You can find below specific databases for music research, containing journal articles, sheet music, and audio-visual content.
There are also more general, inter-disciplinary databases which may contain research relevant to your subject or topic area.
Alternatively, you can navigate to our A-Z Databases list and filter by subject to All Music Databases - this includes the "best bets" for music and more general databases.
Access to full-text journals in the fields of creative practice and popular culture, theatre, film, music, design and art.
Access to all music journal titles from the Arts & Sciences Collections on JSTOR; includes publications from over 15 disciplines and 10 countries.
Searching on JSTOR is different from other search engines such as Google because of the scholarly content and focus on research that we make available. To get started with searching on JSTOR watch this quick getting started video:
Admin: reviewed 16/07/2024
Indexing and abstracts for several hundred international music periodicals from over 20 countries, plus full text for more than 220 of the indexed journals.
Coverage: 1874 - current
Digital sheet music app providing access to over 100 thousand publisher editions of sheet music from a wide-range range of classical and contemporary composers.
Always use the institution option to login. For more information on access please see our nkoda FAQ.
To get started with nkoda, watch the nkoda app tutorial playlist:
Please note:- Screenshots are not permitted on the nkoda app due to copyright. If you attempt to screenshot within the app, it will lock you out.
Please be aware that some sheet music and scores are available on nkoda as rental music for which you will see the above notice. These are not permitted for use in performance without permission from the publisher. We recommend you contact your Programme Leader should you need material for performance.
Nkoda has the option to upload your own sheet music in PDF format. These are private to you and not discoverable in the nkoda library, but you can share the link with friends, colleagues and collaborators. You can also use the detailed annotation tools and lossless zoom functionality that makes the nkoda library so unique.
Admin: reviewed 23/01/2024
Oxford Music Online (including Grove Music Online) is a comprehensive reference resource with dictionaries, encyclopedias and companions for all sorts of music.
Indexing and abstracts for more than 200 international periodicals, plus full text for around 160 of the indexed journals.
Coverage: 1864 - current
Rock's Backpages is an online database of music writing sourced from the pages of the music and mainstream press.
Multi-disciplinary journals, reports and proceedings.
Arts Professional creates and curates the most relevant content for those with a professional interest in the arts sector. You will need to register with Arts Professional using your University of Lincoln email address to access content.
Shared off-air recording and media archive service. Programmes can only be viewed in the UK.
You will need to register with the site before you can access the content.
The British Library is home to the UK's national sound archive, one of the largest collections of sound recordings in the world. With over 6.5 million items of speech, music and wildlife, this includes audio from the advent of recording to the present day.
High quality films of leading theatre productions and detailed analysis of play texts.
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Access journal articles, books, book articles and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance.
Access to 80 journal titles from an archive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Project Muse provides full-text, high quality articles for the humanities and social sciences from over 120 publishers
Provides access to all SAGE journals covering a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, science, technology and medicine periodicals.