All recordings prior to 1922 will be in the public domain in January 2022.

Under the Music Modernization Act passed by the U.S. Congress in September 2018, all recordings prior to 1922 will be public domain on January 1, 2022, when their copyright expires in the United States. The Public Domain Review, a domain-related news site, explains.

All Sound Recordings Prior to 1923 Will Enter the US Public Domain in 2022 – The Public Domain Review
https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2021/12/all-sound-recordings-prior-to-1923-will-enter-the-us-public-domain-in-2022

Musical works and recordings of musical works have separate copyright protection. For example, the nursery rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' composed in the 19th century has already expired and is in the public domain. Therefore, you can freely sing or modify it. However, the recording that someone sang 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' has the rights of the person who sang it and the person who was involved in the recording, so as long as it is subject to copyright protection, it can be freely modified or distributed. Do not do it.

The Music Modernization Act is a copyright law amendment law that summarizes three bills, 'Music Modernization Act (MMA)', 'CLASSICS Act', and 'Allocation for Music Producers Act (AMP Act)'. The purpose of this law amendment is 'introduction of a new license system for recording rights of music works', 'recording before 1972 is subject to the protection of federal copyright law', 'sound engineers, mixers, etc. who are involved in recordings'. To be rewarded. ' In addition, the background to its establishment is the fact that despite the prosperity of the streaming distribution business, the rights relationship has become complicated and old recordings cannot be handled freely.

The Music Modernization Act was submitted to the US Congress in May 2018. At issue in Congress was the CLASSICS Act, which, when approved, would extend the protection of recordings from 1923 to 1972 to 2067.

A bill to extend the copyright term for old recordings up to 144 years is under discussion in Congress-GIGAZINE

In the first place, old recordings are not only dissipated, but some are protected by the copyright law of the state and local governments, and the fact that the protection status of rights is different depending on the recording is distributed on the Internet. It was difficult. Therefore, the CLASSIC Act protected all master copy rights of old recordings under federal copyright law, and an independent rights management organization paid the parties concerned.

However, federal copyright law in the United States stipulates that the copyright protection period for recordings is 'up to 95 years from the release, or 120 years from the recording date', and 'the copyright has not expired as of 2018.' The issue was what happened to the copyright on the recordings from 'Recordings of 1923' to 'February 15, 1972, when the recordings were protected by federal copyright law.' The copyright protection period under the Music Modernization Act that was finally enacted is as follows.

-All recordings prior to 1922: exempt from copyright protection as of January 1, 2022
-Recorded from 1923 to 1946: 1995 + 5 years = 100 years (from release date)
-Recorded from 1947 to 1956: 1995 + 15 years = 110 years (from release date)
・ Recordings from 1957 to February 15, 1972: Not subject to copyright protection as of February 15, 2067.
All recordings since February 15, 1972: either 95 years from release or 120 years from recording date

Old recordings are popular not only for classical music, but also for valuable sound sources such as blues and jazz. By making works before 1922 into the public domain, there is a possibility that you will be able to listen to them freely even with streaming distribution services.

Regarding the copyright of recorded materials in Japan, according to the Japan Record Association , 'The protection period of a record starts from the time when the sound is first fixed (recorded), and the day when the record is published (released) ( If it is not published within 70 years after the first recording, it will be 70 years after the year following January 1 of the year to which the first recording date belongs (Article 101 of the Copyright Act). If the rights are extinguished on the day before the revised law enforcement date (December 29, 2018), the protection will not be restored. Also, for records protected by the copyright law (old law) before 1970. , There is a special case that if the protection period of the old law exceeds the new law (copyright law after 1971), the protection period of the old law will be applied (up to December 31, 2040, which is 70 years after the enforcement of the new law). )'apparently.