14 Facts About Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution.

The donation was made on the condition that the Institution continue Asch's policy that each of the more than 2,000 albums of Folkways Records remain in print forever, regardless of sales.

Some well-known artists have contributed to the Smithsonian Folkways collection, including Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly.

Smithsonian Folkways allowed any artist to come and record at no charge, in contrast to bigger studios that charged artists fees for using recording equipment.

Smithsonian Folkways invested a large amount of money in publicity and advertising, for the first time attempting to break into the pop charts.

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Smithsonian Folkways Records released over 2,000 recordings between the years 1949 and 1987, spanning many genres, including jazz, folk, classical, avant-garde, and world music.

The Smithsonian Folkways stipulated a condition regarding the transfer: if they accepted the label, it would have to support itself through its sales.

Smithsonian Folkways is engaged in several projects dedicated to increasing the awareness and use of their recordings, as well as the preservation of them.

In February 2005, Smithsonian Folkways launched Smithsonian Global Sound, an online MP3 music store, similar to programs such as Apple's iTunes.

Smithsonian Folkways now offers the entire Folkways collection for digital download through its website, at $0.

In 2011 Smithsonian Folkways released a new jazz anthology to update their previous release, the 1973 Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz.

In 2015 Smithsonian Folkways released Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, a five-CD, 140-page, large-format book featuring five hours of music including his classics “The Midnight Special, ” “Irene, ” “The Bourgeois Blues, ” and 16 previously unreleased tracks.

In February 2019, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released The Social Power of Music, a four-CD anthology and 124-page book exploring the power of music to bring people together, through various musical and social movements from across the United States and the world.

Also in May 2019, Smithsonian Folkways released Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection in celebration of what would have been Pete Seeger's one hundredth birthday.