Subsonic Update
Due to incompatibility with the University’s multi-factor authentication service, our music streaming server, Subsonic, has been retired. Recordings for subjects have been made available for students in the relevant subject LMS/Canvas sites. Speak with your lecturer if you're unsure.
NOTE: For general listening, Naxos Music Library and other online music services are still available.
Sound Recordings
UniMelb login required
- Digital Concert HallHundreds of exclusive concert recordings from the Berliner Philharmoniker. New concerts added weekly. Also includes interviews, documentaries and concert introductions.
- medici.tvProduces and broadcasts over 100 live concerts each year and 1300 programs, in collaboration with the greatest orchestras and concert halls in the world. Includes concerts, archives, operas, ballets, documentaries, master-classes, educational films and artist profiles.
- Subsonic - Essential Listening for Music StudentsCourse Reserve Online music streaming service featuring a number of course listening lists. Unimelb username and password required.
- Australian Composers Collection on MinervaAustralian Composers Off-Air Sound Recordings.
- Classical Music LibraryCoverage includes music written from the earliest times (e.g. Gregorian Chant) to the present, including many contemporary composers. Repertoire ranges from vocal and choral music, to chamber, orchestral, solo instrumental, and opera.
- Contemporary World Music (Alexander Street Press)Contemporary World Music delivers the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database will contain important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku and more.
- Jazz Music Library (Alexander Street Press)Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online — with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.
- Music Online - Alexander Street PressMusic Online is the broadest and most comprehensive online music resource that cross-searches all of the library's Alexander Street Press music databases.
- Music Online - American SongAmerican Song is a history database that allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past. The database includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests and more.
- Naxos Music LibraryNaxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. The Naxos Music Library offers streamed audio recordings from the complete catalogues of the Naxos and Marco Polo labels and selected recordings from over 640 other independent labels including EMI, Warner Classics and Sony Classical.
- Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries (Alexander Street Press)World and folk music; also includes spoken word and foreign language recordings.
Search by country, cultural group, etc. Includes liner notes, and cover art.
Other Online Resources
- Cylinder Preservation and Digitization ProjectUniversity of California, Santa Barbara's archive of 8,000 digitized cylinder recordings. (Coverage: mid-1890s - mid-1920s)
- Archival Sound Recordings (British Library)Digital archive of 12,000 sound recordings.
- Internet Archive - Audio ArchiveContains over two hundred thousand free digital recordings.
- Recording PioneersA "who's who of sound recorders" roughly spanning 1878 to 1940
Borrowing
Most CDs can be borrowed for 7 days. Check the library catalogue
You can borrow:
- 5 CD/DVDs at a time from Southbank Library
Listening
The Southbank library has a number of listening stations. Headphones can be borrowed from the loans desk if required
Search sound recordings in the catalogue
Sound recordings include CDs, vinyl LPs and audiocassettes. Search the Library Catalogue by item details first, then limit to Material Type SOUND RECORD.
Keyword search
- Keyword searches let you search and limit on the same screen.
- Specify distinctive words or phrases eg Sculthorpe "Small town"
- Limit search to Material Type SOUND RECORD
Author Search - Composer
- specify the author/composer/creator/ name eg Glanville-Hicks - complete this search first.
- then Limit Search to Material Type SOUND RECORD
Author Search - Performer
- specify the performer(s) name(s) eg Synergy - complete this search first.
- then Limit Search to Material Type SOUND RECORD
Limit search to a specific library
- You can further limit this search to LOCATION e.g. Southbank Library or ERC
Keyword search for online recordings
- specify distinctive words or phrases eg Kats-Chernin
- Modify or Limit Search to ONLINE MUSIC AUDIO in Location
Sound recordings database
Can't find it on the Library Catalogue?
The Sound Recordings Database is an index to CDs and vinyl recordings held in the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Collection.
