prices that match their projects.

Students can find license-free music to use for choreography. Dance teachers can find hundreds of tracks organized by meter and BPM to discover music that fits their classes. Choreographers can listen to hundreds of pieces I've composed that can be reused or edited for new projects.

Streaming Music from Rowan Libraries

Rowan Libraries also subscribes to several streaming music services for all kinds of music.

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Streaming audio of music recordings in many genres. If you cannot use this resource, please try again later. There is a limit on the number of users at one time.
Provides streaming audio of music recordings, with genres including classical, jazz, folk, and some non-western world music.
Naxos Music Library Jazz This link opens in a new window
Streaming audio of jazz music recordings. If you cannot use this resource, please try again later. There is a limit on the number of users at one time.
American Music (Music Online) This link opens in a new window
Audio recordings of historical American songs.
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 (Music Online) This link opens in a new window
Streaming audio of classical musical recordings.
Streaming audio of classical music recordings with searching available by composer, performer, instrument, genre, historical period, or label. Liner notes also searchable. Provides personal playlist and clip-making options. Offers selected downloads for free and for purchase. Includes themed playlists and listening designed to accompany the major music history and appreciation textbooks.
Contemporary World Music (Music Online) This link opens in a new window
Audio recordings of contemporary world music of all regions from every continent.
Contains important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more.
Jazz Music Library (Music Online) This link opens in a new window
Library of jazz music in streaming audio format.
Largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online - with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
Popular Music Library This link opens in a new window
Audio recordings of popular music from around the world.
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.