Library Guides: Music: Recordings

Recordings Collection

The Recordings Collection contains over 72,000 sound recordings, focusing on musical recordings, with some spoken word, as well as audio recordings accompanying print items shelved in Regenstein and Mansueto.

The Collection primarily supports coursework and research at the University. It includes musical recordings of classical (art) music, ethnic music, jazz, blues, rock and roll, R&B, hip-hop and electronic music; spoken word recordings cover subjects in the humanities and social sciences, as well as business, divinity, and area studies.

Various audio formats are represented in the Collection: compact discs (CDs), vinyl records (both LPs and 45s) and audio cassettes.

Requesting Items from the Recordings Collection

The Recordings Collection is located in the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library.

All items with a "Mansueto, Recordings" location may be requested via the Library Catalog and available for pickup within 15 minutes of request during the hours Mansueto is open.

See Requesting Mansueto Items for more information.

Search Recordings by Label

Online Audio

Music Online This link opens in a new window
Select American Music, Classical Music, Dance, Film, Jazz, Popular Music, Theater or World Music from the tabs. Or select "collections" on the right to see the full suite of resources.
With Music Online, Alexander Street Press aims to provide the most comprehensive database in streaming audio, video, reference, and scores on the web. Music Online allows users cross search all of the music databases published by Alexander Street Press. Includes Classical Music Library, American Song, Contemporary World Music, Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Jazz Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound.
Music Online: American Music This link opens in a new window
American Song is a historical database featuring music from America's past. Included are songs by and about Native Americans, miners, immigrants, African slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Unlimited simultaneous users.
American Song is a historical database featuring music from America's past. Included are songs by and about Native Americans, miners, immigrants, African slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Also featured are the songs of the Civil Rights movement, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and anti-war protests. Approximately 116,000 tracks and 7,000 albums are included. Unlimited simultaneous users.
Music Online: Classical Music Library This link opens in a new window
Classical Music Library, which is part of Music Online by Alexander Street Press, includes over 90,000 individual tracks and nearly 6,000 full albums. Classical Music Library, which is part of Music Online by Alexander Street Press, includes over 90,000 individual tracks and nearly 6,000 full albums. The largest portion of the database covers classical or "art" music, although some traditional and popular music is also included. Unlimited simultaneous users.
Classical Music Library, which is part of Music Online by Alexander Street Press, includes over 90,000 individual tracks and nearly 6,000 full albums. The largest portion of the database covers classical or "art" music, although some traditional and popular music is also included. Unlimited simultaneous users.
Music Online: Classical Scores Library This link opens in a new window
Music Online: Classical Scores Library is a series of four volumes with a mission to provide a reliable and authoritative source for scores of the classical canon, as well as a resource for the discovery of lesser-known contemporary works. The collections encompass all major classical musical genres and time periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. With full, study, piano, and vocal scores, this comprehensive collection will enhance the study of music history, performance, composition and theory for a variety of scholars.
Music Online: Contemporary World Music This link opens in a new window
Contemporary World Music, part of Music Online by Alexander Street Press, includes music from multiple regions and from every continent. The database contains reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music. Contemporary World Music includes just under 1 million tracks and nearly 16,000 full albums. Unlimited simultaneous users.
Contemporary world music will contain 50,000 tracks that delivers the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database will contain 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. This database is a complementary database to Smithsonian global sound for libraries - it includes a blend of contemporary and traditional world music recordings from many labels throughout the world.

Music Online: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music

Music Online: Jazz Music Library
Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streamed jazz audio files available online, including thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres. Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streamed jazz audio files available online, including thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres. At this point there are 131,431 individual tracks and 10,601 albums. The database will continue to grow over the next several years. Unlimited simultaneous users.
Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streamed jazz audio files available online, including thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres. At this point there are 131,431 individual tracks and 10,601 albums. The database will continue to grow over the next several years. Unlimited simultaneous users.
Music Online: Opera in Video This link opens in a new window
Opera in video contains approximately 250 important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world's leading performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work's importance to the operatic canon.
Music Online: Popular Music Library This link opens in a new window
Music Online: Popular Music Library from Alexander Street 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. --Publisher's website
Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound This link opens in a new window
Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries, produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. The collection provides faculty and students with an enormous variety of online audio resources that support the creation, continuity, and preservation of worldwide musical forms. The database currently includes about 41,000 individual tracks and 2,800 full albums. Unlimited simultaneous users.
Includes streamed audio and video recordings of traditional and folk music from around the world, accompanied by detailed liner notes describing the content. Recordings are taken from various international sound archives.
Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Naxos Music Library offers over 820,000 streamed audio tracks of classical music from nearly 700 different labels. Naxos Music Library offers over 820,000 streamed audio tracks of classical music from nearly 700 different labels such as Albany, Cedille, EMI, Hungaroton, Naxos, Nimbus, Vanguard. etc. Limit of 8 simultaneous users; must log-off when finished.
Offers over 75,000 streamed audio tracks of classical music from the Naxes, Marco Polo and Da Capo catalogues.

Restrictions: Access is limited to 5 simultaneous users. Please log off when you are finished with the database.

Internet Archive: Live Music (Free - Open Source)
Provides high quality live concerts in a downloadable format. The Internet Archive has teamed up with etree.org to preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future listeners.

DRAM: Database of Recorded American Music This link opens in a new window
A scholarly database of 20th and 21st music, including CD quality audio, liner notes and essays from New World, Composers Recordings/CRI, and other important labels for contemporary music. A scholarly database of 20th and 21st music, including CD quality audio, liner notes and essays from New World, Composers Recordings/CRI, and other important labels for contemporary music. At his point, DRAM containsmore than 3,000 albums originally recorded on 27 individual labels. Unlimited simultaneous users.
DRAM's collection contains nearly 2,300 albums worth of recordings from a distinctive set of 15 independent labels. From folk to opera, Native American to jazz, 19th century classical to early rock, musical theater, contemporary, electronic and beyond.

Met Opera on Demand: Student Access

Met Opera on Demand This link opens in a new window
Met Opera on Demand: Student Access, includes 86 selections from the company's Live in HD series, which uses multiple cameras, advanced technology, and innovative direction to capture the excitement and power of live opera. With these 86 selections, Met Opera on Demand contains a total of 550 performances, some being varying stagings of the same opera with different casting.
The Met Opera on Demand catalog currently contains 86 selections from the companys groundbreaking Live in HD series, which uses multiple cameras, advanced technology, and innovative direction to capture the excitement and power of live opera. The series popular intermission features, which take viewers behind the scenes for exclusive interviews with the stars of each production, are included with each title.
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Purchase Requests

The Library welcomes suggestions for the acquisition of materials which support the University's teaching and research programs. For these suggestions and requests email the Music Bibliographer. You can also submit a request by using this form.