License

What CC0 means

CC0 1.0 Universal is a public domain dedication from Creative Commons. The maker of a track gives up their copyright and related rights as far as the law allows. You can copy, change, share, and use the track for any purpose, commercial work included. Read the full CC0 1.0 legal text.

Using a track

You do not need to ask permission or give credit. We credit every source anyway, because the people who made and kept these collections did the work. Each track page gives a ready-made credit line, for example: "Title" by Artist, via Source (CC0 1.0), with a link to the source page. Using it is a courtesy, not a requirement. Where a source asks to be credited in specific words, we show those words on the sources page.

What CC0 cannot do

CC0 covers only the rights the maker had and gave away. It cannot:

• give you rights the maker never had, for example if they used a sample or melody that belongs to someone else;
• grant trademark or brand rights, such as using a name or logo mentioned in a recording;
• cover a person's voice, name, or likeness, which can carry their own rights;
• cover third-party content inside a recording, such as a song playing in the background.

If you use a track in a way that could touch any of these, check it yourself first.

No warranty

We provide tracks as is. We cannot promise that a source's CC0 claim is correct, that the maker owned every right in the recording, or that a track suits your purpose. The CC0 text also disclaims warranties. See the terms.

How we check license status

Each track carries one of two statuses, and the track page always shows which:

• Verified: we checked the track's source page, and it says CC0 1.0. We record the date of the check and a fingerprint (hash) of the page. Only verified tracks get the verified check mark.
• Listed: the collection we took the track from lists it as CC0, but we have not checked it at the source. This happens when the source page is missing, unreachable, or not yet checked. The track page says "Listed as CC0 by the collection; not yet checked at source". We plan to re-check listed tracks over time.

If a source page names a different license, including Creative Commons Attribution or the Public Domain Mark, or names none, we do not include the track. If a source page later changes to another license, we drop the track from the next catalog build. These checks come from the sources themselves, so they cannot guarantee a claim is right.

Report a problem

If a track should not be here, for example because it is not CC0, you own it, or it contains your work, write to legal@uncommonear.com. Include the track page link, who you are, why the track should be removed, how we can reach you, and a statement that you are acting in good faith. While we review a report, we can hide the track from search and its page. Then we either restore it or remove it for good.