Data marketplace
Linguistic Data Consortium
The Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) is a University of Pennsylvania organization, founded in the early 1990s, that creates, collects and distributes language corpora to members and licensees. Data providers can submit corpora for publication in its catalog without granting exclusive rights. LDC says for-profit members keep commercial rights to data acquired during membership, and it publishes no payment terms for providers.
Facts checked against Linguistic Data Consortium's own pages in November 2026. Visit Linguistic Data Consortium
At a glance
- What it buys
- Distributes speech, text and other language corpora, its own and contributed by data providers
- Published payout
- Not published. Its data sharing guide does not mention royalties or payments to providers
- Size requirement
- None published. Providers supply ownership and copyright information, a sample and documentation for LDC review
- Exclusivity
- Non-exclusive. LDC does not require exclusive distribution rights
- Fee to seller
- Not published
- Payment timing
- Not published
Key takeaways
- Linguistic Data Consortium is a data marketplace.
- What it buys: Distributes speech, text and other language corpora, its own and contributed by data providers.
- Published payout: Not published. Its data sharing guide does not mention royalties or payments to providers.
- Size requirement: None published. Providers supply ownership and copyright information, a sample and documentation for LDC review.
- Exclusivity: Non-exclusive. LDC does not require exclusive distribution rights.
- Linguistic Data Consortium does not publish its fee to seller and payment timing.
- Facts checked on Linguistic Data Consortium's own pages in November 2026.
What is the Linguistic Data Consortium?
The Linguistic Data Consortium is a data center hosted by the University of Pennsylvania that acquires, archives, preserves and distributes linguistic corpora. Its overview says it was founded in the early 1990s after a call for proposals from ARPA. Its catalog spans 30 publication years and, in LDC's words, contains hundreds of holdings.
Organizations join as members on standard or subscription terms. LDC says members receive perpetual rights to data licensed during their membership years, and that for-profit organizations retain commercial rights to data acquired during a for-profit membership.
How do you contribute data to LDC?
- 1
Open a submissions account
Register at LDC's submissions site and create a submission with a data sample.
- 2
Describe the corpus
Supply title, contributors, ISO 639-3 language codes, data type, size, format, origin, genre, collection and annotation methods, and a readme.
- 3
Pass LDC review
LDC staff check formats, directory structure and documentation for file integrity and quality before publication.
LDC says it negotiates user license agreements with data providers on behalf of its user community and does not require exclusive rights, so you can distribute the same data elsewhere. Its guide does not describe payments to providers, so ask before you submit. Our speech and audio data and multilingual text pages describe what buyers check.
Comparing buyers?
Published payouts are ceilings, not quotes. We can put your records in front of several vetted buyers and compare offers on the same terms. Get a free valuation.
Sources
- LDC overview, Linguistic Data Consortium, accessed November 2026
- Membership benefits, Linguistic Data Consortium, accessed November 2026
- Share your data with LDC, Linguistic Data Consortium, accessed November 2026
- LDC catalog, Linguistic Data Consortium, accessed November 2026
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