Sampling and Copyright

Electronic music is built on sampling, there is nothing better than listening to a song and hearing a clip of another song you know and it suddenly turns into a new and fresh sound. It can bring interest and dynamics to a song if you do it right but it can also be a burden if you don’t address the copyright infringement side of things.

It’s a common misconception that if you use less than 6 seconds of a track, you are exempt from the copyright laws, but this is completely wrong. If you use somebody’s intellectual property you run the risk of being held accountable for that. And having a copyright infringement attached to your name is not good for your image.

I am currently working on a track that uses a sample from Lost it To Trying by Son Lux. It is only a small two word sample and it is works really well with the strings and synth that are also in the song. The song is far from finished but I need to make a decision when it is done if I try and gain the rights for this sample or if I just wing it and release it in the hope that it flies under the radar. I try to think of it in the reverse, if somebody used a sample from one of my tracks, would I care? And the answer is, probably not. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, but if an artist used a sample from something that I have made I wouldn’t be chasing compensation. I would be flattered that something I have created has sparked someone’s creativity and helped someone create something they are proud of.