Frequently Asked Questions

Selekt Audio is an easy browser-based audio workspace for producers, composers, video creators, podcasters, and game developers. One membership connects a catalog of more than 100,000 CC0, public-domain, and CC-BY loops, stems, recordings, and sound effects with a growing collection of focused tools for finding, understanding, checking, separating, restoring, mastering, and building with audio. There are 28 connected tools and workflows available today, and the count updates as new capabilities go live. Catalog material comes from named sources and eligible downloads include signed, independently verifiable source and license records. Those records document the checks performed; they are evidence, not a legal guarantee.

No. The cleared catalog is the foundation, but Selekt is also a connected workspace for audio you bring yourself. You can start with one direct job—find a sound, inspect a recording, separate stems, restore audio, transcribe a performance, master a mix, or run a copyright screen—then move the result into another focused workflow without installing a plugin chain.

Selekt is built for commercial use, and unlike most sample sites it gives you documentation to back it up. Every sample comes from a named public-domain or Creative Commons source (CC0 or CC-BY), is screened against 150M+ commercial recordings by audio fingerprinting, and ships with a cryptographically signed license certificate you can verify yourself with no account — showing the source, the exact license, the screening result, and a tamper-evident audit chain. That is stronger evidence than a plain "royalty-free" label, which only asserts a status. It is screening evidence, not a blanket legal guarantee — no source can honestly promise zero risk — so for high-stakes releases you keep the certificate and confirm rights, but for beats, instrumentals, sync drafts, and indie releases it is designed to keep you out of sample-clearance trouble. See exactly how it works at selektaudio.com/trust.

They're built for it. Every sample comes from public-domain recordings or Creative Commons sources (CC0 and CC-BY) and is screened against 150M+ commercial recordings by audio fingerprinting before it enters the library — so you can use them in beats, songs, films, games, and any other project. Some CC-BY samples ask that you credit the original artist; your download certificate spells out exactly what's needed. Screening is strong evidence, not a blanket legal guarantee, so you're always free to verify before release.

"Cleared" describes Selekt's documented sourcing and screening process, not a blanket legal promise. Catalog candidates come from named public-domain or Creative Commons sources (CC0 and CC-BY) and are screened by ACRCloud audio fingerprinting against a database of more than 150 million commercial recordings. If the screen returns a match at any confidence level, Selekt withholds the file. Eligible downloads include a certificate documenting the source, license, screening result, and any attribution required. That is useful evidence for a distributor, collaborator, or sync library—not a legal guarantee. For CC-BY material, credit the original contributor as shown on the certificate.

Check your download certificate — it tells you exactly what's required for each sample. Samples under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license require you to credit the original artist. Your certificate includes the artist name, source, and license type so you know exactly who to credit and how. Public domain and CC0 samples have no credit requirement, but your certificate will confirm this.

Yes. You can sell beats, songs, or any derivative work you make with Selekt Audio samples — there are no added restrictions from Selekt on reselling or distributing your finished work. Just keep any artist credit your certificate lists for CC-BY samples.

Every candidate goes through a verification pipeline before it enters the library. We ingest from named upstream archives and contributors (Library of Congress, Citizen DJ, Freesound CC0/CC-BY, Musopen, and eligible Internet Archive recordings) and verify the license terms at the source. We also fingerprint-screen the audio against ACRCloud's database of more than 150 million commercially released recordings. If the screen returns a match at any confidence level, we withhold the file rather than asking the user to investigate the uncertainty. A match does not necessarily mean the source or license was wrong; the conservative rejection policy is an additional risk-reduction step. Eligible downloads include a certificate recording the source, license, screening result, and any attribution required. Selekt provides documented screening evidence, not a legal clearance opinion or a promise that an automated platform will never raise a claim.

Yes — and it's a core part of what Selekt offers. Every sample's clearance record is published as a cryptographically signed certificate anyone can verify with no Selekt account. Open a sample's certificate at selektaudio.com/cert/<id> or its signed audit receipt at selektaudio.com/audit/<id> and re-check the signature right in your browser; paste a certificate or scan ID into the public verifier at selektaudio.com/verify; or watch a real record verify automatically at selektaudio.com/proof. Because the proof is cryptographic, you don't have to trust us — your own device confirms the record is authentic and unaltered. (It confirms the record's integrity and what was screened — strong evidence, not a legal clearance opinion.)

Yes. Each clearance record is signed with an Ed25519 digital signature and hash-chained with SHA-256 to the record before it, so the history is append-only and tamper-evident — you can verify every signature against our published public key (selektaudio.com/audit-public-key.pem) in your browser or offline. It is content provenance in the same spirit as C2PA / Content Credentials, applied to sample clearance: Selekt publishes an external, independently verifiable audit chain rather than implementing the C2PA standard itself. Full explanation and a C2PA comparison at selektaudio.com/provenance.

Yes. Public domain samples are non-exclusive, meaning any number of producers can use the same source material. Your unique arrangement, processing, and creativity is what makes your beat original.

No. Selekt doesn't create, sell, or knowingly host AI-generated audio. Every sample in the catalog is a real, existing recording — sourced from named public-domain and Creative Commons contributors (Library of Congress, Internet Archive, Citizen DJ, Musopen, Freesound) or CC-BY artists, never synthesized by a model. Whether you're browsing the catalog, spinning through Discovery Mode, or pulling a stem into a tool, what you get is a recording someone actually made.

