Copyright for sound recordings is pretty complicated in the US. Recordings from before 1972 were protected by a variety of state level laws, so even recordings

Copyright for sound recordings is pretty complicated in the US. Recordings from before 1972 were protected by a variety of state level laws, so even recordings that should be in the public domain, like ones from before 1924, weren't guaranteed to be so until the 2018 Music Modernization Act[1], and even so have a 3 year grace period from when that was enacted. It gets even more confusing for recordings from 1924-1978, when rights holders had to file for copyright and then file for extensions, AND the law has changed numerous times for different dates within that range.[2] So no, it's not really fair to say that 1970's and earlier music is fair game. [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/09/new-music-modernization-act-has-major-fix-older-recordings-will-belong-public https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/09/new-music-modernizatio... [2] http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/public-domain-sound-recordings.html http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/public-domain-sound-record...