Ex-samples of Samples

Music sampling is an essential part of short-form video creation, emphasised by YouTube’s recent addition of ‘Samples’, the music streaming app’s newest video feature. From the feature’s tab, people can share songs directly with friends or add it to a collection of content. Furthermore, analysis shared with BBC Newsbeat shows that about one in four current UK Top 40 songs uses samples.

We truly are living in the era of sampling. Sometimes, we’re even sampling the sample (h/t to Prince).

What are the implications for marketing?

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Picking the right sample for a social media post is arguably more important than the content of the post itself. We all know that TikTok is important for the music artists and labels, but the reverse is equally true. Sometimes, it’s about picking a sample that is trending and that requires speed above everything else. But the elite skill is picking a song that isn’t trending, which relies of having music industry experience in your team.

To The Moon

Mixmag tell us that, “there’s also been new report suggesting major labels including Universal and Warner are in talks with Google to secure licensing and expertise so they can create new deep fake songs from their deceased artists.” With more deals like this, music sampling is only going to grow and it will be driven by the popularity of its usage in social media content.

Don’t Play the Odds

If sampling is vital to short-form video and short-form video is essential to success on most social platforms, you need to understand the legalities of what you can sample and how you can sample it. Read this as a starting point, but consider whether you have the right guidance either within or close to your organisation.