Every subject has unique and specialist types of information that add rigour and interest to research. Usually, you’ll need to look beyond Library Search for these information types; some are accessed via specialist databases, while others are available online via websites, social media or streaming platforms.
We’ve picked out some key resources for your subject here but you might like to explore our Resource Guides for more resources on different information types.
Online Music and Sound Resources
- Archival Sound Recordings (British Library) This link opens in a new windowOnline sound archives from the British Library, including music, interviews, oral history, radio recordings, field recordings.
- Box of Broadcasts This link opens in a new window
Box of Broadcasts provides access to over 2.2 million TV and radio broadcasts from over 75 channels, including most of the UK’s freeview network, all BBC TV and radio content from 2007, and several foreign language channels. This resource is not available outside the UK.
- CHARM - 78rpms5,000 sound recordings of 78rpm discs from the 'Musicians of Britain and Ireland 1900-1950' project.
- FreesoundLabs - AppsA list of apps that use content from Freesound or use the Freesound API.
- World Music archive (Radio 3)Explore over a decade's worth of BBC Radio 3 world music recordings.
- BBC Radio 4 on MusicMusic documentaries from the Radio 4 archive, from Armstrong to Zappa.
- Casa Ricordi LettersDigital edition of the letters (15,000) written to Casa Ricordi, the world famous music publisher, during the 19th and 20th centuries by writers, singers and composers including Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Franz Liszt, Ottorino Respighi, and Jules Massenet.
- Charles Avison CollectionCharles Avison (1709-1770) was born in Newcastle and became England’s most important eighteenth-century concerto composer. Newcastle City Library houses The Avison Archive in conjunction with The Avison Society.
- The Full English (English Folk Dance and Song Society)The world's biggest digital archive of English traditional music and dance: 44,000 records and 58,000 images.
- Glastonbury Festival ArchiveOfficial archive documenting the history of this famous music festival.
- Irish Traditional Music ArchiveThis digital archive contains sound recordings, interactive scores and other items relating to Irish traditional music.
- Joseph Hornsby CollectionJoseph Hornsby is a Northumbrian fiddler with an extensive multimedia archive of traditional Scottish country dance music. This online archive (a project based in ICMuS) has a fascinating social history as well as great musical value, and is a valuable resource for musicians and scholars alike.
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture
Covering approximately 1733 to 1968, this collection includes a wide range of primary sources related to the arts in the Victorian era, from playbills and scripts to operas and complete scores.
- Opera at the Victoria and Albert museumDigitised collections relating to opera from the Victoria and Albert museum.
- The Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM)DIAMM (the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) is a leading resource for the study of medieval manuscripts. It presents images and/or metadata for thousands of manuscripts. Please note that not every record includes digital images.
- Folk Archive North East (FARNE)Supported by the New Opportunities Fund in 2001-2003, FARNE gathered unique material from a range of museums, libraries and archives across North East England to create a folk music archive on the Internet. Material includes song lyrics, tunes, sound recordings and photographs.
- Early Music OnlineEarly Music Online has digitised over 320 volumes of 16th-century anthologies of printed music, from holdings at the British Library.
- Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM)The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) - International Inventory of Musical Sources - is an international, non-profit organisation that aims to comprehensively document extant musical sources worldwide: manuscripts, printed music editions, writings on music theory, and libretti that are found in libraries, archives, churches, schools, and private collections. RISM records what exists and where it can be found.
- Rock's Backpages This link opens in a new windowThe largest database of online music journalism, providing access to thousands of interviews, reviews and articles about artists of all genres, from Aaliyah to ZZ Top. Coverage dates back 50 years, and also includes 500 audio interviews.
- Bodleian BalladsThe Bodleian Library holds over 30,000 ballads from the 16th to 20th centuries.
This project makes the ballads and ballad sheets available to the research community. - Digital Image Archive of Medieval MusicThis online archive contains images of European polyphonic music manuscripts dating from 800-1550.
- Early Music OnlineA project in which 300 of the world’s earliest surviving volumes of printed music, held in the British Library, have been digitised and made freely available online.
- IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project)Access to almost half a million scores.
- Medieval Music Manuscripts OnlineInternational virtual library of music sources, documenting over 8,000 noted manuscripts for the medieval period up to 1600.
- Music collections on microformOur Media Room on Level 4 contains various music collections on microfilm and microfiche, including Manuscript collection of the British Library; Music collection of Christ Church; Music collection of the Cambridge Libraries.
- Music Scores Online: Classical Scores LibraryThis six-volume (I-VI) digital scores collection encompasses all major classical musical genres and time periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and includes full, study, piano, and vocal scores.
- MusopenWe provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions.
- Sheet music collectionsFrom Duke University: site listing collections of sheet music with public access.
- Bloomsbury Popular Music This link opens in a new windowComprehensive resource covering all genres of popular music, including ebooks, books about significant LPs, artist biographies and interactive timeline and map.
- Cambridge History of MusicNine volumes of this major work available online.
- Live Music ExchangeA web hub from Edinburgh University all about live music, which links topical discussion with resources, reports and practical guides.
- Music: British Library GuideGuides to collections and online resources held at the British Library and elsewhere, relating to music (classical, popular and world). Note: This resource is currently unavailable owing to the cyber attack on the British Library.
- Music libraries and conservatoires on Library Hub DiscoverBlog post giving an overview of the music libraries and conservatoires whose catalogues you can search on Library Hub Discover.
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowThe online gateway to the major music reference work, Grove Music Online, with comprehensive coverage of music, musicians and music scholarship across many genres.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowAn extensive statistics platform covering over 1.5 million data sets (and adding an additional 500 each day) with revenue forecasts from 2015 to 2027 on over 400 industries. Data is collected from over 22,500 sources covering over 75,000 different topics.
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