Art wouldn\u2019t be able to progress the way it has without creative people becoming inspired by the work of others, and acting on those feelings through the act of imitation. Music is no exception here – many of our favorite genres (and the sample industry itself) was born out of people taking sounds from other people\u2019s records, reshaping them into something unique, and putting that back out into the world as a fundamentally new work.<\/p>\n
Splice Sounds samples are completely royalty-free, which means you can incorporate them in your own compositions and recordings without any further clearance or royalty obligations. We don\u2019t take any ownership for anything created with sounds from the catalog, and the creators of the original samples don\u2019t either, so long as you don\u2019t violate the license we grant you (you can read more about this license in Section 2 of our Terms of Use<\/a>).<\/p>\n Since we launched Splice Sounds, we\u2019ve noticed some recurring issues with sample packs that we\u2019d like to address. First, we prohibit our sample providers from providing samples that are generated from pre-existing works, like a full song or other samples. The law isn\u2019t very clear on when it\u2019s okay to use pre-existing works and so we\u2019d rather be safe than sorry. Second, we require our providers to agree that when they provide us with samples, they aren\u2019t violating any other agreement, such as an end-user license agreement for virtual studio technology (VST) that might prohibit the distribution of its samples via a service like ours. Legal issues aside, we also don\u2019t find a lot of value in distributing sounds that already exist in VSTs.<\/p>\n We take a lot of steps to protect users and respect all creators, including the ones whose work may be taken advantage of. For instance, we strive to ensure that our Quality Principles<\/a> for content are clear so providers fully understand our expectations for content as well as why we take action on content that doesn\u2019t meet our standards.<\/p>\n Originality issues with samples have come up in the past, and will likely come up in the future. When they do, we investigate immediately so that we can determine the right actions to take – actions that we believe to be in the community\u2019s best interests – that include Splice and its users. If we\u2019ve identified sounds that we believe may expose our users to potential legal problems, we may seek to notify everyone who has purchased those sounds in the past. If you\u2019ve released a commercial track that contains a sample from Splice and we\u2019ve notified you that there may be an issue with that sample, please reach out so we can support you in mitigating any risk.<\/p>\n If you think you\u2019ve found a copyright issue on Splice, whether it\u2019s your own content being used without permission or someone else\u2019s, let us know! If you believe your content is being infringed upon, please file a DMCA notice (you can read more about this in Section 16 of our Terms of Use<\/a>). For all other originality issues, reach out to us at copyright@splice.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n Splice is a creator-first platform, and we want Splice Sounds to reflect our values when it comes to quality and originality. We know that these issues come up and continue to affect the sample industry, and we want to do everything in our power to push the conversation forward and keep you in your creative flow. Please feel free to contact us at copyright@splice.com<\/strong> so that we can investigate, resolve any concerns, and continue improving the catalog!<\/p>\n\n\n See the latest news from Splice on product updates and system improvements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n