Free Online Music Resources

ECHO: A Music-Centered Journal is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal created and edited by graduate students in the Department of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It was published biannually from when it was established in 1999 to 2004 and more sporadically since that time. One of the highlights of the journal is its accessibility to readers with limited to no formal music training, made possible by the use of video and audio files as supplements or replacements for music examples in standard notation.

Critical Musicology, hosted by the School of Music at the University of Leeds, is a fully refereed critical musicology journal appearing exclusively on the Internet from 1997 to 1998. Its purpose is to provide a library of texts which address the wide number of issues that have become part of the field of critical musicology. Given the diverse number of practices within critical musicology, Critical Musicology is designed to encompass a plurality of topics, discourses, and methodologies. Rather than dogmatically adopting a single party line, its purpose here is one of pragmatic, inclusive multiplicity.

A monthly online journal sponsored by a California-based music organization pertaining to 21st-century music criticism and analysis.

The Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music (JSCM) is published by the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music to provide a refereed forum for scholarly studies of the musical cultures of the seventeenth century. These include historical and archival studies, performance practice, music theory, aesthetics, dance and theater. JSCM also publishes critical reviews and summary listings of recently published books, scores, recordings, and electronic media. (Currently available issues/volumes: 1999-2010).

An online musicology journal dedicated to the study of Polish music. Published since 1998. A publication sponsored by the Polish Music Center at USC's (University of Southern California) Thornton School of Music.

A daily updated music magazine pertaining to contemporary American and British popular music criticism, film, TV, and politics. The magazine's music-related contents include interviews and special features about prominent musicians, the latest news about concerts, etc., concert and recording reviews, videos, photo galleries, lists and polls (i.e.: "100 Best Singles of 1984: Pop's Greatest Year"), among other things.

Piero Scaruffi's amateur collection of links to over 100 English and Italian language online rock music magazines.

Founded by Christopher Hobbs in 1969, this U.K.-based peer-reviewed online journal is "devoted to experimental, systems, minimal, post-minimal, ‘new’ tonal and postmodern music. It is a rolling journal, in that suitable articles are added as they are accepted, to provide the most recent available research in the field of experimental music" (see the JEMS main page).

An e-zine featuring articles about "Space Sequencer Music", alternative, New Age, electronic, and other experimental music, etc. founded by Jorge Munnshe and Manuel Montes in November 1996. Munnshe is known for his books, "New Age" and "The Symphony of The Cosmos", while Montes has contributed to magazines like "Keyboard" (Spanish edition), "Margen", "Voice", "Syntorama", "Electronic Cottage" and others.

An open-access and peer-reviewed e-journal dedicated to the study of musical improvisation with an "emphasis on improvisation as a site for the analysis of social practice" (see "Focus and scope" page on the website). This Canadian journal is supported by the University of Guelph Library.

Gamut is the peer-reviewed online journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic. The journal features articles covering Shenkerian analysis and Transformational Theory, as well as more recent, innovative theoretical and analytical concepts and procedures. According to the website, this journal also addresses musical practices "from non-Western regions (e.g., India, the Middle-East, or South America) or musical genres from popular culture (e.g., rock, country, or hiphop)."

Music Theory Online, a Journal of Criticism, is the refereed, electronic journal of the Society for Music Theory. Published several times each year, each volume of MTO includes features such as articles, reviews, commentaries, and analytical essays. In addition, MTO publishes a list of job opportunities and abstracts of recently completed dissertations.

NewMusicBox, a multimedia publication from New Music USA, is dedicated to the music of American composers and improvisers and their champions. According to the website, "NewMusicBox offers: in-depth profiles, articles, and discussions; up-to-the-minute industry news and commentary; a direct portal to our internet radio station, Counterstream; and access to an online library of more than 57,000 works by more than 6,000 composers."

"Playback Magazine" and the related blog, "We Create Music", are each sponsored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), "a membership association of more than 500,000 US composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers of every kind of music" (see ASCAP's "about us" page). This magazine/blog combo covers diverse genres ranging from Christian music to film music, musical theatre, and jazz, and also features interviews with a variety of contemporary composers and singer-songwriters.

Film Music Magazine, sponsored by the Film and Television Music Knowledgebase, features interviews with composers and practical guides to the field (e.g.: several articles about "marketing yourself"), in addition to offering a useful, up-to-date guide of recent job listings.

