Freesound, the renowned collaborative online repository for sharing Creative Commons (CC) licensed sounds, turns 20 this month. The Music Technology Group (MTG) from the Department of Engineering at UPF launched this platform in April 2005, and since then, it has established itself as the platform of choice for numerous collectives who use audio samples in their work, such as musicians, artists and researchers. It has also become one of the largest repositories of CC licensed sounds in the world.

The platform currently hosts 670,954 sounds, which represent a total play time of 476 days and 4 hours. Such is the information provided in the platform’s report, which includes data on Freesound through year-end 2024. In fact, according to the MGT’s calculations, the platform could surpass the 700,000 mark this year and reach one million sounds in two years.

Intangible Heritage: a series of activities due to take place in 2025 to show how sounds safeguard the intangible values of humanity

To commemorate the platform’s 20th anniversary, a series of activities will be organised throughout 2025 by the MTG and the Phonos Foundation, which has worked closely with the research group at UPF since the beginning. These activities will showcase the contribution that sound makes in preserving the intangible values of both humanity and the planet, whether rooted in culture, nature or the interplay between them. Under the title “Intangible Heritage”, the cycle will reveal how sounds spark reflection on the fragility, volatility and risk of disappearance of many cultural and natural elements in the contemporary world. It also aims to highlight the value of Freesound as a digital space for safeguarding this collective sound memory.

The first activity, which is already under way, is a competition in which participants must use sounds available on Freesound to create compositions inspired in the theme “Intangible Heritage”. The deadline for submitting compositions as part of this contest, in which all members of the Freesound community are eligible to participate, is 31 May. The selected compositions will be published online, in open-access format, and announced on the platform.

A concert featuring Freesound-based compositions, scheduled for autumn

Next autumn, on 28 October, to be precise, UPF’s Poblenou campus will host the cycle’s main activity, held to present the selected compositions, some which will be performed live by the authors. In addition to the concert, the event will also include talks on the topic at hand, featuring members of the Freesound community and representatives from the MTG and Phonos.

A third activity will involve the creation of a sound installation, curated by the artist Fito Conesa, which will also address the topic of intangible heritage and be displayed in Barcelona.

Other activities are due to take place throughout the year, information on which will be available on the Freesound website. Members of the Freesound community are also encouraged to share sounds on the platform under the hashtag #freesound20.

Close to 57,000 new sounds published on Freesound in 2024

In 2024 alone, 56,964 new sounds were shared on the platform, representing a total play time of 1,157 hours. There were also close to 18.8 million downloads, according to last year’s Freesound by numbers report.

The most common search queries are those related to music (instruments, genres or moods...), nature (animals, water, fire...) and human sounds and sounds of things (mechanical noises, alarms, explosions....), particularly useful for audiovisual productions. Ambiguous sounds are also popular, e.g. noises generated by multiple sources.

Generative AI may be reducing contributors’ willingness to share sounds in the public domain

The proportion of sounds published on Freesound in the public domain (CC0) dropped from the 60-65% they have represented in recent years to 44% due to an increase in the number of sounds shared under a CC-BY license, which allows users to share and adapt the content (as well as for commercial purposes) if the original author is properly credited. Conversely, the proportion of sounds shared under a CC-BY-NC license (which allows the same, but not for commercial purposes) remained stable.

According to Frederic Font, a researcher from the MTG and Phonos and head of the Freesound project, “it’s too early to determine the cause of this shift, but one possibility is that sound contributors are responding to concerns about generative AI by becoming less willing to share sounds in the public domain.”