Pond5 Free Stock Media and Public Domain Project

Pond5 is one of the older internet royalty free music service and stock media companies. You might not know that with all of the ads from the upstart competitors.  

Creators have a lot of choices in the on-line marketplace. Choices doesn't necessarily mean that the service is a good fit for what you want and need. 

I snagged a lifetime deal subscription to another music service that has a lot of music. 80% does not fit my tastes or creative needs. Other services are very expensive or free and everybody uses them.

https://www.pond5.com/free

In full disclosure, I was a prior customer of Pond5, liked the service but drifted away to other new and shinny toys. In a podcasting group, I saw a notice about free access to music, video and graphics.

So I'm checking out the site to get info on the deal.

Pond5 has the Monday free video of the week. And they have a section of their website for what they called Public Domain Project. 

This is different. There is section of the website that has a collection available for free use and attribution. 

The Licensing Agreement is not the easiest of documents to read. A law school background would help. I am not a law student so this is my understanding of the service:

• You can use it for commercial use, preferably with attribution.
• You can use it on your website/blog and for social media distribution (Instagram, FB, YouTube, SnapChat) but not for broadcast or fee for service streaming services (Disney, Hulu, or any of the Plus services)
• Don't do anything, immoral, illegal or ethically questionable with their stuff.
• If something goes wrong you agree that the service will be held harmless.

Pond5 has a lot of content, be careful and aware of what you are downloading. Make sure you are on the Free Stock Music page.

You do get to listen to the music before downloading it. It will have the embedded Pond5 notice until you go through the process of placing it in the cart and downloading it.

Before checking out - make sure you go to the See Item Detail page. This confirms to you that you have selected the free track, that it is designated for commercial use with attribution.

Add it to the cart, then continue the process to download a clear copy. So long as you do the attribution thing, you are good to go.

Pond5 Public Domain Project

Pond5 has an archive of works produced by the U.S. government. These are assets created for the benefit of U.S. citizens. They are 100%  in the public domain. There are also expired copyright videos, images and sound recordings. 

I would say tread carefully and double check before use. You'll have the least problems with the video and images. The music - well, yes, no and maybe. 

There is a lot of classical music. There is usually a code or maker in the recording to tell the music sniffing bots that this is ok to use. But some music sniffing bots do patter matching. So as soon as it pattern matches Beethoven's Fifth "Dah, dah da dah..." 

You may or may not get hit with a copyright flag or get demonetized. You want to have attribution and be prepared.

There are folks songs, these are interesting. Some of them have very short interviews with the performers. It seems like it was an audio ethnography project. Could have been from Alan Lomax.

There are railroad laying songs, songs from prisoners. songs in other languages or faith based songs. I'm losing an afternoon just listening to this living history.

The sound quality can be poor or clear. Depends on the quality of the original recording.

There is a song I really liked "Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad" I'm linking to the Library of Congress version so you can hear it. 

Many years later, in 1962, Harry Belafonte recorded his version of the song. Much more stylized than the prison version. The Belafonte version is not in any way in the public domain. 

Will the music sniffing bots know the difference?

Summary

It is an option to use some of the public domain music recordings. But it is your responsibility to make sure there isn't going to be a problem or issue using the song in question. 

For educational and classroom use, yes a thousand times yes (with context about the subject matter and the historical world of the song.)

For historical podcasts and video essays, yes. 

To sell a bar of soap using "Sick Em Dogs On Me" as the soundtrack?  I don't think so.

You should know saying that "I downloaded it from Pond5" isn't going to be a sufficient defense. There could be another recording of the song you don't know about.

That person or company can put a copyright claim on your use. Even if it is truly in the public domain. 

You have the right to use it but you want to be able to promptly prove your right to the recording.

There is a lot of good stuff on Pond5. I can recommend both the paid service and the free, attribution version. 

For the audio public domain version, spend some time listening and really evaluate if you can properly and respectfully use the content.