New Year’s Day also marks Public Domain Day, when the copyrights for thousands of published works expire, allowing anyone to freely record, perform, or interpolate them. This time around that means musical compositions (music and lyrics, not recordings) copyrighted in 1930, and the list includes classics like “Georgia On My Mind” (music: Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics: Stuart Gorrell), “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” (music: Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, lyrics: Gus Kahn), “I Got Rhythm (music: George Gershwin, lyrics Ira Gershwin), and the English version of “Just A Gigolo” (music: Leonello Casucci, lyrics: translated by Irving Caesar from Julius Brammer).
Per the 2018 Music Modernization Act, sound recordings from 1925 — following a full 100-year protection— are also now “free for all to copy, share, and build upon.” Recordings now eligible for clearance-free sampling include “Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen” by Marian Anderson, “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” by Gene Austin, and “Sweet Georgia Brown” by Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra.
Some of 2026’s non-musical new public domain additions: William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Agatha Christie’s The Murder At The Vicarage, Best Picture winner All Quiet On The Western Front, and Betty Boop. You can check out a list here, and revisit Weyes Blood covering “Dream…” with Bleachers at Newport Folk Festival this past summer below.
