I was going to make a video for youtube and thought of using Beethoven's 5th as background music...is there anywhere i can get it and do this LEGALLY? The music is well out of copyright, the recordings may not be. You would need to use one recorded more than 50 years ago - for copyright in recordings lasts that long (in the UK). Even old recordings reissued on CD may claim copyright in the remastering. Rdenig's answer is great & right on, but I hardly imagine anyone will arrest you for using Beethoven's 5th in a YouTube video -- so many of those videos have copyrighted songs with copyrighted videoclips and they are so much more flagrant. you already got the right answer but wouldn't Beethoven 5th dominate rather than enhance the visuals??? | 