Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Every sample on Selekt Audio is cleared for commercial use in beats, songs, films, games, and any other creative project. Our samples come from public domain recordings and Creative Commons licensed sources (CC0 and CC-BY). Some CC-BY samples require you to credit the original artist — your download certificate will tell you exactly what's needed.

Cleared samples are audio recordings that have been verified as free from copyright restrictions for commercial use. On Selekt Audio, samples come from public domain sources (copyright expired or waived) and Creative Commons licensed recordings (CC0 and CC-BY). You can use them without worrying about clearance, royalties, or takedown notices. For CC-BY licensed samples, you must credit the original artist — your download certificate tells you exactly what to do.

Check your download certificate — it tells you exactly what's required for each sample. Samples under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license require you to credit the original artist. Your certificate includes the artist name, source, and license type so you know exactly who to credit and how. Public domain and CC0 samples have no credit requirement, but your certificate will confirm this.

Absolutely. You can sell beats, songs, or any derivative work made with Selekt Audio samples. They are cleared for commercial use with no restrictions on resale or distribution of your finished works.

Every sample goes through a multi-step verification pipeline before it enters the library. First, we verify the source provenance and license directly from the originating archive (Library of Congress, Internet Archive, Freesound, Musopen). Then, the audio undergoes an acoustic fingerprint scan — the raw waveform is converted into a spectrogram, dominant frequency peaks are extracted and mapped into a compact digital fingerprint, and that fingerprint is matched against a reference database of over 150 million commercially released recordings. This is the same core audio recognition technology used by Shazam, Deezer SongCatcher, Genius, and Musixmatch. If the fingerprint matches a known copyrighted work — even a partial match with a confidence score above our threshold — the track is rejected before any further processing. Tracks that pass are then checked for active copyright claims and license restrictions (any non-commercial designations are excluded). Your download certificate documents the full verification chain for every sample: source, license type, fingerprint scan result, and verification timestamp.

Yes. Public domain samples are non-exclusive, meaning any number of producers can use the same source material. Your unique arrangement, processing, and creativity is what makes your beat original.

Use the Explore page to browse and filter the full library. You can filter by genre, BPM, key, mood, instruments, era, and more. Use the search bar for quick keyword searches, or combine multiple filters to narrow down exactly the sound you're looking for.

Each sample page gives you everything you need in one place. At the top you'll see the track info, BPM, key, genre, and era. Below that is the waveform player where you can play the full track. You'll also find separated stems (vocals, drums, bass, other), detected sections (intro, verse, chorus, break), instrument and mood tags, license details, and a download button.

Stems are the individual layers of a track — vocals, drums, bass, and other instruments — separated out so you can use just the parts you want. Every sample on Selekt Audio comes with stems ready to download.

Custom Mix lets you blend stems together right on the site. Solo the drums and bass, mute the vocals, adjust levels — preview your own mix before downloading. It's a quick way to audition combinations, but for serious production, pull the individual stems into your DAW.

The Clip tool lets you select a specific region of a sample's waveform and download just that portion as a WAV file. Click "Clip Region," drag across the waveform to set your start and end points, preview it, then download. You can also save clips to your crates for later.

Selekt Studio is a free desktop app that organizes your downloaded samples automatically. It sorts files by genre, BPM, and key — and lets you drag samples straight into your DAW from the app. No more digging through folders.

Every time you download a sample, you can generate a certificate — a PDF that proves the sample is cleared for use. It includes the license type, source, artist, and any credit requirements. Keep it with your project files so you always have proof of clearance.

Samples and stems are available as high-quality WAV files.

Selekt Audio offers a free tier that lets you browse, stream, and download samples. A Pro tier is available with additional features like unlimited downloads, advanced stem separation, and priority access to new drops.

Pro members get unlimited downloads, access to the full stem separation suite, priority access to weekly drops, marketplace selling privileges, and challenge entry.

Challenges are community beat-making competitions. A source sample is provided, and producers submit their "flip" — a beat or track made using that sample. The community votes on submissions and winners are featured on the leaderboard.

The Marketplace lets Pro members sell their original beats and sample packs to other producers. All marketplace listings are reviewed before going live.