Research Guides: Professional Music: Audio and Video Resources

Audio and Video Resources

The TMU Library provides access to streaming media, both audio and video. You can also find a collection of CDs and DVDs in our audiovisual collection on the 5th floor of the main library.

We also have specialized databases for streaming music and musical performances. Many music documentaries and other films can be found in our streaming movie databases.

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Streaming Media

Naxos Music Library
Naxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. It includes the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues of over 130,000+ tracks, including classical music, jazz, world, folk and chinese music. Whilst listening, you can read notes on the works being played as well as biographical information on composers or artists in Naxos’s extensive database.

You can select works by composer, artist, period, year of composition, instrument or genre. Playlists can also be easily created for educational use. Naxos’s new releases (currently around 200 CDs per year) are continually added to ensure that the music library is always complete and up-to-date.

It is not possible to download or burn to CD any music from Naxos Music Library.
Naxos Video Library
The Naxos Video Library brings you an extensive streaming video library of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts and documentaries. It includes the Naxos DVD label, Opus Arte, Arthaus, Dacapo, EuroArts, among others and is continuously updated to offer the best selection of performing arts videos.
An online search engine, allows users to search by composer, production, artist, venue, role or genre.
Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries
Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries, produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world’s musical and aural traditions.
It includes the published recordings owned by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and the archival audio collections of the legendary Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. It also includes music recorded around the African continent by Dr. Hugh Tracey for the International Library of African Music (ILAM) at Rhodes University as well as material collected by recordists on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), sponsored by the American Institute for Indian Studies.
Qwest TV
Streaming video service created by Quincy Jones. It features documentaries, concerts, archives and other content as they relate to “jazz and beyond.”
Co-founded by music legend Quincy Jones and jazz impresario and producer Reza Ackbaraly, Qwest TV features a diverse collection of hundreds of concerts and documentaries, with a focus on Jazz, Soul, Funk, Blues, African music, Latin music, Indian music and more.
Kanopy Streaming
Kanopy is a streaming service that provides the platform to a host of educational video productions covering a wide range of subjects, from arts, humanities, health, business, education and more. The collection has over 800 video titles from various producers.
The majority of the videos are closed captioned and clip-making is allowed.

NOTE: after accessing Kanopy, you may see a "Create Your Account" page, which urges you to create a Kanopy account. A Kanopy account is not required to watch Kanopy videos and, unless you read and agree to the the terms and privacy policy, we recommend you do not create one. To proceed without creating an account, click the "skip" button (lower right-hand corner).

Royalty Free and Public Domain Music and Sounds

If you are looking for royalty free, public domain, or Creative Commons licensed music or sounds, the following sites have some options. Remember to always confirm the license before using any tracks you've downloaded in your projects and check whether it applies to commercial or non-commercial products.