An online, peer-reviewed ethnomusicology journal published from 1995-2005. This e-journal was sponsored by the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and supported by three other universities: UCLA, Wesleyan University, and the University of Bologna department of music and theatre (Italy).

AAWM, first published in 2011, is an international, professional journal approaching ethnomusicological concerns from a theoretical and/or analytical standpoint.

An online repository of IU (Indiana University) scholars' academic writing regarding folklore and folk musics of the world published from 1958-1968.

"RootsWorld" is an online music magazine started in 1993, spanning a wide range of styles and genres (international folk, pop, jazz, and classical musics). The side bar to the left of the webpage offers additional information including a selected CD/recording highlighted as the "music of the month" in order to expand readers' awareness of the diversity and scope of "world music."

According to the website, "TRANS-Transcultural Music Review is the peer-reviewed journal of the SIBE-Society for Ethnomusicology and the Spanish branch of the IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music). It is a refereed journal published once a year under the auspices of the SIBE and IASPM-Spain." Articles are published in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, issues available (1997-current).

"Flamenco World Magazine" is a frequently updated, online magazine about flamenco, published in both English and Spanish. This e-magazine features articles covering the basics of flamenco ("What is Flamenco?") in addition to reviews of both recordings and live concerts/performances, interviews with prominent flamenco performers, and links to websites offering detailed information about international flamenco festivals.

An online music journal (2010-2011) covering Jewish liturgical music and sponsored by The American Conference of Cantors (ACC). According to the website, this professional organization of over 500 ordained or certified cantors was originally founded in 1953.

According to the website, "the Society of Indian Record Collectors intends to bring together all persons and institutions interested in preservation, promotion and research in all aspects of Indian musical culture." This journal featuring articles about recordings of Indian music was published online from 1991-2012.

An informal magazine published from 1995-2003, "Jelly focused on the best in blues, jazz, country, soul and rock'n'roll. Entertaining, knowledgeable articles and reviews that honored the great tradition of (mostly) American popular music, especially the stuff you won't easily find on the radio. This is an achive of all those Jelly articles. From Tracy Nelson to Los Lobos, Willie Nelson to Charlie Mingus - they're all here" (according to the website).

"The Music Business Journal, published at Berklee College of Music, is a student publication that serves as a forum for intellectual discussion and research into the various aspects of the music business. The goal is to inform and educate aspiring music professionals, connect them with the industry, and raise the academic level and interest inside and outside the Berklee Community" (drawn from the Music Business Journal's "Mission Statement").

An online music journal exploring the interrelationship of music and philosophy sponsored by the Seminario Permanente di Filosofia della Musica at the Università di Milano since 1997.

According to the website: "La rivista nasce nel 1997 dal Seminario Permanente di Filosofia della Musica un gruppo di gruppo di laureati, laureandi in Filosofia, compositori, musicisti e musicologi interessati a studiare le relazioni tra musica e filosofia con un approccio di carattere interdisciplinare, con ricerche su problemi specifici nell'ambito dell' epistemologia dell' analisi musicale, dell'estetica musicale, dei rapporti tra la musica e la storia delle idee."

An online music journal sponsored by the Dipartimento di Musicologia e Beni Culturali at the Università di Pavia.

According to the website: "Philomusica on-line è un periodico musicologico aperto, nato per dare conto delle attività di ricerca del Dipartimento di Musicologia e Beni Culturali dell’Università di Pavia e per offrire uno spazio privilegiato allo scambio e alla collaborazione tra studiosi."

An online music journal in German about Catholic church music.

According to the website: "Sechs Mal im Jahr nimmt die Musica sacra die klingende Verkündigung beim Wort. Die Stimme der Katholischen Kirchenmusik gibt überraschende Antworten auf aktuelle Fragen der musikalischen Theorie und Praxis und spielt Dissonanzen aus."

An online collection of German music catalogs dating from the 19th century, initiated in 1829 by Leipzig music publisher, Friedrich Hofmeister. According to the "about" page on this website, this resource has digitized Hofmeister's "series of monthly or bi-monthly catalogues [sic.] of printed music, largely but not exclusively based on the products of publishers in the German-speaking world. These 'Monatsberichte' [monthly reports] at first comprised about 2,000 records per year, but by 1900 the annual total had risen to 13,000, yielding a total of over 330,000 records for the period 1829-1900." This resource offers users a rare glimpse into the 19th-century German music publishing scene.