Sample clearing is necessary as soon as a sample reaches a certain level of creativeness/originality. A sample is a short sound or a short extract of a complete musical work.
Sample clearing means gaining the rights for this extract. A sample is usually protected by copyright as soon as its melody reaches a certain level of originality. Furthermore, the copyright and ancillary copyright laws have to be maintained and respected in any case (they apply to each individual record and are owned by the record company or the publishing house). One possibility to avoid these legal issues is re-recording a cleared (means new) version of the protected samples. The creator's permission might however be required, if the sample contains a protected melody.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any further legal questions or concerns about samples or recordings.
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