Citizen DJ

MusicBox Project

In January 2010 Dyann Arthur, independent folklorist, musicologist and Berklee College of Music alumni, founded MusicBox Project, a non-profit corporation in the state of Washington, whose mission it is to document and preserve our musical history while advancing music education and occupational avenues of creation and performance. Beginning in 2009, Dyann and Rick Arthur travelled through America meeting and interviewing women musicians of all ages and career levels. “Americana Women” was conceived as a three-pronged research approach: 1) an oral history interview; 2) an acoustic performance at the time and place of the interview; 3) a public performance.

View this collection on the Library of Congress website

Download files in bulk

A set of 4355 audio samples have been automatically generated from this collection for use in your favorite music production software. It contains 259 audio segments and 4096 one-shot audio clips, ideal for use in samplers.

Rights & access

The sound recordings from this collection that are part of the Citizen DJ project are free to use and reuse. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the works, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress asks that artists approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Attribution is recommended but not required.

Why is this free to use?

Dyann and Rick Arthur, the original copyright holders of the MusicBox Project, relinquished all ownership and copyright of the collection to The American Folklife Center at The Library of Congress in 2010. With this gift, the Library also received copies of the release forms from the performers. Furthermore, Citizen DJ only includes those recordings that contain performances of songs that are in the public domain due to copyright expiration.

Suggested credit line

Citizen DJ Project, Dyann Arthur and Rick Arthur collection of MusicBox Project materials (AFC 2010/029) Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Browse & preview files

Click the files below to preview the audio segments: