Licensing Guide
Selekt Audio carries Public Domain, CC0, and CC-BY samples. This guide explains those licenses — plus other common licenses you may encounter elsewhere — so you know exactly what you can and can't do.
Open permissions, not just “royalty-free”
Royalty-free usually means you do not owe ongoing royalties. The audio can still be copyrighted and controlled by a library-specific contract with limits on redistribution, Content ID, accounts, platforms, or certain types of projects.
Selekt Audio focuses on Public Domain, CC0, and CC-BY. Public Domain and CC0 provide the broadest reuse rights; CC-BY also permits commercial use and remixing under a standardized license when you provide the required credit.
We verify the stated source and license, then fingerprint-screen the audio against more than 150 million commercial recordings with ACRCloud. Matches are rejected, and your download certificate records the source, license, and screening result for future reference.
Screening documents our checks and reduces avoidable risk; it is not a legal guarantee that no third-party rights exist.The Quick Version
Safe for selling beats, streaming, ads, sync — make money however you want.
On Selekt AudioPublic Domain, CC0, CC-BYCommercially usable, but with a catch — read the details before committing.
CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NDCannot be used in anything commercial. Personal projects and demos only.
CC-BY-NC, CC-BY-NC-SA, CC-BY-NC-NDEvery License Explained
The cards marked On Selekt Audio are the licenses in our catalog. The others are included for comparison and education. Click any license for a plain-English breakdown.
Selekt Audio vs. Other Options
| Feature | Selekt Audio (PD / CC0 / CC-BY) | Royalty-Free Libraries | Traditional Sampling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial use | ✓ Unlimited | ✓ With license | ✗ Requires clearance |
| Credit required | Varies — CC-BY requires attribution | Varies | ✓ Usually required |
| Royalty payments | ✗ None | ✗ None (one-time fee) | ✓ Ongoing royalties |
| Clearance needed | ✗ Already openly licensed | ✗ Pre-licensed | ✓ Must clear rights |
| Cost | Free / Pro tier | Per-sample or subscription | $500 — $500,000+ |
The Two Letters That Matter
If you see “NC” in a license name, you cannot make money from it. No selling beats, no monetized streams, no paid placements. If money is involved in any way, this sample is off-limits.
If you see “ND” in a license name, you cannot change the sample. No chopping, no pitch-shifting, no time-stretching. You can only use it exactly as-is. For most producers, this makes the sample unusable.
Our Verification Process
Every sample added to Selekt Audio goes through a multi-step verification process before it enters the library:
- 1Source verification — we confirm the recording's publication date, origin, and license from the original source (Library of Congress, Internet Archive, Freesound, Musopen, or other verified public domain archives).
- 2Audio fingerprint scan — every track is scanned against a database of over 150 million commercial songs using ACRCloud audio fingerprinting technology. If a match is found, the track is rejected before it ever enters our library.
- 3Rights check — we verify no active copyright claims exist and confirm the license allows commercial use. Samples with non-commercial restrictions (NC) are excluded.
- 4AI analysis — the sample is processed through our pipeline for BPM, key, genre, mood, instrument detection, section analysis, and stem separation.
- 5Quality review — we ensure audio quality meets our standards before the sample goes live.
Your download certificate documents the results of this process for every sample you use — including the source, license, and fingerprint scan status.
Licensing questions
Can I use these samples commercially?
Yes — the catalog is built for it. Every sample is sourced from public domain, CC0, or CC-BY material and screened against 150M+ commercial recordings by audio fingerprinting before it enters the library, so you can use it in beats, songs, films, games, ads, and any other project. There are no royalties and no clearance fees on the samples themselves. (Selekt provides screening evidence, not a legal clearance opinion, so you're always free to verify before release.)
Do I need to credit anyone?
It depends on the license, and your download certificate spells it out for each sample. Public domain and CC0 samples need no credit at all. CC-BY samples ask that you credit the original artist — your certificate lists the artist name, source, and license type so you know exactly who to credit and how. Selekt never requires credit to itself.
What does the license certificate prove?
Every download comes with a license certificate (PDF) documenting the sample's source, license type, any attribution required, and the result of its fingerprint screening. Each certificate has its own public page and a cryptographic audit trail — signed with an Ed25519 signature and hash-chained with SHA-256 — that anyone can verify in their browser with no Selekt account. It's strong, independently checkable evidence you can hand to a label, distributor, or sync supervisor as proof of how the sample was cleared.
Are NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) samples in the catalog?
NonCommercial (NC) samples are excluded — if money is involved in any way, those are off-limits, so we keep them out of the library entirely. Public domain, CC0, and CC-BY samples are all safe to sell beats with and to chop, pitch-shift, and remix freely. The licensing guide above breaks down exactly what each license lets you do.
Still have questions?
Check out our FAQ page →
Licensing is one part of the workspace
Selekt Audio combines this documented CC0, public-domain, and CC-BY catalog with connected tools for finding, checking, transforming, and building with audio. Read what Selekt Audio is, browse every connected tool, or see what comes together under one membership.
