Find Freely Licensed Media to use in Your Digital Project

Pictures, music and videos are the building blocks of digital stories, animated videos, podcasts and other creative digital projects.

When used effectively, media can communicate main ideas, create a deeper connection with the audience and enhance the look of your project.

If you want to use media that you did not create yourself, be aware that copyright can limit how you use it. Just because you found something online, doesn’t mean that you can use it however you want.

That’s why you should use “freely licensed” media whenever possible. Freely licensed media includes works in the public domain and works with a Creative Commons license.

The creators of these works allow anyone to use their creations as long as the user follows the terms and conditions of the license, such as crediting the original creator or not modifying the work.

There are many collections of “freely licensed” media on the internet where you can find media to use and adapt for your project within the bounds of copyright.

The easiest way to find these collections is through the “Find Audio, Images and Videos for Remixing“” library guide. This guide links to popular resources for finding freely licensed audio recordings, images and videos.

Let’s say you’re making a digital story about cats.

You’ll probably need to find pictures and sound effects.

Let’s go to Unsplash.com and search for pictures of cats.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for, try using different keywords in your search like “Siamese cats” or “kittens”

Although all images on Unsplash have the same type of Creative Commons license, that’s not always the case for every website.

For example, let’s find sound recordings of cats purring on freesound.org You’ve found several options.

This recording has a Creative Commons 0 license, while this recording has a noncommercial license. If you are trying to use the recording in a commercial way, such as for a company website, you wouldn’t be able to use the second recording.

Make sure that you are following the terms and conditions for each work you use in your digital project.

Keep track of where you found each media source so that you can credit all creators in the credits section.

Even though public domain works don’t require credit, it is still good practice to list all the works you use.

For more information on Creative Commons licenses, check out the other videos in this playlist.

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