Sound

Our sound collections feature over 1 million discs, 185,000 tapes, and many other sound and video recordings from all over the world.

Collection guides

Drama and literature recordings
A unique collection of audio-visual recordings of drama, poetry and literature in performance
Oral history
One of the largest collections of oral history and life story interviews in the world
English accents and dialects
We have an extensive collection of spoken voice recordings
Classical music recordings
Recordings in the western concert tradition, opera, liturgical music, and the pre-Baroque repertories of Western Europe
Pop music recordings
We hold one of the most wide-ranging collections of popular music in the world
World and traditional music collection
We hold one of the world's largest collections of recordings variously described as traditional, folk or world music

View all related guides

Help

Listening and Viewing Service

The Listening and Viewing Service provides free onsite public access to our collection of recorded sound and video.

Users can hear any item from our extensive holdings of published and unpublished recordings of music, wildlife, drama, literature, and oral history.

We can also provide access to archived BBC Radio broadcasts.

Mon - Thu: 10.00 - 20.00
Fri - Sat: 10.00 - 17.00
Sun and English Public Holidays: closed

You will need a Reader Pass. Over 200,000 digital tracks are available for instant access through our catalogue without an appointment, though you may have to make an appointment to listen to some sounds.

British Library Sounds offers free online access to 80,000 selections from the Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings.

T: +44 (0)20 7412 7418

Online enquiry form

Blog posts

Recording of the week: Seabirds in a plastic world

Monday, June 5, 2023

A northern gannet, a seabird with a white body, beige head and blue eyes, sits on a pile of blue and red fishing rope and holds a clump of it in its beak. Photo credit: Thomas Haeusler. Today is World...

Animals: Art, Science and Sound

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Animals: Art, Science and Sound is the first major exhibition to explore the many different ways in which animals have been written about, visualised and recorded over time. Focusing on the British Library’s extensive natural history collections, the exhibition brings...

Recording of the week: Listening to Sun Ra in the year 4000

Monday, May 22, 2023

Publicity shot of Sun Ra, 1973. Distributed by Impulse! Records and ABC/Dunhill Records. Photographer uncredited. Public domain. Throughout his long career the pianist, composer, bandleader and Afrofuturist pioneer Sun Ra (1914-1993) released over one hundred albums, many under his own...

Recording of the week: Lenny Bruce (1925-1966)

Monday, May 15, 2023

Many of you will have seen a fictionalised version of comedian Lenny Bruce in the streamed comedy-drama The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Although the series has no pretensions to documentary accuracy, actor Luke Kirby has clearly done his research. He gives...

Related events

Animals: Art, Science and Sound events

Fri 21 Apr - Mon 28 Aug 2023

Join us in an exploration of the animal kingdom and marvel the wonders of the natural world.

RSL Dalloway Day 2023: Zadie Smith on Virginia Woolf

Wed 14 Jun 2023

Zadie Smith is in conversation with Shahidha Bari.

At the Library and online

Insects: Small but Perfectly Formed

Fri 23 Jun 2023

A close up look into the miraculous world of insects with Martha Kearney, George McGavin, Levon Biss and Karen Wimhurst.

At the Library FREE

Curators’ Talk – Animals: Art, Science and Sound

Wed 28 Jun 2023

Behind the scenes of the awe-inspiring exhibition.

View all events

Projects

Edison Concert Cylinder in the British Library sound archive, containing aboriginal language recording made in Stevenson Creek, South Australia, by Baldwin Spencer, 1901. Photo by Clare Kendall.

Save our Sounds

Save our Sounds is our programme to preserve the nation’s sound heritage.

Directory of UK Sound Collections

The British Library has created a directory of UK sound collections

Edison Fellowships

We offer fellowships to encourage the study of classical music sound recordings

The Future of Radio

This 2016 project investigated the future of radio and radio archives.

All projects

Case studies

More Case studies

…The benefit to our personal and professional development has been great … having the space to explore our own capabilities outside of a strictly academic environment.…

Developing access to the Evolving English collection.