What is sampling in music? - a basic rundown

You will have heard the word sampling thrown around a lot in music, probably especially since you started stanning the tannies. Sampling is a common practise in music, especially for producers in hiphop.

So what is sampling? Sampling is essentially taking an excerpt of another pre-existing song, and using it within another. Whether that's part of a beat or an excerpt of the song. Here's a whole video of showing samples used in music

You have to clear samples with the original copyright owner in order to use them, failure to do this is illegal and there are lots of lawsuits every year over this issue. BTS have sampled in their music!

Wings Am I wrong samples Keb Mo's 'Am I wrong' if you look up the credits for that song, Keb Mo's name is placed first as both songwriter and producer and it clearly states that it is his sample in the song. This is an example of permitted sampling from the copyright holder

The reason why Agust D's self titled song Agust D cannot be found on streaming platforms is because of this crediting rule. Agust D samples both the voice and part of the beat from James Brown's It's a man's world x3, because Yoongi either was denied/couldn't afford/

didn't want to/ clear the samples, he is not allowed to put that song on Spotify or iTunes or anywhere else he can sell it for profit. Had he cleared it with the copyright owners we would have been able to hear it as other songs have.

You can even can hear what parts he samples of the original song here ! https://www.whosampled.com/sample/446955/Agust-D-Agust-D-James-Brown-It%27s-a-Man%27s-Man%27s-Man%27s-World/

Hope this example clearly showcases the practise here
Samples need to be credited or you will be sued, its as simple as that. This is when you sample off pre-existing songs, there is a different type of sampling.

For example! When you hear this 'oh oh oh' voice in Tomorrow, this is a sample of a voice. You cannot find a source for it in the credits, meaning Yoongi likely found it or bought it from a sample pack. This is an example of that type of sampling, because it doesn't

hold a copyright owner it doesn't need to be cleared, no one needs to be paid and no one can sue on any kind of legal basis. But while there are so many online sample packs and sources to use for producers, sometimes people end up using the same thing, or they like

a sample they've heard in another song and find the free source it was taken from. This sometimes causes misunderstandings, as we've seen ourselves.

Again this type of sampling does not need to be credited, here you're not taking an excerpt from an already released song - but simply going to online sample packs or free sources and using those pre-existing samples. There was controversy a few years ago when BTS'

Autumn Leaves and E*o's They never know, Blackbears Dead Roses were accused of plagiarising both each other and the song because they sounded somewhat similar. What had happened here is that all producers had simply used a sample from the same sample pack

it was not plagiarising in either direction, hell Yoongi really only used one chord from that sample pack thats also used in the Blackbear song, but thats a different discussion. The whole instance was nothing

but a coincidence later even clarified by Blackbears producer. There was no need to credit, and no ground for legal action because they were free samples to use. I hope these examples of real life events haven't been confusing, but make sense to you in how its actually

applied in real life. Its this type of sampling that antis that actually dont know anything about music will often point to, please beware this is a perfectly okay practise, its just how music is made nowadays. If there are any questions or accusations

that this thread doesn't answer for you please always feel free to dm. Please don't entertain people who are out to defame the BTS members and trust that their respect and love for music runs deeper than to ever take unfairly.