CC-Audio Sources by TrustFm

Find Creative Commons and Public Domain audio sources, music and tools for free use

Article version 1.0
Author : Karydis Anastasios aka TrustFm
Date : 27/Sept/2026

In this article, I will present a collection of audio sources offering music and other audio released under Creative Commons licenses or in the Public Domain.
The sources can be used to discover and obtain audio according to the license terms specified by the original creator or source.
We will focus on identifying, parsing and downloading MP3 files released under Public Domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA and CC BY-ND licenses.

These licenses permit forms of sharing and use that are suitable for our intended applications, including downloading, redistributing and playing or streaming audio in public places such as cafés, restaurants, shops and workplaces, subject to the specific terms of each license.

For licenses that require attribution, such as CC BY, CC BY-SA and CC BY-ND, the required attribution must be respected when using the audio.
For CC BY-SA, additional requirements apply to adaptations, while CC BY-ND does not allow distribution of adapted material.
We do not focus on CC BY-NC licenses because they do not permit commercial use.
This is important for public and commercial environments where music may be played or streamed as part of a business or service.

The purpose of this project is therefore to identify audio sources where the published license permits the types of use required for public playback, streaming, transmission and redistribution, while keeping the original license conditions and attribution requirements intact.
Always check the license of the individual work at the original source before using it.
A source may contain works under different licenses, and the license applicable to one work does not automatically apply to another.

By the end of the CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm procedure, you will obtain approximately 2 TB of audio, consisting of around 307,463 MP3 files licensed under Public Domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA and CC BY-ND licenses.

Creative Commons Audio Sources Sources:

Audionautix - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:763 - Size:4G*
ccMixter - License: PD, Multiple CC - MP3:9212 Size:38.6G*
Chosic - License: PD, Multiple CC - MP3:2529 Size:14.2G*
Creatorchords - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:682 Size:5.2G*
Dogmazic - License: PD, Multiple CC - MP3:18223 Size:117.6G*
ende - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:6767 Size:17.8G*
FreeMusicArchive (FMA) - License: PD, Multiple CC - MP3:37840 Size:291.6G*
freepd - License: CC0 - MP3:254 Size:3.4G*
Incompetech - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:4348 Size:30.7G*
Jamendo - License: PD, Multiple CC - MP3:186361 Size:1001.1G*
Machinima Sound Legacy Tracks - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:136 Size:964M*
MDK band - License: CC BY 3.0 - MP3:1192 Size:12.2G*
Musopen - License: PD, CC0, Multiple CC - MP3:6638 Size:64.2G*
Open Music Archive - License: PD, CC BY 4.0 - MP3:244 Size:887.6M*
PandaCD - License: PD, Multiple CC - MP3:17543 Size:127.7G*
SampleSwap - License: Multiple CC - MP3:786 Size:7.3G*
Teknoaxe - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:4965 - Size:41.4G*
Youtube audio library - License: Attribution required - not required - MP3:6957 Size:42.6G*
zero-project - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:190 Size:1.4G*
zz-Anthony Kozar - License: CC BY-SA 2.0 - MP3:22 Size:334.5M*
zz-Chris Zabriskie - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:202 Size:718M*
zz-Josh Woodward - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:508 Size:3.2G*
zz-kongano - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:610 Size:2.3G*
zz-Scott Buckley - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:279 Size:2.5G*
zz-Tim Beek - License: CC BY 4.0 - MP3:205 Size:668.2M*

*Estimated values for downloading all available audio released under Public Domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA and CC BY-ND licenses.
As mentioned above, CC BY-NC licenses are not included.

For each audio source included in this project, a dedicated info.txt file is provided.

The info.txt file documents the complete workflow for that source, including how to scan or collect available audio, identify and record the applicable license information, save the MP3 source URLs, filter the results according to the required license criteria, and download the selected audio files.

The instructions are specific to each source and may include the required commands, scripts, search methods, filtering options and output files.
Always verify the license of each individual work at the original source before using, streaming, transmitting or redistributing the audio.

