Navigation Menu
The following resources are for finding and securing music for choreography, compiled as part of a special 2018 program, Music and The Choreographer, funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Dance/USA would like to give special thanks to Corey Field for his assistance with this program.
How and where choreographers find music is as wide and varied as the endless kinds of dance genres in creation. If you have a resource for finding music that you would like to see included here, please email Dance/USA.
Here are some resources for finding music:
Webinar recordings
Resources for Finding Music
Webinar #1: Finding Music for Choreography
Webinar #2: Navigating Music Rights 101
Resources To Find Music
INNOVA RECORDINGS
Innova Recordings home page: 600+ albums of contemporary music.
- INNOVA RECORDINGS – PRESELECTED COLLECTION TAGGED FOR DANCE
A preselected Collection tagged as Music for Dance, either originally intended for movement, or likely candidates.
- INNOVA RECORDINGS – NON-WESTERN ALBUMS
A segment of the catalog featuring non Western albums, including some traditional dance music.
- INNOVA RECORDINGS – SOUNDCLOUD PLAYLIST
A Soundcloud playlist featuring one track from every album
- INNOVA RECORDINGS – SPOTIFY PLAYLIST FEATURING MUSIC FOR DANCE
A Spotify Playlist featuring a curated set of possible music for dance.
- INNOVA ARTISTS – YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
A YouTube playlist of innova artists’ videos from the general catalog, some of which feature dance.
AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM
American Composers Forum site; you are welcome to post Opportunities for composers to respond to and send you their work for consideration.
- AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM “CREATE”
The American Composers Forum “Create” (formerly JFund) is one possible source of funding for commissions.
NAXOS MUSIC LIBRARY
(Note: If you are a professor or adjunct at a university, you may already have access to the Naxos Music Library)
- NAXOS MUSIC LIBRARY HOME
- NAXOS MUSIC LIBRARY – WORLD
- NAXOS LICENSING
Lists and pre-cleared works of music
NEW MUSIC USA
- COUNTERSTREAM RADIO (Note: Look to the upper left hand corner for the link to Counterstream Radio)
- NEW MUSIC BOX
- NEW MUSIC USA PROJECT GRANTS
CENTER FOR BLACK MUSIC RESEARCH
INTERNATIONAL MUSIC NETWORKS
- THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INFORMATION CENTRES (IAMIC)
- THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (ISCM)
In additional some international music information centres have easy-to-use web resources, including:
- CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE (CMC)
- ISCM KOREA
- ISCM Korea
- Many of the links to individual composers include embedded audio/video.
- MUSIC INFORMATION AND PUBLISHING CENTRE, LITHUANIA (MICL)
- AGUAFORTE (BRAZIL)
- CONTEMPORARY MUSIC CENTRE OF IRELAND
- WorldCat
- SoundFORMovement
RADIO, BLOGS, AND MORE