0. Intro/About
1. Search the FMA
2. Access FMA Audio Files
3. Pop-Up Player
4. Create an FMA Member Account
5. Build your FMA Profile
6. Create a Blog Post
7. Create a List of Favorite Tracks
8. Create a Mix
FAQ:
(view our stand-alone FAQ here)
Q: Can I Use This for my film, hold music, website, video project, etc?
Q: I didn't get email confirmation when I registered, so my account has not been activated. What can I do?
Q: How do I Embed a mix or album in a forum/blog post?
Q: What are the dimensions for images on FMA member profiles (or elsewhere)
Q: How can I upload my music?
Q: I keep seeing artist bios that I want to modify. How can I do that?
Q: what does the "i" mean in the pop-up player?
Q: How do you Play/preview audio in the page, without downloading it?
Q: How do I download music from the FMA?
Q: Why is my unpublished blog post showing up on my profile?
Q: How do I add a PayPal donate link to my Artist page?
Q: Why is this Mix or Album not available to download as a .zip?
INTRODUCTION The Free Music Archive is a curated collection of free and legal MP3s. The project is spearheaded by WFMU, a non-commercial freeform radio located in Jersey City, NJ. Files in the Free Music Archive are selected by WFMU or one of the site's other curators for their aesthetic worth. We have recruited organizations such as KEXP in Seattle, CBC Radio 3 in Canada, the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and many of the world's finest independent record/net-labels to provide audio for our growing collection.
All FMA contributors license their music for free and legal download, typically under one of the Creative Commons licenses. Creative Commons is a way of saying "Some Rights Reserved" which not only allows FMA to host the file, but encourages you to help spread the word through MP3 blogs, podcasts, and other means. Derivative works (i.e. remixes, video use) and commercial uses may or may not be free depending on the license, and many artists provide easy methods to reach out for more permissions. Are you looking for new music? Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for an instrumental bed that won't put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? This site can serve as a resource for all that and more. If you're new to the FMA and Creative Commons, please read our FAQ.
The FMA library is free and open to the public without any advertising, registration requirements or other hurdles. However, registering as an FMA member gives you the ability to create your own playlists to keep track of your discoveries, and take part in discussions.
In the end, we hope you find a song or a collection of sounds that defies your expectations and inspires you to take part in the creative process. That's what the FMA is all about.
1. SEARCH THE FMA
There are three ways to search the FMA:
i. Browse By Curator
If you are looking for music on a certain label or music that is associated with a specific organization (All Tomorrow's Parties, for example), you should click on the By Curator link on the front page and a selected list of curators will appear.
If you wish to browse through the complete list of curators, click on the "More" link at the bottom of the By Curator list and a browsable list of curators will appear. Click on the name of a curator to view their Curator Portal. Curator Portals include information about the organization, a list of all files sorted by "most recent" or "most interesting," and featured highlights from the collection.
ii. Browse by Genre
If you want to survey the music in a particular genre, click on the By Genre link to bring up a color-coordinated chart of genres. The FMA also groups some types of genre music into subgenres. For example, "rock" encompasses everything from "surf" to "sludge."
iii. Use the FMA Search Engine
If you want to search for a particular artist or the files that belong to a particular curator, type in the name of that artist in the Search field at the top right of the FMA's front page and click the Go button. If you wish to search the entire site or just the FMA's blogs, click on the arrow button to the right of the Go button and select the appropriate option. Once you receive the search results, you may filter them by artist, curator, nature of license, or other qualifiers like "instrumental" or "radio-safe."
After you have successfully searched the FMA, the site will display a list of songs as seen in the following graphic:
Click on the name of the Artist, Album, or Track to view more information about each, including licenses and contact information. The icons have the following functions (from left to right):
Play Track: Play the desired track.
Sort Category Alphabetically: Sorts the list by the desired category in alphabetical order. You can switch between ascending and descending order by clicking this button.
Add To Favorites (if you are a member and logged into the FMA): Add the desired track into your list of favorites.
Sort List By: Sorts the list by when the track was added ("Date Added") or the most downloaded ("Most Important").
Download Track: Download the track to your hard drive.
Add To Pop-Up Player (if you are a member and you are logged into the FMA): Add this track to your on-the-go playlist via a pop-up window. Note: Your browser must allow pop-up windows or else this feature will not function.
![[pop-up]](http://web.archive.org/web/20130517143608im_/http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/JI/popup.png)
3. 
i --> "info" (open track page in new window).