Before downloading CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm, we recommend using a Linux distribution.
The included tools and scripts are primarily written in Python and Bash and are designed to be used from a Linux command-line environment.

Linux provides the most compatible environment for running the included scripts, processing large lists of audio sources, filtering results and downloading the selected MP3 files.

Windows users may be able to run some of the Python scripts, but the included Bash scripts and Linux-oriented commands may require additional software or modifications.

Tools used by CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm

GNU/Linux command-line tools — standard utilities used by the scripts for file and directory processing, text processing and automation, including grep, sed, awk, find, sort, uniq, sha256sum, cp, mv, mkdir, rm, ls and other standard Linux utilities.
Python 3 — Python scripts for scanning, parsing, filtering, processing metadata, collecting source URLs and downloading audio, using libraries such as requests, BeautifulSoup (bs4), csv, json, re, pathlib, urllib, os, time and other standard Python libraries.
Bash — shell scripts and Linux command-line automation.
curl — downloading and retrieving web resources.
wget — downloading files and web pages, including source HTML for parsing.
Chrome Browser — accessing websites, searching sources and checking licenses and available audio.
uGet — download manager for handling large numbers of downloads.
JDownloader — download manager for supported websites and large download collections.
Transmission BitTorrent Client — downloading torrent-based audio archives and source collections.
SpaceFM — fast Linux file manager, especially useful for navigating very large directories such as Jamendo collections.
Double Commander — two-panel file manager for managing and comparing large audio collections.
FreeFileSync — synchronizing, comparing and transferring large audio collections between storage devices.
Geany — lightweight text editor used for viewing and editing text, CSV, TSV, HTML and script files, including very large files that can be difficult for heavier editors to handle.
LibreOffice — opening, viewing and working with large CSV and tabular data files.
7-Zip — creating and extracting compressed archives, including the distribution archive for CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm.
deadbeef / audacious / VLC — audio MP3 player(s).

Hardware requirements for CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm

3 TB — HDD storage for the complete estimated audio collection.
ADSL / VDSL / FTTH — Internet connection for downloading the audio.

Readme for CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm

CC-Audio Sources by TrustFm

Source: [www.trustfm.net]

Info:
* For each CC-Audio provider, such as Audionautix, go to the dedicated provider folder and read the info.txt file before using the source.

* create_mp3_list.sh — edit the FOLDER variable accordingly.
This script produces mp3_list.txt containing the MP3 files found in the selected folder.

* make_genre_playlist.py — produces M3U playlists by genre.
Edit the script accordingly from the CONFIGURATION section before running it.

Software:
GNU General Public License, Version 2, June 1991 (GPL-2.0-only)
The complete license is included in: license.txt

Third-party data and source material:
Remains subject to the license and terms applicable to the original source or work.

Music:
No music files are included in this archive.
This archive contains scripts, source information, metadata and lists used to locate and process audio published by third parties.

Important:
Always check the license and usage conditions of each individual work at the original source before downloading, using, playing, streaming or redistributing it.

Download CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm using one of these options below :

Google Drive Latest version (107.8M)
Instructions : Click on button "Download". Service offered by Google drive.

OneDrive Latest version (107.8M)
Instructions : Direct download link offered by Microsoft's OneDrive cloud service

Proton Drive Latest version (107.8M)
Instructions : Click on button "Download". Service offered by Proton drive.

File Identification / Integrity Checking:
MD5: 2688355c7329c0f28d135909ec6d38fd
SHA-1: e71252b9261494c1ffe4ff91f098d088adec87fd
SHA-256: 3bd6c72ae0e5c4d9c71992ff3f6457e58d16ea24136395469a2a997f9b05c59d

VirusTotal Scan:
View file on VirusTotal

Jotti Malware Scan:
View file on Jotti

Notice:
By the end of the CC-Audio-Sources-TrustFm procedure, you will obtain approximately 2 TB of audio, consisting of around 307,463 MP3 files licensed under Public Domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA and CC BY-ND licenses.
Please be patient, as downloading the complete collection will take quite some time, potentially a week or more, depending on your Internet connection and the availability of the source servers.