Every source goes through a vetting pipeline before anything is accepted: an authority check, a provenance review, and checks for signs that the recording was synthetically generated. The goal is for catalog audio to trace back to a real recording and a named source rather than a model output. Audio is also fingerprint-screened against ACRCloud's database of more than 150 million commercial recordings before publication. These controls reduce uncertainty, but they are evidence-based checks rather than an impossible promise that automated detection can never be wrong.

Yes—to analyze or process real recordings, not to compose replacement music or fill the catalog with generated songs. Selekt simplifies jobs a producer could otherwise perform with plugins and manual editing: detecting key and BPM, ranking search results, separating stems, reducing noise, applying practical mastering moves, tuning a vocal, or adding effects such as reverb. The tool returns an easier-to-use result derived from the recording you selected or uploaded; it does not invent a new underlying performance or write a song for you.

Rules around synthetic music, disclosure, monetization, distribution, and training provenance are still changing across platforms and services. Selekt avoids adding generated music to the catalog so creators can start from traceable recordings with a named source instead of wondering whether a model fabricated the underlying audio. That removes one category of uncertainty, but it cannot guarantee that a platform will never flag a project: Content ID matches, source disputes, licensing mistakes, or material a user adds can still trigger an automated review. Keep the applicable certificate, follow any CC-BY attribution, and investigate any claim on its own facts.

Use the Explore page to browse and filter the full library. You can filter by genre, BPM, key, mood, instruments, era, and more. Use the search bar for quick keyword searches, or combine multiple filters to narrow down exactly the sound you're looking for.

Each sample page gives you everything you need in one place. At the top you'll see the track info, BPM, key, genre, and era. Below that is the waveform player where you can play the full track. You'll also find separated stems (vocals, drums, bass, other), detected sections (intro, verse, chorus, break), instrument and mood tags, license details, and a download button.

Stems are the individual layers of a track — vocals, drums, bass, and other instruments — separated out so you can use just the parts you want. Selekt shows the stems available for each catalog recording, and the Stem Separator can process your own mixed track when you need new isolated parts.

Custom Mix lets you blend stems together right on the site. Solo the drums and bass, mute the vocals, adjust levels — preview your own mix before downloading. It's a quick way to audition combinations, but for serious production, pull the individual stems into your DAW.

The Clip tool lets you select a specific region of a sample's waveform and download just that portion as a WAV file. Click "Clip Region," drag across the waveform to set your start and end points, preview it, then download. You can also save clips to your crates for later.

Selekt Studio is a free desktop app that organizes your downloaded samples automatically. It sorts files by genre, BPM, and key — and lets you drag samples straight into your DAW from the app. No more digging through folders.

Every time you download a sample, you can generate a certificate — a PDF that proves the sample is cleared for use. It includes the license type, source, artist, and any credit requirements. Keep it with your project files so you always have proof of clearance.

Samples and stems are available as high-quality WAV files.

7 days free through Gumroad. Payment method required; then $5/month or $50/year unless you cancel before the trial ends. Includes 3 tool credits and 3 total catalog/quote downloads during the trial. Paid allowances begin only after successful payment. Sign in to Selekt with a confirmed email and use the same email at Gumroad. The allowance is activated after verification, not just by opening checkout. Existing no-card trials keep their original deadline and allowance.

No. The trial includes 3 tool credits and 3 total catalog or quote-download units for the whole trial, not each day. Only a verified successful payment activates the paid allowance: 15 credits on monthly billing or 180 credits up front on yearly billing, plus 50 distinct catalog downloads per UTC calendar month. The first paid grant replaces unused trial credits; purchased credit packs are separate and are not removed.

Open your Gumroad receipt and choose Manage membership, or open your membership in your Gumroad Library. Cancel before the trial deadline to avoid the first charge. Check your Selekt profile for activation and your allowance. If something is missing, contact Selekt with your receipt rather than subscribing again. Closing checkout or deleting a Selekt account does not cancel Gumroad billing.

Yes. You can browse and listen to the cleared catalog and use Selekt's instant browser utilities for free. Catalog downloads and tools that run fresh processing on your uploaded audio require a trial, Early Access, or available credits. The pricing page always shows the current limits before you commit.

Early Access costs $5 per month or $50 per year at the current founder rate. It includes 50 cleared-catalog downloads each month, 15 studio credits per month on monthly billing, all instant browser utilities, My Library, and the certificates or reports produced by eligible workflows. Annual billing grants the year's studio-credit allowance up front.

Credits power the tools that run fresh processing on your own audio — splitting an upload into stems, cleaning it up, or running a copyright check on a file you bring. Everything that uses our catalog stays free: browsing, listening, downloading, and shaping catalog material in tools like Drum Kit and Stem Lab never costs a credit. You can see the full free-vs-credit breakdown at selektaudio.com/credits.

1 credit = $1. A tool that costs 50¢ to run uses half a credit, and we always show you the exact amount plus your remaining balance — for example, "0.5 credits ($0.50)." You can buy credit packs (larger packs include bonus credits), and the Early Access plan includes a monthly credit allowance.

Everything in our catalog arrives ready to use — we've already separated each track into its parts and prepared it for every tool. A file you upload is just raw audio, so before a tool can work with it we have to prepare it: break it into the pieces and formats that the tools need, so it works and can be mixed and matched with the catalog. That preparation runs fresh for every file you bring, and it's what credits pay for. The catalog is already done, so using it is always free.

No. Browsing, listening, and downloading from the catalog never cost credits. Credits are only for the tools that process your own uploads.

Challenges are community beat-making competitions. A source sample is provided, and producers submit their "flip" — a beat or track made using that sample. The community votes on submissions and winners are featured on the leaderboard.

The Marketplace lets Pro members sell their original beats and sample packs to other producers. All marketplace listings are reviewed before going live.