works published before January 1, 1930, are generally in the public domain audio it is separate and only is songs on or before 1924 next year those years will go up by one so works before 1931 and audio before 1925

I'm not sure how the tangled web was weaved and in order to be safe, I followed the path with CSRM when I wrote my Frisco Steam Salute book.
They own the Beebe-Clegg Frisco negatives.
I bought 600dpi TIFF scans of most of them and told them some would end up in a book. I think at the time (2020) it was $15 ea to use them.
I've never heard anything from them so I guess all was legally in order.

BTW I was shocked to see some of the Beebe negs in a raw scan and see how scratched and banged up some of them were. Charles Clegg's were pristine. Many hours of Photoshop work to make them printable. It was worth it!