SOAS Library provides access to databases which support research into Music.

SOAS students and staff can cross-search a range of music related databases via EBSCO Discovery .

Below is a list of our major databases available for Music. For a full list of our databases please see A-Z databases .


Oxford Music Online
On-campus access / Off-campus access
Collection of music reference works; including: The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Grove Music Online and The Oxford Companion to Music.  Good database to start your research in order to define and refine your search terms.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
On-campus access / Off-campus access
This essential database provides indexing and abstracts for scholarly music related materials in over 100 languages. It covers over 500 scholarly journals including books, bibliographies, catalogues, conference proceedings and discographies.

Smithsonian Global Sound
On-campus access / Off-campus access
A virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. It is very useful database where you can listen to over 35,000 individual tracks of music, spoken word, and natural and human-made sounds.

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
On-campus access / Off-campus access
Full text online version of the 10 volume work focused on world music.  It includes more than 9000 pages of contents and 300 audio recordings.

Archival Sound Recordings
On-campus access / Off-campus access
The British Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings, which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound.

Other available web resources