{"id":2762,"date":"2016-03-25T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2023-04-27T13:28:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:28:28","slug":"samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">When it comes to using samples and loops in your own music, copyright is important.&nbsp;Find out about the advantages of royalty-free content.<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>What is Sampling?<\/h2>\n<p>Simply put, <em>sampling<\/em> means you&#8217;re taking part&nbsp;of an existing sound or musical recording and using it in another recording or&nbsp;piece of music. This creative idea&nbsp;has played a huge role in the contemporary&nbsp;music of today, and especially when it comes to electronic music. While&nbsp;it didn&#8217;t pose&nbsp;a significant copyright issue at first, sampling became more much more prevalent with the rise of Hip Hop in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>As this sample-heavy genre grew into the mainstream,&nbsp;artists and producers whose material was being used in hit tracks now wanted a&nbsp;piece of the pie.&nbsp;This meant that artists had to pay for&nbsp;clearance&nbsp;to use existing audio&nbsp;in their own music, which was only&nbsp;possible for the most successful musicians out there. This has lead to a lot of debate and discussion in the United States, whether in the form of legal battles regarding uncleared samples or the current state of copyright law and the way it affects artistic freedom.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Using royalty-free samples<\/h2>\n<p>Copyright is obviously not an issue&nbsp;when you record musical instruments or make your own field recordings, but what about when&nbsp;you use existing material? You&nbsp;would usually need to get the owner&#8217;s permission&nbsp;to use their audio, usually in the form of a license. In addition, you might&nbsp;be required to pay a &#8220;royalty&#8221; (a fee) for every time the audio is featured in your project, as well as for each&nbsp;time your track is played on a radio station or in a club. If you think this&nbsp;would require a lot of work and money, you&#8217;d be right. This is where royalty-free samples&nbsp;come into play!<\/p>\n<p>When you purchase a royalty-free sample&nbsp;library, you also get a comprehensive license that allows you to use the included samples&nbsp;in your music without having to pay any additional royalty fees. These&nbsp;sounds are now&nbsp;free for you to use in <em>any<\/em> personal or commercial music project! By removing the risk and hassle associated with re-using copyrighted material, royalty-free samples allow producers&nbsp;to focus completely on the creative process and make some truly innovative&nbsp;music.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Where to&nbsp;find royalty-free sounds<\/h2>\n<p>And now, the big question you&#8217;ve been asking yourself: Where can I get royalty-free audio to use in my own music? One of the best places to discover new material&nbsp;to use in your music is <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/sounds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Splice Sounds<\/a>, which contains 800,000&nbsp;unique samples and loops from some of the most respected providers out there.&nbsp;In addition, we work closely with artists and music labels to release exclusive packs that you won&#8217;t find anywhere else.&nbsp;And the best part is that everything&nbsp;on <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/sounds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Splice Sounds<\/a> is completely royalty-free!<\/p>\n<p>Now, if you <em>are&nbsp;<\/em>looking to sample some existing musical material (like a vocal acapella), there is plenty of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ascap.com\/playback\/2011\/01\/features\/limelight.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">information<\/a> out there on how to get sample clearance and navigate the landscape&nbsp;of music copyright.&nbsp;There are also sites that host user-uploaded audio content.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freesound.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Freesound<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/soundbible.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SoundBible<\/a>&nbsp;let you filter search results by usage rights &#8211; some samples can be used as long as your give the owner credit and don&#8217;t use them for commercial means, while others have no such&nbsp;restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Take your music further with the new plugins, fresh sounds, and more available in the Splice Creator plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Explore Splice plans<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to using audio samples and loops in your own music, copyright is an important issue.\u00a0Find out\u00a0about the advantages of\u00a0royalty-free content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1696],"tags":[1635,1061,1254],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When it comes to using audio samples and loops in your own music, copyright is an important issue.\u00a0Find out\u00a0about the advantages of\u00a0royalty-free content.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free - Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it comes to using audio samples and loops in your own music, copyright is an important issue.\u00a0Find out\u00a0about the advantages of\u00a0royalty-free content.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-25T21:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-27T17:28:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1-1024x683.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matteo Malinverno\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matteo Malinverno\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matteo Malinverno\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/43123e87ce32298439fa5bbdd471e89d\"},\"headline\":\"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-25T21:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-27T17:28:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/\"},\"wordCount\":608,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"production life\",\"sample packs\",\"sounds\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Tips &amp; Tutorials\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/\",\"name\":\"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free - Blog | Splice\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-25T21:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-27T17:28:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"When it comes to using audio samples and loops in your own music, copyright is an important issue.\u00a0Find out\u00a0about the advantages of\u00a0royalty-free content.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":1000},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Splice Blog\",\"description\":\"An inside look at making music\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Splice\",\"alternateName\":\"Splice Sounds\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png\",\"width\":2928,\"height\":1540,\"caption\":\"Splice\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/splice\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/splice\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@splice\",\"https:\/\/discord.com\/invite\/splice\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/43123e87ce32298439fa5bbdd471e89d\",\"name\":\"Matteo Malinverno\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6210453a06683c0f3f11a7040fba7ede?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6210453a06683c0f3f11a7040fba7ede?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matteo Malinverno\"},\"description\":\"Matteo Malinverno is a New York-based music producer currently working on the Content team at Splice.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/author\/matteo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free - Blog | Splice","description":"When it comes to using audio samples and loops in your own music, copyright is an important issue.\u00a0Find out\u00a0about the advantages of\u00a0royalty-free content.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free - Blog | Splice","og_description":"When it comes to using audio samples and loops in your own music, copyright is an important issue.\u00a0Find out\u00a0about the advantages of\u00a0royalty-free content.","og_url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/","og_site_name":"Blog | Splice","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice","article_published_time":"2016-03-25T21:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-27T17:28:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1-1024x683.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Matteo Malinverno","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@splice","twitter_site":"@splice","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matteo Malinverno","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/"},"author":{"name":"Matteo Malinverno","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/43123e87ce32298439fa5bbdd471e89d"},"headline":"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free","datePublished":"2016-03-25T21:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-27T17:28:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/"},"wordCount":608,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png","keywords":["production life","sample packs","sounds"],"articleSection":["Tips &amp; Tutorials"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/","name":"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free - Blog | Splice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png","datePublished":"2016-03-25T21:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-27T17:28:28+00:00","description":"When it comes to using audio samples and loops in your own music, copyright is an important issue.\u00a0Find out\u00a0about the advantages of\u00a0royalty-free content.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/royaltyfree1.png","width":1500,"height":1000},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/samples-what-it-means-to-be-royalty-free\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Samples: What it means to be Royalty-Free"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/","name":"Splice Blog","description":"An inside look at making music","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Splice","alternateName":"Splice Sounds","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png","width":2928,"height":1540,"caption":"Splice"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice","https:\/\/x.com\/splice","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/splice\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@splice","https:\/\/discord.com\/invite\/splice"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/43123e87ce32298439fa5bbdd471e89d","name":"Matteo Malinverno","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6210453a06683c0f3f11a7040fba7ede?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6210453a06683c0f3f11a7040fba7ede?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matteo Malinverno"},"description":"Matteo Malinverno is a New York-based music producer currently working on the Content team at Splice.","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/author\/matteo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26262,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions\/26262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}