X --> delete track from playlist
The FMA allows everybody to download audio from the site, whether you are a member or not. However, signing up with the FMA and becoming a member allows you to:
--Build your own FMA profile and blog
--Create a list of favorite tracks
--Create mixes of tracks from the Free Music Archive
--Stream your mixes or your list of favorites to your computer
To become an FMA member, click on the Sign-Up link on the front of the page. The FMA will ask you for a username, password, a first name and a last name, and a contact email. Once you have submitted your information, the FMA will send you a confirmation email message. You must click on the link in the message before your membership becomes active.
5. BUILD YOUR FMA MEMBER PROFILE
After you have clicked on the link in the confirmation email, you will be sent to the FMA front page. To enter your member profile, click on the Log-In link and log into the FMA by entering your username and password. Your profile page will appear, example here:
To configure your profile, click on the Edit Page button at the upper right corner of the page. The Edit Profile page will appear. It allows you to upload a profile image, provide some basic information about yourself, change your password, close your account, and edit profile settings (including email notifications, FMA email subscriptions, user ID information, and even connect your FMA account to your last.fm account for Scrobbling).
After you have finished configuring your profile, scroll up to the top of the Edit Profile page and clock on the Save and View icon to finalize your changes. If any further changes are necessary, you can return to the Edit Profile page and revise your profile at any time.
If you have logged into the FMA, you will be able to access your profile from anywhere on the site by clicking the Profile link at the top of every page.
Every FMA profile includes tools to create and maintain your own blog. If you wish to build an FMA blog, go to your profile page and click the Manage Blog button at the top right-hand corner. The Manage Blog page will appear (see example here):
To add a new blog entry, click on the New Entry button and a new page will appear that asks you for a blog headline. Enter a headline and click the Go button to create your blog post. You may add text, an image (420 x 280*), post-related tags, or edit the post in HTML mode. (*Note: you can include images with different dimensions by inserting them into your HTML)
To embed a mix, album, or track(s) within a blog or forum post, just hit the HTML button to edit the HTML of your post, and add the embed code from the mix page (to the right of the mix, on a page like this). It is recommended that you use html tables to make it look pretty
To attach a song to a blog post, start typing its title into the "Attach a Song" field and it will auto-suggest. Be sure to hit the "Add Track" button. You can attach more than one track, but you cannot upload via this method.
As you get ready to post, the site allows you to preview your blog post, save a draft, or post it directly to the blog ("Create Post").
7. CREATE A LIST OF FAVORITE TRACKS
The FMA allows members to add tracks to your Favorites list while you browse. To mark a track as a favorite, log-in and click on the star icon to the right of the track title. Once you have selected your favorite tracks, return to your profile page and a list of those tracks appear in your profile. Click the Play Page button to play all of your favorites. This list can either be set to "private" or "public," and public favorite lists are a fun way to browse the site.
Mixes are a way to group tracks from the FMA library and share them with the FMA community, embed on other websites, and/or zip up for easy bulk downloads. CLICK HERE TO START YOUR MIX or check out the detailed instructions below:
1. Go to your profile page and click the Mixes button. The All Mixes page appears:
2. Click the Create a Mix button in the top right-hand corner of the All Mixes page. The Create a Mix! page appears:
3. In order for you to add an audio file to your mix, it must first appear in the Source Tracks column. This column is on the left-hand side of the Create a Mix! page.
There are two ways to add a song to the Source Tracks column (bulleted list or numbered list, numbers preferred):
(1) Enter the name of the song or the name of the artist into the search field at the top of the column. As you type in your text, the FMA will create a drop-down list list of all the songs which contain the characters that you entered, whether they are in the song title or the artist's name. Select your song from the drop-down list and the FMA will add it to the Source Tracks column.
(2) Select a mix or your list of favorites from the drop-down menu underneath the search field and the FMA will place the songs into the Source Tracks column. The column can only contain one set of songs at a time.
4. When you have placed one or more songs into the Source Tracks column, select and drag those songs into the Your Mix column on the right:
5. After you have finished adding songs to your mix, click on the Create and View button at the top right-hand corner of the Create a Mix! page. The FMA will display your mix in a page titled with its name:
Click the plus sign below the mix's title to add it to the FMA's pop-up player or click the arrow sign to download the mix to your computer in a .zip folder.
Q: How can i use the audio I download from the FMA? Can I use this for my film, hold music, website, video project, etc?
