I'm not sure if this ever been asked here or if it's the right place to ask. I could ask AI but I want real life user experience and intel on this. So I noticed a lot of producers sample other peoples work, and use them in serato sample etc. and chop them up. Kanye West, Just Blaze etc. are all famous for that. I just saw on Clipse new album Pharel sampled a lot of Indian and Arabic samples from older artist recordings. My question is how it this done legally? Do they have to have permission to use someone else work, they pay them, they have a company that clears it for them? How does this work?

Also in todays music remixes and dubs are a big a thing, do you have to have the artist permsission to remix their work? If so how do you go about doing that? I would not want to make something, and not know the steps to follow and then get sued into oblivion. We used to make remixes and show our buddies and stuff like that nothing we tried to profit off of. However, with todays technology and sites you can you upload your work to etc. how does this work? We didn't have apple music, spotify, loopcloud, sound cloud, distrokid etc. and all that crap back then, we burned CDs or shared MP3s.

I aksed ChatGPT, I wonder how someone would actually know this stuff without asking AI though.. we didn't always have these tools.

Spoiler

Producers typically need legal permission to sample someone else’s work, especially if they plan to release or monetize the track. This process involves clearing the sample, and it usually includes two types of rights:

1. Master Recording Rights

• This is permission to use the actual sound recording.
  
  
• Owned by: usually the record label or the artist.
  

2. Publishing Rights (Composition)

• This covers the underlying music and lyrics.
  
  
• Owned by: the songwriters or music publishers.
  

How to Get Sample Clearance:

1. Identify the Original Song Owners
   
   • Use databases like ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC (for U.S. songs) to find the publisher.
     
     
   • Use WhoSampled or Discogs to track samples and rights holders.
     
2. Contact Rights Holders
   
   • Reach out to the label for the master recording.
     
     
   • Contact the publisher or songwriter for composition rights.
     
3. Negotiate Terms
   
   • Rights holders may ask for:
     
     • A flat fee
       
       
     • A percentage of royalties
       
       
     • A co-writing credit
       
       
     • Or all of the above
       
4. Get a License in Writing
   
   • A legal contract outlines how the sample can be used, how the compensation works, and any credit requirements.
     

⚠️ What Happens If You Don't Clear the Sample?

• Lawsuits: Infringement can lead to legal action.
  
  
• Takedowns: Platforms like Spotify or YouTube can remove the song.
  
  
• Royalties Loss: You may have to pay all profits from the track—or more.
  

️ Alternatives to Clearance:

• Use royalty-free sample libraries (e.g., Splice, Loopmasters).
  
  
• Create original work inspired by the sample (a technique called interpolation).
  
  
• Use samples from the public domain.
  

Let me know if you want a sample clearance checklist or a sample licensing template.

Spoiler

Yes, you generally need permission to legally remix someone else’s song, especially if you plan to publish, share, or monetize that remix. Here's a breakdown:

Remixing Legally: Do You Need Permission?
✅ You DO Need Permission If...

• You plan to upload it to platforms (e.g., Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud).
  
  
• You want to sell or stream it commercially.
  
  
• You use the original vocals or instrumental tracks (the master recording).
  

In these cases, you're using someone else's copyrighted work, so you need a license or permission.

You Don’t Need Permission If:

• You're remixing for private use only (no distribution, no upload).
  
  
• You're using a remix stem pack that was officially provided by the artist or label for public remixing.
  
  
• The original work is in the public domain (rare for modern music).
  

️ How to Get Permission to Remix:

1. Contact the Rights Holders
   
   • Usually the label (for the master recording) and the publisher or artist (for composition rights).
     
2. Request a Remix License
   
   • Sometimes this is called a derivative work license.
     
     
   • If approved, they'll often negotiate terms like royalty splits and release rights.
     
3. Use Official Remix Contests or Packs
   
   • Some artists and labels run remix contests or release stems with permission to remix and release under certain conditions.
     

⚠️ What If You Don’t Get Permission?

• Your remix could be:
  
  • Blocked or taken down from platforms.
    
    
  • Hit with a copyright strike.
    
    
  • Subject to legal action (especially if it earns money or goes viral).
    

✅ Safer Alternatives:

• Use royalty-free acapellas or sample packs.
  
  
• Work with independent artists open to collaborations.
  
  
• Create a remix and send it to the original artist/label for approval before releasing.
  

Want a sample email template to request a remix license?

