Er, you forgot to mention what country you're in. In the US, the general cutoff date is 1923. The US currently doesn't follow the Rule of the Shorter Term, so some works that are out of copyright in their home countries may still be under copyright in the US.

Music copyright behaves approximately the same as text copyright. But watch out for arrangements, which may be separately copyrighted. And, of course, watch out for the Happy Birthday song: the performance fee is so small compared to the cost of a legal appeal that nobody has ever bothered to challenge the claim ;)

Welcome to the Forums, dmprog. There are libraries of royalty free music online, put out by the musicians who want people to hear their music. Mostly short snippets by unknowns, 3 - 4 minutes sometimes. It is copyrighted, but you are free to use it with attribution. If you spend enough time listening to clips, you may find one that is good for the purpose.

Music you've seen sold in stores or online, heard in movies, radio, TV, etc. you can be pretty sure it is copyrighted - though it does vary by country as was mentioned.

Heh. I wasn't even thinking of specific recordings. Those would inescapably be under copyright, unless you've got your eyes on something involving a wax cylinder dating from 1897. I was thinking of "song" = music + lyrics.

Thanks a lot