Free music samples are essential if you are into lo-fi and chill beat making. Generally we visualise old vinyls being recorded and chopped up for your next dope song. But it is not that simple.
Mind royalty and copyright
To begin with, if you wish to live off and share your beats on Spotify, Apple Music and other stream platforms, most likely you will not sample vinyls. The reason is quite simple – that vinyl is an artistic product of a fellow musician. Simply using it as a sample without the artists’ consent is stealing. Some on the other hand is doing so, after all if you chop it well, YouTube ID might not notice it. Oh well.. Let me share you different (and more legal) aspects in this article so you can make sure, that your lo-fi beat is 100% legal.
Free music samples #1 – Music Radar
Music Radar is a great place offering up to date news with regards to music, instruments and much more. As a side project they are featuring free samples in tens of genres since ages. Personally I wish to put them as number one source as they are perfect for starters. You can find easy to use samples either you are to produce your first beat with DAW, smartphone app or physical sampler.
Click here to get 75k+ free samples
Pro:
– easy to overview/search
– clear description on legal part for every sample
– huge database
Con:
– Might find the barrel after a while in terms of quality (depending on your genre)
– No way to set up an e-mail alert on new samples, have to check the page regularly
Free music samples #2 – Bedroom Producers Blog
Clearly the most well-known blog for home music producers. Though I have to say, recently more and more beat makers to go out for more inspiration. Regardless, I believe this blog is kind of a must follow page. They have tons of interesting articles (maybe too much, depending on how much time you have). But perfect if you are into DAWs and sample collecting. You can read about great VSTs, check the free/lite versions. And occasionally find some free music samples. Again it is also genre-less. But well, let us be honest: lo-fi is a small genre and we can implement other genres (hip-hop, jazz, lounge) into our beats easily. So worth following!
Pro:
– Many articles, regular updates
– Free samples almost every week
– With RSS you can track new posts easier (plus mail subscription is also available)
Con:
– Linking to other pages – have to be careful with copyright / check details
– Many articles – maybe too much time to time
Free music samples #3 – Upstream Squad
Update 2023 – this site is not working anymore 🙁
I found them recently. Upstream Squad is a great growing page offering large variety of VSTs and free music samples. What made them different from Bedroom Producers Blog that they had a great weekly update newsletter introduced maybe even earlier. What does it mean? I am usually not checking my mails during the weekend. Being someone working with digital marketing round the clock – weekends are more like internet detoxing. Therefore I start my weeks with Upstream Squads weekly top 3 samples and instruments. These newsletters are my perfect boosts for Monday. I guess a subscription to their mails will only offer you more samples.
Pro:
– Regular/weekly updates
– Great newsletter
– You can track your downloaded materials if you create a free account
Con:
– Linking to other pages – have to be careful with copyright / check details
– A bit limited in terms of samples compare to the previous 2 sources
These are my best places to get free music samples. I hope you enjoyed my article. Please note that this article is not paid. I am not receiving anything from the pages above (besides the free samples ha-ha). My point is that my purpose was to support upcoming lo-fi and chill-out beat makers to produce better songs. Any comments are welcome.
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