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2025 at 2:46 AM

yeah its very google-able - i will add though since A.I. didnt and i came up from underground music and scenes is: its very popular at that level to find samples from music thats copyrighted under labels and publishers that are shut down or very small. a lot of artists and producers bring that same ethos when they have a larger audience, doesnt really matter the genre. a lot of stuff like that isnt on streaming also, so it can easily avoid fingerprint technology that checks for licenses

also if you manipulate a sample far enough from the original source, a lot of the times you can avoid copyright, people still do that a lot. ive also had conversations with like O.G. artists in like the 90s Jungle and Drum n Bass scene over in the U.K.- a big part of that early scene for producers was taking a popular sample and making it so it feels familiar: but is really hard to place. they legally got away with using those samples commercially. same with what i said about sampling music from defunked labels and publishers

outside of avoiding cases, that ethos also shows your knowledge and love of music to even know of a song to find samples like that, to possibly put others on to a dope song thats under the radar. its like a flexthat same approach applies to conversations used as samples but is even easier, a lot of times you can legally use those without having to pay anyone

 

Ah I see, I would be more afraid to use someones vocals than most samples. Like you said you manipulate it enough so not sound excatly the same. That's very true it does give the artist sampled more notariety for sure.

 

Ah, copyright law. The funnest of laws for sure! You're actually touching on multiple areas with your questions. But hitting the main theme... samples (such as those taken from a commercially released album by a different artist) fall into mechanical rights and songwriting rights. Sometimes they have the same owner. Often times they do not.

Biggest example - The Verve Bittersweet Symphony. I'm just gonna link the wiki cause its.. a lot. But it hits on synchronization rights, mechanical rights, and songwriting rights.

For clearance, there are agencies dedicated to this. If you're sampling something of note or something you can't directly get ahold of owner, these agencies would be a good start., eg.. Harry Fox Agency.

You do not intrinsically need artist permission to remix a song. If this remix is being performed and it is wholly a cover it should be covered by the venue performance licensees... (ascap, bmi, etc, unique permissions not needed outside of extraordinary cases). If you are recording and distributing then you need a mechanical license from the rights holder.

Heres a nugget to think on though... copyright legal process through the courts is not cheap. At all. If the song isn't generating 7 figures, actual court really isn't a concern. More practically, if you get busted and you're also refusing to engage with og artist to square it you'll get DMCA'd off every platform until such time you comply to terms. A DMCA takedown is not a legal judgement against you, it is enforcement decision by the company as compelled by threat of fine (to the company) should it fail to act in reasonable time.

I'm not saying willy nilly sample away, damn the torpedoes! More, unless you write something that is generating an appreciable sum of money and you also were a baddie and didn't clear either before releasing or once it starting taking off, you don't have any real legal risk of detrimental loss. But you can and might be DCMA'd to death. But bad press is also press... so....

 

For good reason. It's very difficult to manipulate a vocal enough to where it becomes unidentifiable, while still having it be worth even using.
You may as well just use something with no risk involved, because of how much you will have to change something. Gone are the days of pressing up some deniable white label vinyl copies and making some money that way. So whatever you do with it now, you will either pay for the sample before using it, pay more after using it, or doing nothing with the track where it is going to get noticed.

That can still be useful for a live dj set. Make a remix you want just to do it, or for practice. Share it with some people online for free. You don't want to try uploading it to some monetized service. Using sampled musical parts is almost as bad. However, all those things are easily replaceable with stem separations and extracting midi from the audio, and then recreating and modifying the parts. When you make a track with a sampled vocal, the vocal is often the center point of the track. Replacing something can be very tricky, short of paying a vocalist to re-record the parts for you. Even that will end up being a lot of work.

People do not need "notariety" for their vocals getting "Stolen". These days, you have regular old sample packs being released with vocals you have to listen to hundreds of before finding a half-decent one; with notes about how they want 50% of any track, "don't use their name", and sht you might see in a contract with someone you have even actually heard of before. Find something you intend to use, and just buy it. "Clearing it after you make it" by paying a little later may work, but not if you upload it (where a date is recorded) somewhere before paying for it.

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2025 at 5:51 AM

Right lol, I rememeber when Vanilla Ice got in trouble for sampling Queen lol. He added a hihat to the guitar riff and said it wasn't the same

Wow thats a crazy situation with the Bittersweet Sympthony, talk about a total clusterfuck.

I see so many people doing it lately, rappers remixing other rappers work and changing the lyrics. They have their stuff on facebook, youtube tiktok etc. so they are definitely profiting, but you know they didn't get persmission to use the beat opr steal same the flow either.

