The Cylinder Presservation and Digitization Project has placed online amazing collection of over 5000 recordings from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Unrestored digitizations available as large .wav files are in the public domain, while restored mp3s are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial, as described in the project’s note on copyright.

Browse the collection. Listen to a 1902 track by Geroge W. Johnson, the first African-American phonograph star, and one from 1914 by Henry Burr, the biggest Canadian star of the era. Needless to say there are some remix possibilities here.