Free, legal piano MIDI files: what public domain means for sheet music
Search for "free piano MIDI" and you'll find thousands of files. Many are fine to use; many are not. The difference isn't obvious, because a piece of music isn't one thing legally. There's the composition, there's each arrangement or edition of it, and there's the file someone made. Each can have its own rights. This guide explains how that works, so you know what you can download, use and share.
This is general information, not legal advice. Copyright rules differ by country; if you're planning to publish or sell something, check the rules where you live.
Three layers: composition, arrangement, file
- The composition: the notes as the composer wrote them. Beethoven's Für Elise, as a composition, belongs to nobody any more.
- An arrangement or edition: someone's version of it. A simplified "easy piano" Für Elise is a new arrangement and can be protected by copyright in its own right, even though the original is free. Modern printed editions can also carry rights for the editor's additions (fingering, dynamics, corrections).
- The file: a MIDI file, a MusicXML file or a typeset PDF made by a person. Whether a faithful transcription of a public-domain score creates a new copyright varies by country, so most open music projects state a licence on every file to remove the doubt.
A file is safe to use when every layer is free: a public-domain composition, in an arrangement that is public domain or openly licensed, in a file whose creator has released it under a clear licence.
When does a composition enter the public domain?
The two rules that matter most for classical music:
- European Union and many other countries: copyright lasts for the composer's life plus 70 years, counted to the end of the year. Music by a composer who died in 1955 became public domain on 1 January 2026.
- United States: works published before 1931 are in the public domain as of 2026. Works from 1931 enter the public domain on 1 January 2027, and so on each year.
So Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Satie and Joplin are all public domain everywhere. Some composers are trickier. Rachmaninoff died in 1943, so his music is public domain in life-plus-70 countries, but in the US only his works published before 1931 are. The same applies to many songs: a "traditional" tune can have modern words or a copyrighted arrangement, and some songs widely labelled traditional were actually written by someone in the 20th century.
Recordings are separate again: a recording of a public-domain piece is usually protected for decades, independently of the composition.
The licences you'll see
| Label | What it means | What you have to do |
|---|---|---|
| Public Domain Mark | The work is identified as free of known copyright. | Nothing. |
| CC0 | The creator waives all their rights, as far as the law allows. | Nothing. |
| CC BY | You may copy, share and adapt, even commercially. | Credit the creator and link the licence. |
| CC BY-SA | Like CC BY, but adaptations must use the same licence. | Credit, link the licence, and share your changes under CC BY-SA. |
| "Free for personal use" / no licence | You can usually view or download it, but you have no permission to redistribute or adapt it. | Ask the owner first. |
A file with no licence statement isn't automatically free, even if it's free to download.
Good sources of free, legal piano music
- The Mutopia Project: volunteers typeset public-domain music with LilyPond and publish PDFs and MIDI files under the Public Domain or Creative Commons licences. Each piece states its licence and typesetter.
- MuseScore's public-domain scores: some MuseScore users mark their uploads as Public Domain or CC0. The PDMX dataset (Long et al., 2024) collects such scores along with their licence information.
- IMSLP: the largest library of public-domain scores, mostly scans of printed editions. Check the copyright notes on each file; IMSLP flags files that aren't public domain everywhere.
How our library handles it
Every piece in PianoKite's library, and on this site, went through these checks:
- Composition: the composer died in 1955 or earlier and the work was published before 1931, or the tune is genuinely traditional. Pop, film and game music is excluded.
- File licence: Mutopia files that are Public Domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA, and MuseScore files marked Public Domain or CC0 without a licence conflict.
- Manual review: each MuseScore candidate was checked individually, and about 600 of roughly 2,200 were dropped, many of them copyrighted songs labelled "traditional". Songs whose lyricist died recently were dropped too, and lyrics are removed from the MIDI files.
- Credit: every piece page shows the credit line, the licence with a link, and the source, and the app credits them too.
On this website each piece page has a 20-second play-along preview along with the credit and licence; the full pieces are for learning in the PianoKite app. If you want MIDI files to load into a DAW or another app, get them from the sources above: the Mutopia Project publishes a MIDI file with every piece, each with its licence, and IMSLP has scans of public-domain editions. Whatever you use, follow the file's licence: for CC BY and CC BY-SA files give the credit, and share CC BY-SA adaptations under the same licence. See licenses and credits for how our library is sourced.
Quick checklist before you use a MIDI file
- Is the composer long dead (and the work old enough for your country)?
- Is it the original, or an arrangement? If an arrangement, who made it, and did they license it?
- Does the file come with a clear licence (Public Domain, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA)?
- If the licence requires it, have you credited the creator?
If you can answer all four, you're on solid ground. To find something to learn, browse the library, pick from the easy classical pieces, or, if you're just starting, begin with the beginner lessons.