Where the music in TuneGuesser comes from
Every clip in TuneGuesser is cut from a recording that is public domain or under a Creative Commons licence, found on Wikimedia Commons or the Internet Archive. Right now 189 recordings from 63 countries are in rotation, and each one is credited with title, performer, licence and a link to the original wherever it plays.
Which archives do the recordings come from?
Two archives. Wikimedia Commons holds field recordings uploaded by ethnomusicology projects, museums and individual recordists under free licences. The Internet Archive holds digitised 78 rpm records, including the Library of Congress National Jukebox, whose pre-1926 recordings are public domain in the United States.
| Archive | Recordings |
|---|---|
| Wikimedia Commons | 168 |
| Internet Archive | 21 |
Which licences are allowed?
Public domain, CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA. Nothing with a non-commercial or no-derivatives clause is used, because a 15 second cut is a derivative and the game could one day carry ads. For United States sound recordings the game follows the Music Modernization Act: recordings published before 1926 are public domain, later ones are not and are not used unless the archive states another free licence.
| Licence | Recordings | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| Public domain | 127 | nothing; credit given anyway |
| CC BY-SA 3.0 | 25 | credit, and the clip stays under the same licence |
| CC BY-SA 4.0 | 24 | credit, and the clip stays under the same licence |
| CC0 | 5 | nothing; credit given anyway |
| CC BY 4.0 | 5 | credit |
| CC BY 3.0 | 2 | credit |
| CC BY-SA 2.0 | 1 | credit, and the clip stays under the same licence |
How is a 15 second clip made?
The original is downloaded once from the archive. A 15 second window starts about a third of the way in (at most one minute in) so introductions and announcer voices are skipped, with a short fade in and out. The clip is loudness normalised to the same level as every other clip, converted to a 128 kbit/s MP3 and stripped of all metadata, so the file name and tags cannot reveal the country.
How are recordings checked?
Three passes. The archive record must describe traditional, folk or field-recorded music of the country, and anthems, school songs, pop, classical pieces and language lessons are rejected by title. A listening model trained on the AudioSet labels then scores five windows of the file and rejects anything where speech beats music. Finally a human listens before a recording goes into rotation, and any report from a player leads to a re-check.
What do the credits show?
On every reveal screen and on every country page: the title as the archive gives it, the performer when known, the year of the recording when known, the licence with a link to its text, and a link to the archive page the recording came from. That is the attribution the Creative Commons licences ask for, and it is also the fastest way to hear the full recording.
Why are some countries missing?
A country enters the daily draw only when it has three usable recordings, so the game can offer a second and third song. Many countries have one or two freely licensed recordings online and no third one yet; others have recordings behind archives that do not allow scripted downloads. The music by country page lists what is in rotation today.
Frequently asked questions
Is the music in TuneGuesser copyrighted?
No recording in the game is under a normal copyright. Each one is public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, and the licence is shown next to the recording wherever it plays, with a link to the source page.
Can I use the clips myself?
Use the original from the source link, not our cut. Public domain and CC0 recordings are free to use. CC BY and CC BY-SA recordings need the credit shown on the page, and CC BY-SA adaptations must carry the same licence.
Why are some recordings so old and noisy?
Many are 78 rpm records from 1908 to 1925 or field recordings from the 1950s to 1970s. That age is what makes them public domain, and the noise is part of the sound. The clips are loudness matched so the old ones are not quieter than the new.
Are the songs really traditional?
They are described as traditional, folk or field recordings by the archive that holds them, and each one went through a listening check for speech versus music plus a title check against anthems, pop and classical pieces. Mistakes still happen; report one and it is removed.
How do I report a wrong country or a bad recording?
Use the source link on the reveal screen to see what the archive says, then email the address on the About page with the song title. Reports are checked against the archive record and the recording is deactivated when in doubt.