Below a list of great online resources used by our editing staff on a regular basis. Non-English resources are marked by their language code.
For hard copy resources please check out our listing of quality reference books.
- Composers
- Blogs on Cover Music
- Charts
- Discographies
- Discographies Per Artist
- Market Places
- Musicals & Soundtracks
- Other Cover Indexing Sites
- SecondHandSongs Members' Music Sites & Blogs
- Varia
Composers
The majority of these sources are Performance rights organisations.
| Name | Description | Country |
|---|---|---|
| ABRAMUS | Associação Brasileira de Música e Artes (pt)- Login and password | Brazil |
| ACUM | Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel | Israel |
| APRA | Australasian Performing Right Association | Australia |
| ASCAP | American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers | USA |
| AustroMechana | The Austrian copyright society | Austria |
| BMI | Broadcast Music Incorporated | USA |
| BUMA/STEMRA | Dutch music copyright catalogue (nl) | Netherlands |
| CA | Carlin America | USA |
| CASH | Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
| CMRRA | Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency | Canada |
| Enkelklarering | Copyright clearing society | Norway |
| GEMA | Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (de/en) | Germany |
| HDS | Croatian Composers' Society (hr) | Croatia |
| HFA | Harry Fox Agency | USA |
| Have a Sync | ||
| IMSLP | Catalogs of Copyright Entries | USA |
| ISWC | International Standard Musical Work Code | Worldwide |
| JASRAC | Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (jp) | Japan |
| KOMCA | Korea Music Copyright Association | South Korea |
| MACP | Music Authors Copyright Protection | Malaysia |
| MESAM | Musical Work Owners' Society of Turkey (tr/en) | Turkey |
| MPL | McCartney Productions | World |
| Musikverket | A state run song catalogue of vintage local releases | Sweden |
| MÜST | Music Copyright Society of Chinese Taipei (cn) | Taiwan |
| NMP | Национальное музыкальное издательство - National Music Publishers (ru) | Russia |
| OSA | Ochranný svaz autorský pro práva k dílům hudebním, o.s. (cs/en) | Czech Republic |
| RAO | Russian Authors' Society (ru/en) | Russia |
| SABAM | Société Belge des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs/Belgische Vereniging van Auteurs, Componisten en Uitgevers (nl/fr/en) | Belgium |
| SACEM | Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (fr/en) | France |
| SACM | Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de Mexico (es) | Mexico |
| SADAIC | Sociedad argentina de autores y compositores de musica (es) | Argentina |
| SAZAS | Združenje skladateljev in avtorjev za zaščito avtorske pravice Slovenije (sl) | Slovenia |
| SESAC | Society of European Stage Authors & Composers | USA |
| SGAE | Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (es) | Spain |
| SIAE | Società italiana degli autori ed editori (en) | Italy |
| SMDB | The 'Royal' Swedish media database and audio-visual library (Swedish) | Sweden |
| STIM | Svenska Tonsättares Internationella Musikbyrå (see here for login info) | Sweden |
| SODRAC | Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Canada Inc. | Canada |
| SOCAN | the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada | Canada |
| SOKOJ | Organizacija muzičkih autora Srbije (sr) | Serbia |
| Suomen Äänitearkisto | The Finnish Institute of Recorded Sounds; Instructions Aanitearkisto | Finland |
| SUISA | Suisse Auteurs | Switzerland |
| UMPG | Universal Music Publishing Group | World |
| WC | Warner Chappell | World |
| ZAiKS | Stowarzyszenie Autorów (pl) | Poland |
| ZAMP | Zaštita autorskih muzičkih prava (hr) | Croatia |
Blogs on Cover Music
- Cover Lay Down - Folk covers
- Cover Me
- Coverville - Podcasts on covers
- Finnpicks - Finnish covers
- My Way Online - L'arte delle cover versions (it)
Charts
- ARSA, Airheads Radio Survey Archive - Charts from local US radio stations from 1955 to 1996, searchable by artist, singles, albums and labels
- Cashbox Magazine Charts - USA charts from 1950 on
- Charts All Over The World
- Finnish album charts (1966 - 1995)
- Finnish single charts (1960 - 1995)
- ChartSurfer - German, Austrian and Swiss charts
- Irish charts
- Sixties / Golden Years of Pop Music (nl/en) - Archive of Dutch chart hits and artists from the 60's
- Swiss Charts - Official Swiss charts and access to charts from 15 other, mainly European, country charts through the menu button in top left corner
- UK charts - ChartWatch (Top 10 hits only)
- UK charts - Chart Archive; inactive since 2012, but still useful.
- UK charts - Official Charts and Archive
- Top 40 U.S.A. - US charts (from 1950)
Discographies
- 45cat - Archive of 7" vinyl singles, user-generated
- 78rpm Discographical Project - Note: all dates here are recording dates, not release dates.
- a45rpm (es/en) - Archive of 7" vinyl singles and EPs issued in Spain.
- Allmusic - Watch out with older mediums: the information is often based on re-releases and tracklistings are therefore more extensive than the original ones. The year of release and the credits are also often inaccurate. Information on more recent music is more accurate though.
- Audio Culture - Library of New Zealand music
- Audio Preservation Fund
- Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (fr)
- Both Sides Now Publications
- CHARM - AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music
- Discografia Nazionale della Canzone Italiana (it) - National archive of Italian songs
- Discogs - Large and mostly accurate music database, user-generated
- Don't Forget The Motor City - Guide to Motown (and related) recordings 1956 - 1972
- International Standard Recording Code - searchable database providing EAN codes and release dates for large number of albums. A companion to ISWC. Better for post-2000 releases.
