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About / Data License - MusicBrainz
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type="submit">Search</button></span></form></div><h1 class="hierarchy-links"><a href="/doc/About">About</a> / <a href="/doc/About/Data_License" style="font-weight:bold">Data License</a></h1><div><html><head></head><body><div class="mw-parser-output"><p><b>Any user that contributes to MusicBrainz should be aware that their contributions will be made available to the public under the licenses described below. Furthermore, MusicBrainz users give the <a class="external text" href="http://metabrainz.org/" rel="nofollow">MetaBrainz Foundation</a> the right to license this data for commercial use.</b> The income from these licenses keeps MusicBrainz running and covers the paychecks of paid MusicBrainz developers. <div aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" class="toc" id="toc" role="navigation"><input class="toctogglecheckbox" id="toctogglecheckbox" role="button" style="display:none" type="checkbox" /><div class="toctitle" dir="ltr" lang="en"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div><ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#MusicBrainz_Database"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">MusicBrainz Database</span></a><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#Live_Data_Feed"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Live Data Feed</span></a><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="#MusicBrainz_Server"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">MusicBrainz Server</span></a><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="#MusicBrainz_Documentation"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">MusicBrainz Documentation</span></a><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="#Cover_art"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Cover art</span></a></ul></div><h2><span class="mw-headline" id="MusicBrainz_Database">MusicBrainz Database</span></h2><p>The <a href="/doc/MusicBrainz_Database">MusicBrainz Database</a> is split into two components for licensing purposes. <dl><dt>Core data<dd>The core data of the database is licensed under the <a class="external text" href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/" rel="nofollow">CC0</a>, which is effectively placing the data into the Public Domain. This means that anyone can download and use the core data in any way they see fit. No restrictions, no worries!</dl><dl><dt>Supplementary data<dd>The remaining portions of the database are released under the Creative Commons <a class="external text" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" rel="nofollow">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a> license. This allows for non-commercial use of the data as long as MusicBrainz is given credit and that derivative works (works based on the CC licensed data) are also made available under the same license.</dl><p>For a breakdown of what constitutes core/supplementary data, view the <a href="/doc/MusicBrainz_Database">MusicBrainz Database</a> page. <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Live_Data_Feed">Live Data Feed</span></h2><p>The <a href="/doc/Live_Data_Feed">Live Data Feed</a> replication packets are licensed under the Creative Commons <a class="external text" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0" rel="nofollow">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a> license. <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="MusicBrainz_Server">MusicBrainz Server</span></h2><p>The <a href="/doc/MusicBrainz_Server">MusicBrainz Server</a> source code is licensed under the <a class="external text" href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html" rel="nofollow">GPLv2</a>. <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="MusicBrainz_Documentation">MusicBrainz Documentation</span></h2><p>The MusicBrainz documentation on <a class="external text" href="http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/</a> (and mirrored on <a class="external text" href="http://musicbrainz.org/doc/" rel="nofollow">http://musicbrainz.org/doc/</a>) is released under the Creative Commons <a class="external text" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" rel="nofollow">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a> license. This allows non commercial use of the documentation as long as MusicBrainz is given credit and that derivative works (works based on the CC licensed data) are also made available under the same license. <p>The documentation uses content from the following sources: <ul><li>The <a class="external text" href="http://nuovext.pwsp.net" rel="nofollow">nuoveXT</a> icon theme made by Alexandre Moore and available under the GPL license.</ul><h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Cover_art">Cover art</span></h2><p>The MusicBrainz dataset does not contain cover art. Cover art is provided by the <a class="external text" href="http://coverartarchive.org" rel="nofollow">Cover Art Archive</a>. </div></body></html></div><div class="wikidocs-footer">This page is <a href="/doc/WikiDocs">transcluded</a> from revision <a class="internal" href="////wiki.musicbrainz.org/About/Data_License?oldid=68951">#68951</a> of <a class="internal" href="//wiki.musicbrainz.org/About/Data_License">About / Data License</a>.</div></div></div><div id="footer"><p class="left" id="footer-menu"><a class="internal" href="https://metabrainz.org/donate">Donate</a><a class="internal" href="//wiki.musicbrainz.org/">Wiki</a><a class="internal" href="https://community.metabrainz.org/">Forums</a><a class="internal" href="/doc/Communication/ChatBrainz">Chat</a><a class="internal" href="http://tickets.metabrainz.org/">Bug tracker</a><a class="internal" href="https://blog.metabrainz.org/">Blog</a><a class="internal" href="https://mastodon.social/@MusicBrainz">Mastodon</a><a class="internal" href="https://bsky.app/profile/musicbrainz.org">Bluesky</a><a class="internal" href="/set-beta-preference?returnto=%2Fdoc%2FAbout%2FData_License">Use beta site</a></p><p class="right">Brought to you by <a href="https://metabrainz.org/">MetaBrainz Foundation</a> and our <a href="https://metabrainz.org/sponsors">sponsors</a> and <a href="https://metabrainz.org/supporters">supporters</a>.</p></div></body></html>