Christmas Songs in the Public Domain
https://support.easysong.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047491414-Christmas-Songs-in-the-Public-Domain
Did you know that eleven of the top twenty most covered songs are Christmas songs? Some are new; written less than 100 years ago. Many date back to the 1800's. When selecting songs for your holiday album, it is useful to consider which of these beloved classics are in the public domain and which are copyrighted. Copyrighted songs require permission from the owner, while public domain songs require no permission and can save you money on licensing costs. How can you know which holiday classics are in the public domain and which are copyrighted? Read on to learn the answer to this question and more. At the end of the article, we list 78 very popular Christmas songs along with their public domain status. ..
Dollars to donuts ASCAP would still collect a fee to broadcast it, etc. "But it's public domain now". Never stopped them yet. Their syndicate strong arms you into compliance.
No, your mistaken. They can not collect fees for songs and/ or performances that are already in the public domain and there's no such strong-arm tactics they could ever employ to try and do so, not to my knowledge have they ever attempted to try to. If it has been deemed as Public Domain, them that is exactly what it is.Dollars to donuts ASCAP would still collect a fee to broadcast it, etc. "But it's public domain now". Never stopped them yet. Their syndicate strong arms you into compliance.
@richpowers I would agree with you in theory.
But in practice, things can be different. I don't know about ASCAP, but I do know that the repertoires of the licensing body in Canada, SOCAN, are not always accurate. I've found lots of songs that are clearly in the public domain (in Canada) according to the laws, and yet they still remain the copyright database. You would then be put into a position where you would have to prove innocence if you did something with those songs, which is not the way things should work.
Add to that the fact that copyright law is extremely complex, particularly in the U.S., where copyright had to be registered, and then renewed until the laws were changed. Court cases can and have changed the copyright status of a work. And some works that you would think would be copyrighted have fallen into the public domain because their copyright was never registered, or even attributed in the proper way (there was a specific format you had to use to declare something was a copyrighted work).
But getting back to radio, the key statement in the article is the copyright status of recorded works or performances. Until January 1, 2026, the only recordings in the public domain are from 1924 and earlier, which were usually recorded acoustically (electrical transcriptions only became common in 1925). Unless, of course, you take a public domain work and record it yourself. Or find a modern recording that has been specifically placed in the public domain by the performers.
@richpowers I would agree with you in theory.
But in practice, things can be different. ... ..
But getting back to radio, the key statement in the article is the copyright status of recorded works or performances. Until January 1, 2026, the only recordings in the public domain are from 1924 and earlier, which were usually recorded acoustically (electrical transcriptions only became common in 1925). Unless, of course, you take a public domain work and record it yourself. Or find a modern recording that has been specifically placed in the public domain by the performers.
I know you know what your talking about, however the key topic of the article is...
Which Christmas Songs Are in the Public Domain?
Below are three lists. First is a list of 78 Christmas songs along with the year of publication and public domain status. The second list separates out the public domain Christmas songs. The third list shows only the copyrighted Christmas songs that are not in the public domain.
The key objective behind the article seems to be to use their research team to determine what songs you would have the rights to record yourself or distribute or whatever. But they do in their second list provide 38 confirmed public domain, royalty free classic Christmas songs that your free to do whatever you want to.
38 Public Domain Christmas SongsAngels from the Realms of Glory 1867
Angels We Have Heard on High 1700
Auld Lang Syne 1711
Away In a Manger 1887
Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella 1553
Coventry Carol Traditional
Deck the Halls 1800
The First Noel 1833
Gesu Bambino 1917
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen 1827
Go Tell It on the Mountain 1865
Good King Wenceslaus 1853
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing 1840
Here We Come A-Caroling 1850
The Holly and the Ivy 1871
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day 1872
I Saw Three Ships 1833
In the Bleak Midwinter Traditional
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear 1850
Jingle Bells 1857
Jolly Old St. Nicholas 1870
Joy to the World 1836
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming 1559
O Christmas Tree 1800
O Come All Ye Faithful 1751
O Come, O Come, Emanuel Traditional
O Holy Night 1847
O Little Town of Bethlehem 1868
Once in Royal David's City Traditional
Silent Night 1818
Toyland 1903
The Twelve Days of Christmas 1500
Up on the Housetop 1870
The Wassail Song 1600
We Three Kings 1857
We Wish You a Merry Christmas 1500
What Child is This? 1865
While Shepherds Watched 1728
@richpowers Sorry, Rich. I've had to deal with ASCAP. They still collect fees and will threaten to sue you if you don't comply.
