When it comes to using stock library music, how do you know what you’re getting is “cool”? How can you be sure it’s great, and not just the same old, boring stuff everyone else has?
Crate-Diving to Find “Sampling” Music for Background Tracks
For years, urban, rap and hip-hop artists have been hunting through crates of LPs in dusty record stores for terrific jazz, funk and soul tracks to use in the background of their own music. That background use of one piece of music in the body of another song is called sampling.
But, for as many years as urban artists have been sampling, they’ve also been finding music from KPM, Bruton, Kosinus and other music libraries you can find within tools like AMP Music.
If top-selling, cutting-edge artists keep finding something wonderful in stock library music … think of the fun you’ll have hunting through the website. Best of all, you can do it without the dust, or having to worry about legally clearing the music.
16 Hip-Hop Songs That Feature Stock Library Music
Here is a list of just some of the song titles, artists and the library music that has been sampled in:
Unfamiliar by Common – used “Half Forgotten Daydreams” by John Cameron (KPM)
Distant Fantasies by Kid Cudi – used “Electric Fields” by Gerhard Trede (GT library)
Summer Sixteen by Drake – used “Glass Tubes” by Brian Laurence Bennett (KPM)
These Scars by Meek Mill – used “Strangelands” by Alan Hawkshaw (KPMK)
I’m A Fool by Tigo B – used “Grand Prix” by Johnny Pearson (KPMK)
Brass Knuckles by LL Cool J – used “Big Shot” by Keith Mansfield (KPMK)
Trippin by Sir Sly –used “Industrial Montage” by Platzek (archived album KPM)
Altar by Sir Sly — used “Silks and Satins” by Peter Yorke (KPMK)
Million Miles Away by Washed Out – used “Eternity” by- Alan Hawkshaw (Bruton)
Easy Does It by Washed Out – used “Eternity” by Alan Hawkshaw (Bruton)
500 Benz by Joey Badass – used “Lazy Sunday” by- Jean Michael Herve (Bruton)
Superpredator by Joey Badass – used “Voice on the Wind” by Jean Michael Herve (Bruton)
La La La (The Floating Song) by Machine Gun Kelly – used “Forward Moving) by Christopher William Marshall (Bruton)
D.O.A (Death of Autotune) by Jay-Z – used “In the Space” from (KOS – Montparnasse)
Out of Sight Out of Mind by Jay Rock—used “Sailing Dreams” by Gerhard Narholz
Catch Me If You Can by Outtasight used “Shaking Pop” by Janko Nilovic, Louis Auguste & Jean Delacour (KOA)
What can you do for your projects with this kind of power at your fingertips? Click here to learn more about APM Music’s licensing options.
Keep Learning:
- Music Infringement and the Notion of Thin Copyright
- Using Music at Work: 5 Sourcing & Licensing Considerations
- Music Licensing: What’s Considered Fair Use?