Our collection of vinyl records, CDs and cassettes are in the multimedia area of the Maughan Library in rooms GM69 and GM70. Players for this material can be found in GM70. See our Floorplans.
Search for recordings in Library Search and refine your results by 'Resource type' to 'Audio'.
If you need resources beyond King's, you may want to visit other libraries with music collections:
Please check for access restrictions before visiting.
Welcome to the Collections Guide for Music
This guide provides tailored information on library collections and links to some of our key resources.
British Library Sounds presents 50,000 recordings and their associated documentation from the Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds.
On the web
Where copyright permits, many recordings are available worldwide to the general public to listen to online. The main exception concerns the classical music recordings which are not available for streaming to the United States.
UK Higher and further education
Staff and students at licensed UK higher and further education institutions can listen to all recordings online and download the majority of them for academic use
King’s username and password for access to some recordings. See More for details
Ethnographic Sound Archives Online brings together over 2,000 hours of previously unpublished historic field recordings from around the world, alongside their supporting field notes and ethnographers’ metadata, opening new paths for the study of music in its cultural context.
King’s username and password for access off campus.
Music Online offers a single platform for cross-searching audio recordings, 400,000 pages of scores, 100,000 pages of music reference and over 500 hours of video.
King’s username and password for access off campus.
Naxos is an online classical music library offering access to the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues. With over 800 new albums added every month, genres including classic pop, rock and Chinese orchestral music are also represented. Also see Naxos Music Library Jazz.
There is a concurrent usage limit - please click the red 'log out' button when you have finished with this resource.
King’s username and password for access off campus
Online jazz music collection offering over 100,000 jazz tracks from more than 12,000 represented artists. Contains the catalogues of Blue Notes Records, 22 labels of Fantasy Jazz and over 150 other labels. Also see Naxos Music Library.
There is a concurrent usage limit - please click the red 'log out' button when you have finished with this resource.
King’s username and password for access off campus
An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.
King's has access to:
EIMA1: Music, Radio and The Stage
EIMA2: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 1)
EIMA3: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 2)
King’s username and password for access
Online music encyclopedia, offering comprehensive coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship.
King’s username and password for access off campus
Music Online: African American Music Reference brings together the very best of Alexander Street Music text collections relevant to African American music in one accessible package. Music scholars will easily access useful encyclopedias, scores, manuscripts, biographies, and other reference texts that make up the core of music curricula around the world.
King’s username and password for access off campus.
Classical Music Reference Library brings together a variety of essential reference materials, spanning the entire history of Western classical music, in a unified online database. Included are the authoritative reference titles Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music, which are available for the first time in electronic form.
King’s username and password for access off campus.
Music Online: Music Periodicals of the 19th Century is a collection of full-text periodicals depicting American musical life from 1838 to the early 1900s through local and international news, reviews, editorials, sheet music, and advertisements. Over 200,000 pages of material will be available for research on the Alexander Street multimedia platform – the only resource that allows users to cross-search the full text of all articles with videos, audio recordings, photographs, scores, and reference texts.
King’s username and password for access off campus.
Music Periodicals Database is a music journal resource with more than 1.3 million articles, plus detailed abstracts and full text from 1874 to current, covering the scholarly to the popular. An unrivalled resource for music research, it t provides indexing and abstracts for more than 425 international music periodicals, plus full text for around 140 journals. No other individual resource has comparable index-plus-full text coverage.
The database currently includes over 1.3 million article records, the majority of which are journal articles from 1996 onward. Around 200,000 index records in the datavase are from the backfile (up to 1995) and much of this coverage commences at the first issue of the journal run, some starting as early as 1874.
Music Periodicals Database covers a comprehensive range of subject areas in both scholarly and popular music journals ranging from International Journal of Music Education, Ethnomusicology, Jazz Education Journal and Musical Times to Rock and Rap Confidential and Rolling Stone. Articles examine the full spectrum of subjects and all aspects of music, including music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theatre, theory, popular music forms and composition. You can find articles on a diverse array of musical genres, from the liturgical chants of medieval monks to the eclectic sounds of contemporary alternative rock musicians.
Content is added on a monthly basis. It is also regularly updated with new functionality and features.
King’s username and password for access
The Oxford History of Western Music online offers an account of the evolution of Western classical music by musicologist Richard Taruskin.
King’s username and password for access off campus
This database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 395 international periodicals, plus full text for more than 160 of the indexed journals. The database currently includes almost a million records, the majority from the most recent ten years of each journal.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
King's username and password for access
Indexes articles on music and related subjects from over 500 journals; also books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings, discographies, dissertations, Festschriften, concert reviews, films and videos. 1967 to present. Updated monthly. Available via the Proquest platform.
Pre-Register at Senate House Library then visit Senate House Library in person to complete your registration.
Senate House Library membership required - click on Description for full details
The print book collection for Music is on the second floor of the Maughan Library in rooms 2.45 and 2.46. See our Floorplans.
Key classmarks for this area are:
Alexander Street Press is an online video streaming platform with access to more than 34,000 video titles. King’s has access to a wide range of educational videos, audio and text resources.
King's username and password for access off campus
BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National is a shared online off-air TV and radio recording service for UK higher and further education institutions. You can choose and record any broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels. The recorded programmes are then kept indefinitely (no expiry) and added to a growing media archive (currently at over 1 million programmes), with all content shared by users across all subscribing institutions.
Please note: Individual registration is required and access is only available from the UK.
King's username and password for access on and off campus - Registration required
Kanopy is an online video streaming platform with access to a unique collection of films in the world, including documentaries and training films.
King's username and password for access off campus
Classical music performances in video
King’s username and password for access off campus.
Music Online: Opera in Video contains five hundred hours of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world’s best performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work’s importance to the operatic canon.
King’s username and password for access off campus.
Digital Theatre brings live performance into every classroom and library, over 900 full-length productions + curriculum-linked resources including backstage insights, practitioner interviews and written analysis.This range of educational resources can be used for illustration, explanation, and critical reflection.
More for details on logging in:
Click on Sign in.
Enter your email address (this can be in the form k1234567@kcl.ac.uk)
Then choose your institution (King's College London)
You will be taken to a King's login screen. Enter your knumber@kcl.ac.uk + your King's password + MFA if necessary
King's username and password for off campus access.
Academic Video Online makes video material available with curricular relevance: documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, and more. Search for award-winning films including Academy®, Emmy®, and Peabody® winners and access content from PBS, BBC, 60 MINUTES, National Geographic, Annenberg Learner, BroadwayHD™, A+E Networks’ HISTORY® and more.
King's username and password for access off campus
A range of equipment is available in the multimedia area of the Maughan Library. See our Floorplans.
Music Online: Classical Scores Library is a series of four volumes with a mission to provide a reliable and authoritative source for scores of the classical canon, as well as a resource for the discovery of lesser-known contemporary works. The collections encompass all major classical musical genres and time periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. With full, study, piano, and vocal scores, this comprehensive collection will enhance the study of music history, performance, composition and theory for a variety of scholars.
King’s username and password for access off campus.
You can find scores in the multimedia area of the Maughan Library. See our Floorplans.
Scores have the classmark ‘M’ followed by a number e.g. M2000-2007 is for oratorios. They are arranged by type of work rather than by composer. The main arrangement of scores is:
Search for scores in Library Search and refine your results by 'Resource type' to 'Scores'.
The following eresources cover a range of disciplines including your subject area:
King’s username and password for access off campus
King’s username and password for access off campus
King's username and password for access off campus
King’s username and password for access off campus
King’s username and password for access
King’s username and password for access off campus