@centinel You Do Not have to deal with ASCAP - for example, to air this...
Because it is a public domain performance of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" which is a public domain song. Which, of course, is the whole point behind that s topic. Free to air public domain Christmas songs.
Something I noticed right off but forgot to mention before is that when I fed in the lyrics to the AI m, that not only did it not refuse them and give the usual "Copyright Lyrics" alert if you try, but it automatically provided the musical score belonging to it which is also in public domain. It provided the same score no matter what genre or prompts I provided.
For example in this more upbeat God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"' version having a bit of soul, which I particularly like:
You see? same tune. It knows that tune belongs to the song, it knows it's public domain. I've never tried entering known public domain material into ai before and I think its interesting it knew exactly what to do with it.
I tried it again with more of a blues rock kind of thing and it still holds to the songs original music score:
I like all three versions, download and air on your station this Christmas season with no fear of copyright or performance rights
Rich is correct in that you can do whatever you want with sheet music that is in the public domain (published in or prior to 1929).
You can also play a performance of that sheet music on your radio transmitter that was recorded in or prior 2 1924. But you can't play, say, a 1950s recording of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. That particular performance, even of a public domain work, would be copyrighted.
Now, theoretically someone can take the God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman work, make substantive changes to it, enough to make it a new work, and then copyright that new work. The key word there is substantive. Unfortunately, it's open to interpretation and some shady operators take full advantage of it, making small changes and then attempting to obtain copyright status on it. You really have to go the original, published sheet music to ensure that you're dealing with a public domain work.
Things have gotten so murky with copyright that groups such as Project Gutenberg use the original publication of a work in the public domain, digitize the text and then use it in that form. There have been lots of cases where the actual publication itself of a work (text unchanged) has been copyrighted (such as the Lancer editions of the Robert E Howard Conan stories). Or a slight change in the arrangement of a musical work gets copyright. These things are totally in opposition to the intent of public domain. Which, of course, means nothing when money might be made, and you get the courts involved.
Rich is correct in that you can do whatever you want with sheet music that is in the public domain (published in or prior to 1929).
You can also play a performance of that sheet music on your radio transmitter that was recorded in or prior 2 1924. But you can't play, say, a 1950s recording of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. That particular performance, even of a public domain work, would be copyrighted.
Exactly, but just to clarify: none of the 3 above 2025 "performance" recording of the song I posted are copyrighted, they are all ai performances of a public domain song and score, thus also in the public domain and totally free to air. That's what I was trying to illustrate to @Centinel because he's leary of ASCAP due to apparently some past dealings he's had.
When I read the lyrics to the public domain Christmas song "Toyland", I thought it sounded like a blues song, so that's how I made it. There's really nothing particularly Christmas in the lyrics anyway. I like this blues version and the chorus is kind of cool too.
Oddly the AI quit accepting the Christmas public domain songs, so I reworked the lyrics. Both (1)Deck the Halls and (2)Auld Lang Syne are under 2 minutes and (3) Silent Night is almost 4 minutes but I like it. Had to rework lyrics to get ai to accept it... Shouldn't of had to but I do like these altered recreations.
And here's a 3 minute rock jam of Deck the Halls (now Rock the Halls) that I think rocks
Like both these, it's a slight rework of Jingle bells, both about 2 minutes ..
Jolly Old St. Nicholas:
Away In The Manger - I had to rework the lyrics but it's still traditional enough, melody is different:
Cash Registers Ring - Just made it up:
I heard the bells on Christmas day -These lyrics are unaltered from the original PD song since ai accepted them unlike some others, One is kind of country and the other more rock and roll though it starts out very bluesy, I like both versions, probably the rocker better, but both good:
... Actually I think I do like the country rock version of "I heard the bells on Christmas day" better than the blues rock version - they're both good to my ears but the country sounding one sounds like more of a keeper, if you don't check out any of them, check out that one.