# Guides: free samples, licences and production

> Short, answer-first guides for music producers and AI assistants: whether a sample may be released, how to credit it, what common licences mean, and how to find and use samples by tempo, key and type.

## Licensing

- [Can I use Freesound samples in a commercial release?](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/freesound-samples-commercial-use.md): Yes, if the sound's licence allows it.
- [CC0 vs CC BY vs royalty-free samples: what's the difference?](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/cc0-vs-cc-by-vs-royalty-free.md): All three let you use a sample in music you sell.
- [How to credit CC BY samples in a song](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/credit-cc-by-samples.md): Name the sound, its author, where it came from and its licence with a link, and say that you modified it, for example: “Deep Kick 01” by Jane Doe (Freesound, https://freesound.org/s/123456/), CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), pitched and processed.
- [What is the CC Sampling+ licence?](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/cc-sampling-plus.md): Creative Commons Sampling+ 1.0 is a retired licence written for sampling.
- [Is BBC Sound Effects free to use in music?](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/bbc-sound-effects-for-music.md): Only for non-commercial work.
- [What counts as commercial use of a sample?](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/what-counts-as-commercial-use.md): Any use mainly aimed at earning money or commercial advantage.
- [Sample clearance and Content ID: a producer's guide](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/sample-clearance-and-content-id.md): A sample taken from someone else's record needs permission from two owners before release: the owner of the recording (the master, usually a label) and the owner of the composition (the publisher).

## Production

- [What is an 808? The drum machine and the bass](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/what-is-an-808.md): “808” means two related things.
- [One-shots vs loops: which samples should you use?](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/one-shots-vs-loops.md): A one-shot is a single sound, such as one kick, one chord or one shout, that you trigger and arrange yourself.
- [How to find samples by BPM and key](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/find-samples-by-bpm-and-key.md): Filter by tempo and key, then verify.
- [How to build a drum kit from free samples](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/build-a-drum-kit-from-free-samples.md): Choose one sound per slot (kick, snare, clap, closed hat, open hat and, for trap or hip hop, an 808) that suit your style, tempo and key, check that every one is cleared for a release, then map them to pads: General MIDI drum notes for a DAW, an SFZ file for samplers, or a Strudel sample map to play it in the browser.
- [WAV, AIFF, FLAC or MP3: which sample format should you use?](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/sample-formats-wav-mp3-flac.md): Produce with lossless files: WAV or AIFF (uncompressed) or FLAC (compressed without loss).

## AI agents

- [How AI music agents can find and license samples with MCP](https://sound.shep.bot/guides/ai-agents-find-and-license-samples.md): Give the agent Sound Server's MCP server (https://sound.shep.bot/mcp, no key needed).

Glossary of sample and licence terms: https://sound.shep.bot/glossary.md

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Source: https://sound.shep.bot/guides