- Encyclopaedia Metallum - Archive of metal music, user-generated
- Encyclopedic Discography of Cuban Music 1925-1960 - Cristobal Diaz-Ayala/Florida International University
- Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings
- Encyclopédisque (fr) - Archive of French 7'' singles
- Instituto Memória Musical Brazileira (pt) - Archive of Brazilian music
- In the Can - Month-by-month session listing 1955-62 (mostly rock'n'roll and country)
- Irish Music Database - Archive of Irish music
- Jazz Discography - Artist discographies from many vocalists including Ella Fitzgerald and even non-jazz vocalists like Frank Sinatra
- Jazz Discography Project - Chronological lists by artist and label, but difficult to search for specifics
- Katalog Polskich Płyt Gramofonowych (pl) - Archive of Polish singles and albums with track listings, catalogue numbers, release dates (albums only) and credits, and artist and author biographical details
- Les auteurs et compositeurs de la chanson française (fr)
- LP Discography - Some information is only available for paying members
- Musikon (se) - Database of Swedish music on vinyl
- MusicBrainz - Open music encyclopedia that collects music metadata; mostly accurate and thoroughly researched
- Muziekarchief (nl) - Archive of Flemish music
- Muziekencyclopedie (nl/en) - Encyclopedia of Dutch music: contains some 5.000 artist data
- National Library of Canada (en/fr)
- NL Discografie (nl) - Archive of Dutch singles
- PopMusicInfo - Database of records from the 60s with track listings, catalogue numbers, release dates and sometimes authors
- Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies - Country and crossover music discographies from the 1920s on
- Rate Your Music - Large and mostly accurate music database, user-generated
- Red Hot Jazz Archive - "A History of Jazz Before 1930"
- Rockin' Country Style - Discography of country rock & roll and related records, 1951-1964
- Rockipedia Norway - Discography of Norwegian popular music
- Roots Archives - Comprehensive database of Jamaican roots reggae albums from 1970 to 1985
- Songwriter Hall Of Fame - Resource on the songwriters of the most beloved songs from the world’s popular music songbook
- Soulful Kinda Music - Soul music discographies
- Tapir's Reggae Discographies
- The Balladeers - Irish and Scottish folk music from the folk revival of the late 1950's to the present
- The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings - Over 125,000 songs celebrating North America's Spanish-language musical heritage
- Wang Dang Dula - Useful source for 50's and 60's rock and roll and rhythm and blues
- WorldCat - Catalogue of music and video releases from around the world; generally good for release dates; uses its own catalogue numbering system
Discographies: Per Artist
- Ary Barroso
- The Beatles
- Billie Holiday
- Cole Porter
- Deep Purple
- The Eagles
- Fleetwood Mac
- The Grateful Dead
- Hank Williams
- Harry Belafonte
- James Brown
- Jimmy Smith
- Louis Armstrong
- Nat King Cole
- Neil Diamond
- Nina Simone
- Perry Como
- Peter Koelewijn (nl)
- Pink Floyd
- R.E.M.
- Rolling Stones
- Tom Paxton
Market Places
- CD and LP
- eBay
- EIL
- MusicStack
- Popsike - A database of auction results from eBay, specializing in rare vinyl records
- Roots Vinyl Guide - Another database of auction results from eBay, supposedly specializing in reggae, dub and ska records but in practice many others are also included
Musicals & Soundtracks
- Class Act
- Internet Movie Database - IMDb is an authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.
- Internet Broadway Database
- Soundtrack Collector
- Soundtrack Net
- Castalbums
- ovrtur - pretty comprehensive archive of US and international stage musical productions, with cast listings and production dates
- playbill - archive of material from Broadway playbills and stage news
Other Cover Indexing Sites - Our 'Brothers in Arms'
- The Breaks - Samples only, frequent mistakes
- Coverinfo (de) - Focus on German covers
- Cover- und Sampledatenbank (de) - Useful for techno covers and samples.
- Covers Project - The only reason for listing this site here is to inform you it is a bad resource, full of mistakes. It hasn't been updated since the end of 2010.
- Du-Bruit (fr) - Samples only
- Jazz Standards - Origins of many jazz standards
- The Originals (nl)
- The Originals Project
- PopArchives - Australian & NZ pop covers; the links page is very useful
- Who Sampled - Database of sampled music
SecondHandSongs Members' Music Sites & Blogs
As token of our appreciation for their great work both on the internet and on SecondHandSongs
- The Beatles Belgian Home Page (en/fr) - Tribute site, also including tribute to Bill Haley
- Brazilliance - Record cover art from Brazil, 1952 to 1977, including great background info
- Deep Purple fan site (fi) - Unofficial Finnish Deep Purple site
- HeavySoulBrutha - Soul, funk, jazz and hip-hop from our own number 1 soul brother
- Joop's Musical Flowers - Blog on original versions of famous songs and songs covered by famous people
- Letras Cantables - Blog on singable, homemade Spanish adaptations of original English and French songs
Varia
- 45-sleeves - Find the correct single sleeves for US, UK and Australian 45 rpm singles
- Album Liner Notes
- Billboard magazine archive
- Check Digit Calculation - Generates EAN check digit
- The Dead Rock Stars Club - The club rock stars are dying to get into; an archive of dead rock, jazz and country musicians, sorted by the date of their demise
- EAN search - Lists 95 millions+ EAN codes and transfers UPCs to EANs
- Finnish musicians and their pseudonyms
- ISRC: International Standard Recording Code. Unique identifier for performances. Also features EAN/UPC codes for digital releases.
- Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques (SCPP)
- UPC Database
- UPC Item Database: Features title, visual, country of registration, brand (aka label).