Sample A Song On Your Beats And Selling It May Cost You

Sample a song on your beats often?  Maybe so, maybe not.  But I'm sure if you are a producer or beat maker reading the title of this blog entry, you're probably already wondering what could be going on.  Maybe you're an everyday sampler looking for the next song to take snippets of to use in your beats.  Or, maybe you thought about doing it a few times just to see what you could come up with to sell.  If you are a hip hop music producer, or a music producer in general, sampling a song on your next music production and trying to sell that track or hip hop instrumentals may wind up costing you!  Wondering what I mean?  Read on...

Of course, sampling is not something new.  People have been sampling songs and selling beats with them all the time.  Among some of the more currently known producers to sample a song, Kanye West probably is the first to come to mind.  But let's face it, Kanye is a major producer in the industry who networks all the time, and who could well afford to sample especially knowing he'll recoup on more than triple the amount paid to clear the sample.  And there are others who have done it in the game over and over, like famous producers RZA, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, I mean the list goes on.  But again, those are famous hip hop music producers!

So what does this mean to the average kat making beats more on the underground level?  What would this mean to you if you are trying to sample a song to use in your beats to sell to other people in the underground?  The speculation is that a producer can sample who he or she very well pleases, and that the artist is responsible for clearing up the sample.  BUT, contrary to that thought, which many producers probably think or don't even care about, unless there is a clear cut contract that can be created and fought in a court of law IF the dispute came to light, the producer, NOT the artist, is responsible for the sample, simply because they used it to make money.  I actually found this information on a music industry legalities website.  Basically, if you sample and are trying to sell without the permission, you are in violation of copyright infringement, and if an artist whose music you "borrowed" for sake of making some beat sales decided, they wanted to press a lawsuit on you, you had better find a great attorney to back you up!  Here's where I basically found more info on the whole clearing of samples.  Check it out! - All You Need To Know About Samples

So, the next time you think about plans to sample a song or two for beats you're producing, that you feel you can cake money on, you may want to reconsider that concept, especially if you're trying to deal with upper level artists.  All it takes is word of mouth to spread through the hip hop grapevine faster than lighting up a paper doused in gasoline on fire, and your reputation as well as your pockets may be up in smoke! 

That said, you're better off doing like I do, and creating your own beats from scratch, melodies and all.  Copp a few brass sounds, a flute sample, or some piano samples or guitars from this site, and make your own from scratch.  If you really need a sample for sped up vocals, record yourself saying a phrase and speed it up if you're trying to get that effect going.  It's much cheaper and less risky than cutting a snippet from The Commodores, only to risk getting backlashed, backdoored, and blacklisted from the hip hop community!  Is it really worth it?