I just don't want to make something, someone hear it, loves the way it sounds and starts blowing it up. Then next think you know I'm getting sued for using their vocals or what not you know.

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2025 at 6:06 AM

Oh yea for sure. Right, I agree that's true. Oh and I'm sure, hell you'll probably spend more getting permissions than what you'd ever make off the song most likely.

Oh ok, well that definitely makes sense. How do peoples music get used on viral videos where they remixed of manipilated someones song and it gets used on reelz and tiktok vidoes and such? Also is it legal to have someone else sing someones lyrics and you use it profit?

What do you mean by buy it? Like buy the rights?

 

Oh no, I just mean regular old vocal samples from sample packs you may "audition before buying". Most of them are terrible, but if you do find one for a track that you want to do anything with; buy the pack before you upload anything. Most "royalty-free" packs still have a "pay prior to use date" as a condition in the license text.

One part of this stuff I do not know about, as it relates to AI now; is how long after the fact of someone stealing a sample in a commercially released and profitable track has actually "gotten away with it" due to statutes of limitations. Instead of using AI to train and steal from artists' works; how long is it going to take, and what happens when the AI is turned around and aimed at detecting infringement? That five million that track "blurred lines" cost them could look like pocket change.

 

I wouldn't be so sure about profiting.

A copyright strike will follow from a successful DMCA, but a DMCA is not needed to file a copyright strike. One is a legal mandate, other is company policy. An upload with a strike against it loses monetization, but doesn't have to mean it is automatically taken down either. A channel uploading mostly other peoples content likely never had the ability to monetize in the first place.

@clone
If a tool spat out the exact audio snippet without sampling directly from the og song there'd still be no question about the songwriting copyright. As to the mechanical, I can see the Theseus angle but not ruling against that would essentially legitimize direct theft if it involved extra steps. That wouldn't really seem in spirit of the law. But who knows anymore. If Disney AI wants, Disney AI gets.

Statute follows the og copyright. So till originators death + 70 years in most cases.

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2025 at 7:05 AM

Yes, but what I am referring to is songs not created with AI in any way. I mean an AI which can be used by someone such as Marvin Gayes' Estate (as was in Blurred Lines lawsuit) armed with the catalog of the original artists' material dumped into it; and then let loose to scan enormous amounts of released music for possible, probable, and exact matches which were never detected previously. If there isn't already one. Like Shazam, but created for the purpose of identifying samples.

 

Ahhh, gotcha. I see now I skipped over the bit that would have made that clear. Well, same time frame applies either way at least.

I dunno... I think you'd you mainly get 'blood from a stone' results of tracks that weren't commercial hits. I mean... there is a very direct reason why you've never seen a headline like 'Joe Blow and Blowers get hit with 3 million dollar judgement for Myspace song with 125 plays.' Namely that copyright infractions do not have exemplary damages. The number is always based on actual damages.

I mean, how many hits can there still be around that made use of uncleared samples but havent been discovered despite millions of listens? I guess I'd wonder though on edge cases... like you sample the beatles, but it's undetectable by human hearing and only discovered later by an algo despite being a number 1 hit with 200 googagillion streams or whatever.

 

Stealing is part of the trade! Don't get caught!

Unfortunately, you don't have any original ideas, and making remixes of existing artists/songs isn't art for me, nor is it very creative. If you want to make a remix, you should get permission from the artist/creator. If you use samples, you should check whether you're allowed to use them beforehand; this is stated in the terms and conditions of the respective sample manufacturer.

Copyright should be taken seriously and you should inform yourself about it beforehand; neither ChatGPT nor forums offer legally reliable information.

Especially if you use distinctive samples, including those from well-known bands, and they are clearly recognizable later, it's quite possible that the band will sue you, as in the case of the German band Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk sued an Moses musician who used a distinctive sample from their song. www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/31/kraftwerk-lose-legal-battle-over-their-music-being-sampled

This post of mine is not legal advice. Make sure you find your own style, play your own music, and use royalty-free samples. Especially if you want to make money with it and reach a large audience, you should take precautions to only use legal samples.

Read this carefully and act accordingly!!!

What Musicians Should Know about Copyright
https://www.copyright.gov/engage/musicians/

 

Last edited: Jul 11, 2025 at 8:34 AM

What American musician? Moses is German. The Kraftwerk cases were handled in German courts. If an American is being pursued in court for copyright claim the case is tried where the violation occurred, in the US.

 

Thanks for the correction, I have corrected it.