Isn’t the history of music a succession of encounters between the sounds of one genre and the rhythm of another? There is no musical creation without the hybridization of styles, and sampling is indeed a popular method of doing so. There is no shame in upcycling an older recording, known or unknown, in your own production. There are two conditions to this however: take full responsibility of using the sample, and clear it legally.
What is Sampling in Music
You are producing a song and have put together a beat with a crazy bounce to it. You love it, but feel like it’s missing a key element that could elevate the entire thing: a vocal loop. In your vast library of downloaded music, you find a short excerpt of a song by a powerhouse vocalist that would sound perfect over your beat after a little editing and manipulation, so you integrate it into your track. The technique you just used is called sampling.
Sampling is the reuse of a portion of someone else’s recording in your own song. It is usually a short segment, and can either be a part of the original song as is, or can be the vocals or instrumentation separately. Either way, it’s a way to bring character to your track, add valuable context to the feeling you’re trying to evoke, and give a nod to the artist you’re sampling. Even if the sampled has been chopped and screwed, transposed up or manipulated in whatever which way, it is still a sample.
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The Role of Samples in Music
The artistry behind samples can be a polarizing topic. Some believe that borrowing from those who came before is one of the best ways to push music forward and reinvent genres and sounds, while others find it to be a shortcut to success that lacks creativity.
In our opinion, it takes creativity to source a sample and build around it in a way that adds real value to a song, as opposed to simply cutting and pasting two things together because they’re in the same key. Most of the biggest artists in the world have done their fair share of sampling, and have been sampled themselves. Some of the most sampled artists of all time are:
- James Brown
- The Beatles
- Michael Jackson
- The Notorious B.I.G
- Marvin Gaye
- Elvis Presley
- Stevie Wonder
Artists known to have integrated samples throughout their work are Kanye West, DJ Mehdi, Frank Ocean, Fred Again…, A$AP Rocky, Jay-Z, and countless others.
And a few of the most famous songs that relied heavily on samples include Flo Rida’s “Good Feeling” sampling Etta James’ “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”, Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” sampling “Are You My Woman” by the Chi-Lites, or M.I.A’s “Paper Planes” sampling The Clash’s “Straight to Hell”.
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Plagiarism: Samples and Interpolations
It is strictly against music law to sample or interpolate without clearance.
Sampling is the direct use of someone else’s recording, while interpolation is the borrowing of characteristic elements of someone else’s song. Both result in legal battles if they are not approved or cleared beforehand.
Accusations of plagiarism and copyright infringement arise when a song either sounds too similar to another (through melody, lyrics, or chord progressions), or if there is a blatant sample (usage of someone else’s recording) that has not been approved by the copyright owners (either the songwriters, artist, or label).
The fear of being accused of plagiarism comes from a simple observation: we mainly hear about sampling or interpolations when they’ve resulted in a legal battle between two or more artists. Famous examples include Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ trial against the Marvin Gaye estate for “Blurred Lines”, or Damso for “Amnesia”, removed from Spotify for an uncleared sample of Cortex’s “I Heard A Sigh”.
Some cases go straight to trial, while others are solved when artists go back and add writing credits to their songs, though this resolved interpolation . A recent example of this would be Olivia Rodrigo adding members of Paramore to the writing credits of her song “Good 4 U”, and Taylor Swift to the song “Deja Vu”.
“No idea is original, there’s nothing new under the sun. It’s never what you do, but how it’s done.” – Nas
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How to Clear a Sample for Use
There are different types of parties who may hold the rights to a work: the publisher, songwriter(s), artist(s), an artist’s estate, or the label. Samples can only be cleared for use when two types of copyright have been approved:
- License for use of the underlying composition (the song itself, usually owned by songwriters and publishers)
- License for use fo the song’s recording (the actual sound file, usually owned by artists or labels)
These are the two types of copyright associated with any song ever made, and they’re explained in further detail in our article about publishing and master rights here.
In order to clear a sample, you or your team must reach out to the copyright owners and request a license. This can be a costly process in both time and money, so be prepared well advance before getting in touch.
1. Find the Contact Information of the Copyright Owners of Your Sample
Who owns what music is almost always available to the public, so your sample’s owners are most likely listed in the major publishing rights organizations’ (PROs) databases/directories (PROs are the orgs that collect and pay out music royalties to rights holders).
In the US, BMI and ASCAP share a public, searchable directory called Songview, and Harry Fox has its own directory. Canada’s main PRO is SOCAN, the UK’s is PRS, and France’s is SACEM.
If you can’t find names and contact information there, try browsing the song’s Wikipedia page or looking at the liner notes at the bottom of the song’s Spotify page. The label and publishing information is always listed there.
REMEMBER: You must reach out to both the publishing rights holders and the master recording rights holders. Unless you’re sampling an independent artist who owns both forms of copyright, this will not be the same person!
2. Reach out and Request Permission
If you want to increase your chances of getting sample clearance, you have to be as clear and organized as possible so that all parties involved can understand your usage of their song. In your message to them, include:
- Which part of the original song you’re using
- Length of excerpt + whether it’s whole recording or just instrumental or vocals
- How long the sample is
- How many times it’s used in the song
- What your plans are with the song
- A private link or other access to the song file so they can listen to the sample’s use in your music
3. Negotiate Licensing Fees
If they’re interested, you’ll have to negotiate a price. Depending on how famous the song is, you’ll likely have to pay an upfront fee for the license and give a royalty split (percentage of future revenue generated by the song) to rights holders as well.
Fees can range from a couple hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on:
- How heavily the sample is used
- Whether it’s only instrumentation, vocals, or both
- How recognizable the sample is
Example: How Jay-Z Did it
In his book Decoder, Jay-Z explains how he cleared the rights to sample the very well known song “It’s the Hard Knock Life” from the musical Annie in his song titles “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”.
The song was one of the singles off of the album that would become his first #1 on the Billboard charts, and it was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 1999 Grammy Awards, solidifying his status as a force to be reckoned with in the Hip-Hop community.
Jay-Z tells us that when his team was denied the clearance, he felt so strongly about the sample that he decided to write a letter to the copyright owners himself:
Though we don’t condone lying, we must tip our hats to his perseverance. Pulling at the heartstrings certainly makes for a stronger case!
Here’s what came of it:
Avoiding the Drama: How to Sample for Free
Rest assured: it is possible to sample for free.
If you don’t want to take any risks, there are thousands of beats and other samples that are available free of charge, or licensed through subscriptions to platforms like LANDR (“Samples” tab) or Splice. Splice gathers free beats and samples, and also provides access to packs containing millions of samples and loops via a subscription at $12.99, $19.99, or $39.99 per month.
On LANDR, the subscription also gives you access tons of samples on top of an intelligent mastering service, plugins, distribution etc. It all depends on what you’re looking for, but the investment can be worth it.
A little more digging online will give you tons of other options for copyright-free music to use as you please.
If you wish to adventure into sampling more famous songs for which the request for authorization is required, you expose yourself to certain risks. However, with the knowledge you’ve just acquired in reading this article, you should be well equipped to proceed!
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