The Center for World Music is a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is to foster intercultural awareness and understanding through in-depth encounters with the world’s performing arts traditions.
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities
The University of Washington maintains this collection and its searchable web page allows you to see images and videos of their collection and learn more about the instruments.
This open source searchable database is intended to provide its users with visual, sonic, and written information about a broad sampling of acoustic musical instruments of both Western and non-Western origins. Its primary audience is envisioned as students in undergraduate general education music courses (Western music history/appreciation classes, introductory ethnomusicology/’world music’ courses).
Explore the rich tapestry created by musicians around the world -- from the music of the Arab World and Ancient Greece, to the diverse cultural sounds of China, to the songs that helped spur the Mexican Revolution.
The Milken Archive’s collection contains over 800 hours of oral histories, nearly 50,000 photographs and historical documents, thousands of hours of video footage from recording sessions, interviews, and live performances, and an extensive set of program notes and essays that illuminate the music's historical and cultural context. Much of this is available online.
As of January 2015, over 110,000 recordings have been digitized and placed on the Strachwitz Frontera Collection website, which is hosted by the UCLA Library. Scanned images of labels and album graphics accompany the recordings, and keywords have been established for subject-matter searches.
WOMEX – the World Music Expo – is the most international music meeting in the world and the biggest conference of the global music scene, featuring a trade fair, talks, films and a showcase festival.
World Music Network (WMN) is one of the leading forces on the international world music scene. The site includes links to songs and other resources (such as Spotify) where music can be heard for free.
Published in 1940 in the Journal of Polynesian Society, this article discussed traditional Polynesian music and dance, including sounds and instruments used.