Library Guides: Contemporary Music: Video Streaming & DVDs

Find DVDs and Videos

Use the catalogue to find DVDs, Videos (VHS) and Online Videos. Search using title, keyword, author or subject.

The easiest way to find DVDs/Videos in the Library Catalogue is to do an advanced keyword search. and limit the format to DVD/VIDEO/Film. Or if you are requiring only DVDs - limit the location to DVD Collections.

The Advanced Keyword search option is available from a drop-down menu in the top left hand corner of the catalogue homepage. Note that it is also possible to use the "location" limiting option to choose "online collections" which will yield results from many of our video databases.

Online Video Databases

(UniMelb Login Required)

Anthropology Online (Alexander Street Press)
Alexander Street Anthropology brings together a wide range of streaming video, written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Essential for study in the areas of politics, economics, history, psychology, environmental studies, religion, area studies, linguistics, and geography, the database will contain more than 1,800 documentary films and over 100,000 pages of full-text material at completion, including tens of thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives.
Classical Music in Video (Alexander Street Press)
Classical Music in Video will contain 1,000 hours of classical music performances and masterclasses captured on video—approximately 1,500 performances in all. The collection will contain performances of all forms of classical music, including major orchestral performances by leading orchestras, plus chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers from around the world.
Dance in Video
Dance in Video contains dance productions and documentaries by the most influential performers and companies of the 20th century. Selections cover ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisational dance, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance. Included are classic performances from top ballet companies; experimental works from up-and-coming dance troupes; documentaries by and about leading choreographers; videos on dance training; and other items covering a wide range of 20th century dance styles. The Library has access to volumes I & II of Dance in Video.
Opera in Video This link opens in a new window
Opera in Video contains the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world’s best performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work’s importance to the operatic canon.
Digital Theatre Plus
Digital Theatre+ collaborates with with world-class theatre companies, industry associations, practitioners and scholars to provide access to a growing collection of full-length theatre productions and educational resources. The database contains recordings of hundreds of live captured performances across theatre, ballet, opera and classical music; interviews with actors, directors, and backstage crew providing an often unseen insight into the workings of a theatre and what it takes to stage a play; study guides accompanying curricula mapped plays, written by leading academics to help students get to grip with dramatic texts; relationship maps, plot summaries, theme and context analysis, glossaries and much, much more.
Play with a Pro
Play With a Pro contains a growing number of high quality videos, in which the great teachers and musicians of our time share their knowledge and passion for classical music. These videos portray the artists and go behind the scene to unfold the thoughts and insights they have put into their own music making. The aim of Play With a Pro is to make classical music education accessible for everyone featuring world class artists and teachers. The videos can be streamed online or downloaded and viewed offline, either on your computer, smartphone or tablet.
Kanopy (Kanopy)
The Kanopy Streaming Service is the leading supplier of streamed videos to global academic institutions. The service utilises sophisticated platform and delivery technology to offer a new world of online engagement that empowers University of Melbourne Library to stream on demand video at optimal quality to their registered staff and students.

Explore the catalogue of over 20,000 videos from the world’s most prominent filmmakers and production houses. Specially curated collections cover a wide range educational disciplines including literacy, mathematics, history and issues in society. Kanopy also offers a hosting service allowing for DVDs to be uploaded and streamed online provided digital rights is obtained. Kanopy offers a large range of Australian content and videos can be searched using the library catalogue.
medici.tv
Producing and broadcasting over 100 live concerts each year and 1300 programs, in collaboration with orchestras and concert halls around the world. Includes concerts, archives, operas, ballets, documentaries, master-classes, educational films and artist profiles.
Digital Concert Hall
Hundreds of concert recordings from the Berliner Philharmoniker, including concerts, symphonies and vocal works from all periods. New concerts added weekly. Also features artist interviews, documentaries and concert introductions.
NOTE: Individual registration is required to use this database. The registration process MUST be completed using an on-campus University of Melbourne computer. Use the link above to access Digital Concert Hall then follow the instructions in the pop-up window to create a new user account. (If you don't see the pop-up window please contact queries for assistance).
After registering / logging in, all concerts, films and interviews in the Digital Concert Hall will be viewable free of charge. Once registered content is viewable off campus by using your login details. Users are required to verify their account every 4 weeks by logging in via an on-campus computer to maintain access via the institutional subscription. Once registered you can access the database off-campus by following the LOGIN link on the database homepage.
Registered Institutional users may screen the streaming services within the Institution for educational purposes and for the purpose of lectures (this does not include public screenings).
Qwest TV EDU
Qwest TV by Quincy Jones is a subscription video-on-demand service dedicated to Jazz, Soul, Funk & World Music. Qwest TV was created in 2017 by Quincy Jones and Reza Ackbaraly. The Qwest TV catalogue features 1000+ documentaries, concerts, archives and exclusive content relating to "jazz and beyond." It is available to University of Melbourne students and staff free until 31 September 2021.

EduTV
A video streaming service of over 50,000 programs from free-to-air (NITV, SBS, SBS World Movies, SBS Viceland, ABC) and pay TV channels (Premiere, Fox Classics, Fox Showcase, BBC First, National Geographic, BBC World News, CNN) in Australia. Coverage commences with 2006 and includes over 20,000 TV and documentary clips and over 5000 films.

Online Videos

(Free Access)

ABC iView Arts
An internet broadcasting service which lets you catch up with a selection of programming from the ABC. It offers high fidelity, full-screen video for high speed internet users (ADSL2/1.1Mbps connection speeds).Accessing content via this service may affect your internet service provider download limits
EVIA Digital Archive
Digital archive of ethnographic video maintained by Indiana University and the University of Michigan.
internet Archive: Moving Image Archive
This library contains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts.
Open Culture
Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community.
UbuWeb
Large educational resource of avant-garde material in the fields of visual, concrete and sound poetry. It also includes film and sound archives.

Archive and Museum Film Collections

Australian National Film and Sound Archive
The nation’s living archive – collecting, preserving and sharing our rich audiovisual heritage. Includes an indigenous collection.
ACMI Collection
This search tool provides experimental access to what used to be ACMI’s lending collection. It contains roughly 38,000 items dating back to the 1890s across a wide range of styles – feature films, shorts, documentaries, student works, instructional and experimental films.
National Archives - UK
Contains a range of archive clips with background information. All clips can either be played directly through the Flash Player on the site or can be downloaded for your own use in video-editing software. Browse the timeline and select a film category to see the clips.