Heck, you can even try humming or playing a few bars. There’s also the Shazam app on iOS or Android. You can use Apple’s Siri, Android’s Google Now, or Windows 10’s Cortana to ask, “what’s this song?” and get a straight answer. Modern tech makes that super easy in most cases. In order to find these people, you’ll at least need to know the name of the artist and the song. The owner of the song’s copyright (usually the songwriter or the publisher).The owner of the recording’s copyright (usually a record label).You need to get permission to sample the music from: You need two permissions, though, not one. The first thing you’ll need to know is who owns the music rights to what you’re sampling. In many cases, that means permission from more than one person. The upshot of all this is that the best way to sample music legally is to get permission. And what if it’s just some amateur’s little bit, somebody nobody knows and may never know? That person still owns the copyright because all art is automagically copyrighted as soon as it’s made. The truth is that there’s no “fair use” rule saying you can legally sample a little bit of someone else’s music.

You may have heard that you can legally sample a bit of music shorter than 8 seconds. Music rights depend mostly on getting permission when you sample music. This guide on music rights and how to sample legally will help you stay safe rather than sorry.

In fact, the practice of sampling goes all the way back to the 1940s, eighty years ago.īut how many artists have obtained the music rights? How many artists could be sued? It’s easy to imagine that more samples have been illegally used than otherwise. Artists sample music not just in hip hop and EDM, but also rock, ska, jazz, reggae, and still other genres. So many music styles use sampling today that the art is impossible to ignore. Music rights are the beating heart of the music industry because they protect our art, and if you use samples, even more so.

Sampling audio from youtube