A: Some, but not all, of the FMA library is pre-cleared for these types of uses. Visit the song page to find licensing info, including attribution requirements. To find the Track Page, click the name of the track, or click on the "i" button. It'll take you to a page like this. In the bottom right-hand corner of that track page, you'll find licensing info like the following:
Get Twisted by Double Helix is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England License.
Click the name of the license to see what kinds of uses are pre-cleared under this license, under what conditions, and to determine whether your proposed use fits the criteria. This particular track -- like most of what you'll find on the FMA -- is licensed under a Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses have four different clauses, and you can read more about them here.
In Search Mode, you may filter content by pre-cleared uses -- for example, content that can be used in a video project, or a commercial project. If you find a track this way, you'll still want to verify that you are following the terms of the license linked from the track page.
Remix and Video Artists: If a track says "FMA-Limited" or "NoDerivatives", this means such use is not pre-cleared and you'll need to get permission from the copyright holder to use the track.
Anyone who wishes to use music found on the FMA should independently assess whether any given musical work or sound recording can be used in their project. The Free Music Archive seeks to prevent copyright infringement and complies as a service provider with the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), but does not have the capacity to monitor music uploaded by users of the site.
For more info please visit this page
Q: I didn't get email confirmation when I registered, so my account has not been activated. What can I do?
A: First, check your spam box. If you can't find it, email help_at_freemusicarchive.org and we'll put things into Manual Override
Q: What are the dimensions for images on FMA member profiles (or elsewhere)
A: Dimensions for images (w x h):
Curator Logo: 290 x 169
Curator Top: 476 x 269
Artist: 290 x 290
Album: 290 x 290
Song: 290 x 290
Mix / Collection: 290 x 220
Profile: 145 x 145
Blog Post: 420 x 280
Q: How can I upload my music?
A: The Free Music Archive is a curated library, which makes it a bit different from other social music libraries. Upload-permissions are granted by curators. Curatorship is granted by a team of FMA Admins that includes representatives from existing curators. More info is available on our Contact page, but basically, if your work fits with an existing curator (i.e. you played a live set on WFMU back in the day) then you have a good shot at being added. If your work doesn't fit with any existing curator, not to worry! -- we're adding curators trying to cover all the bases of great music in the world, and your application will remain in the queue. Also, if your music could be or is already shared under a Creative Commons license, that helps.
Q: I keep seeing artist bios that I want to modify. How can I do that?
A: Apply to become an FMA Editor! More info here
Q: What does the "i" mean in the pop-up player?
A: it stands for "info" -- it's a link to the song page, where you can find more info about the artist, album, song, etc.
Q: I don't see how to play music in the page?
A: There should be big black play buttons next to every song, everywhere on the site, like this:
If you're not seeing these, you may need to update to the latest version of Flash (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/). If you have manually installed a flash-blocking application on your browser (you know who you are!), you'll need to add freemusicarchive.org to your whitelist. If you are still having trouble, go to this url which will download an exe to your computer: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player.exe. Close all your browsers and then double click on the exe you just downloade. If you are still having trouble, please email help_at_freemusiarchive.org letting us know your OS, Browser and Flash version and we'll try to figure out what's going on
Q: How do I download music from the FMA?
A: There should be a down-arrow next to every song, everywhere on the site (see above image). If you're not seeing these, you may need to update to the latest version of Flash (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/). If you have manually installed a flash-blocking application on your browser (you know who you are!), you'll need to add freemusicarchive.org to your whitelist.
Download buttons for albums and mixes are currently in development
Q: Why is my unpublished blog post showing up on my profile?
A: Never fear! The post is only visible as a draft when you're logged in as the person who created it. There should be a button at the bottom-left of the post that says "Draft >> Edit This Post".
Q: How do I add a PayPal donate link to my artist page?
A: You'll need PayPal's email friendly link, which starts with https://. You can grab this by logging into your paypal account, then go to Merchant Services. "Donate" is an option under Create Buttons. Be sure to choose the email-friendly link, which starts with https:// . Then, edit your Artist page (go to Artist page and hit the Edit pencil) and add this long URL to the Donation link.
Q: Why is this Mix or Album not available to download as a .zip?
A: Was it created more than an hour ago? It really should be all zipped up by now...unless it has over 75 tracks in which case we are unable to zip it. Please let us know if you find a mix or an album that is simply not zipping and we'll kick our zipper upper.
Need some help?
Email help "at" freemusicarchive.org