What are Royalty-Free Samples?

Using samples in your music production can be a highly inspiring process. And it comes with a price, copyright is its name. In this article we will discuss what copyright means.

The vinyl collection is also known as a good source of inspiration when it comes to sampling.

First of all, what is Sampling?

Sampling means taking a sample sound from an existing song and using it in your music production. This creative technique has been extremely popular in various music genres, especially in electronic music.
At first, this was not a copyright issue, until Hip Hop in the 1980s.

As Sampling became more and more popular, mainstream artists wanted to get their share. For this reason, artists had to pay for clearance to use audio samples in their songs. Artists had to deal with legal battles due to uncleared sampling.

What are royalty-free samples?

If you’re using software or hardware instruments to record the sounds, in this case, copyright is not an issue. What about sampling other peoples work? In this case, getting the owner’s permission in a form of a license would be a good idea.

This would usually mean paying a “royalty” for every project where samples are being used, every time the radio, a club or a commercial plays your song.
This sounds like a lot of work, right?

Luckily there’s something called “royalty-free samples”. This means that after you obtain a license, there’s no need to pay any additional royalty fees. Royalty-free sounds can be used in personal or professional projects like TV commercials or music production.

There are numerous sources where you can find royalty-free samples.
Just search for “royalty-free samples” or find high-quality free samples here.

Should I user samples?

Using samples is a known process. Famous artists like Mobi, Daft Punk, The Prodigy have been sampling music.

The question is, why shouldn’t you?

Just make sure to be creative and read the sample license.