You can use Public Domain and Creative Commons images and music in your school projects. Creative Commons licenses range from allowing free use of the original (including selling and modifying), to being able to use a work for only educational projects with no changes (see the bottom of this page for details). Make sure you check the license wording!
Finding Free-to-Use Images:
Do a Google image search, under Tools choose Usage Rights. You can select various licensing options from non-commercial reuse (so personal or educational use) to use with modifications (meaning you can change the original file).
- Search Creative Commons for images with a CC license
- Pexel has free stock photos
- Photos for Class – Creative Commons photos for class projects
- Pix4Learning– free images for class projects
- Pixabay free photos and videos
- Unsplash free high resolution photos
- Wikimedia Commons has over 36 million photos, many of them personal or historical
Finding Free-to-Use Music:
- Free Music Archive – all free to download, check the Creative Commons licenses for other uses
- InternetArchive – large selection of live and studio recorded music and video; check licenses for individual details
- OpSound – lots of genres with CC licensing
Details of Creative Commons licensing:
Licenses answer some basic questions:
- Can I make money from it? (commercial vs non-commercial use)
- Can I change or modify this image? (remix, modify, tweak, build on) If so can I change the license terms?
- Do I have to acknowledge the original creator?
Attribution CC BY – You can modify, use commercially, and do anything as long as you credit the original.
Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA – You can modify, use commercially, and do anything as long as you credit the original and license your new work the same way.
Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND – You cannot modify, and you can use commercially as long as you credit the original.
Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC – You can modify, and use non-commercially only, as long as credit the original.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA – You can modify, and use non-commercially only, if you credit the original and license your work under the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND – Most restrictive license – cannot modify, cannot use commercially, must credit the original.
Public Domain – This is not technically a Creative Commons license, but something that happens as works age. These are free for use in any way.