Trust & clearance
How Selekt clears every sample
Most sample sites ask you to take their word for it. Selekt hands you the receipt. Every sample has a documented CC0, public-domain, or CC-BY basis. Depending on its source, we check it against commercial recordings or verify the public-domain source and date. The result is signed into a certificate you can open and verify yourself — no account required. Here's exactly how that works, and what “cleared” does and doesn't mean.
Source → Check → Sign → Verify
1. Document the source and rights basis
Samples come from the Library of Congress / Citizen DJ, Freesound (CC0 and CC-BY contributors), Musopen, and qualifying historical recordings from the Internet Archive. We record the applicable license or public-domain basis and a source you can check; public domain is a legal status, not a license.
2. Use the check appropriate to the source
Open uploads and other archive candidates take the audio-fingerprint path: we check them against an ACRCloud database of 150M+ commercial recordings. When that screen returns a match, we withhold the file rather than publish it as cleared.
Qualifying public-domain collections follow a different path: a documented source and the first-publication date of the particular recordingestablish age-based U.S. eligibility, or a source curator attests the rights status. A song's age alone does not establish that a modern recording of it is public domain. These recordings do not require a fingerprint no-match to establish their age-based rights basis. The certificate records which path was used; a fingerprint match, where one was run, is not itself a legal ruling. See the U.S. Copyright Office's recording-term guidance for how first-publication dates affect older recordings.
See how we clear every sample — and the running count of what we've rejected →
3. Sign it into a tamper-evident record
The source, rights basis, attribution, and clearance-path evidence are written into an audit record, signed with an Ed25519 key, and hash-chained to the record before it. Change any field and the signature and chain break — so the certificate is tamper-evident, not just a PDF that says “trust us.”
Why that matters: an ordinary webpage, database entry, or PDF can be edited after the fact. A valid signature lets a producer, label, distributor, sync supervisor, or client verify that the source, rights basis, clearance evidence, and timestamp they are reading are the same facts Selekt originally committed to. It does not turn screening into a legal opinion; it makes the evidence attributable, portable, and resistant to quiet changes. That is a much stronger trust signal than a badge or an unsupported promise.
4. Publish a certificate anyone can verify
Each sample gets a public certificate (/cert/<id>) and a signed audit receipt (/audit/<id>) that open for anyone, with no login. You — or a label, publisher, sync supervisor, distributor, or client — can re-check the cryptographic signatures against our published public key in the browser or offline. Trust, but verify.
What's on a certificate
- Source archive — where the sample came from, with a link back to it.
- Rights basis — CC0, public domain, or CC-BY, plus any attribution required.
- Clearance path — a fingerprint-screening result or a source/public-domain attestation, as applicable.
- Certificate ID — a stable identifier for the record.
- Signed audit chain — Ed25519 signatures, hash-chained, with the public key to verify them.
- Formats — downloadable as a PDF, and available as signed JSON.
That's a representative example. Watch a real certificate verify itself → or verify one yourself.
Verify it yourself
You don't have to take our word for any of this. Paste a scan or certificate ID into the public verifier, or open any sample's certificate and re-run the cryptographic check. It works without a Selekt account because the proof lives in the signature, not in our database.
What “cleared” means — honestly
We describe what we did, never what we promise. “Cleared” means a sample has a documented rights basis and source-appropriate check, and that the record is signed and published. Fingerprint screening is not infallible, and a public-domain determination depends on the facts of the particular recording. A certificate is evidence of the work we did — not a legal clearance opinion or a guarantee. You remain responsible for confirming rights before commercial release. That honesty is the point: real receipts beat empty promises.
Where this proof fits
Clearance evidence is one layer of the larger Selekt Audio workspace. Read what Selekt Audio is, explore the connected audio tools, or see what the catalog, processing credits, and workspace access include on the membership page.
Frequently asked questions
What does "cleared" mean on Selekt?
It means we did the work and kept the receipts: the sample comes from a documented CC0, public-domain, or CC-BY source; its clearance path is recorded, whether that is a commercial-recording fingerprint screen or a source and publication-date attestation for a qualifying public-domain recording; and the record is cryptographically signed and published as a certificate you can verify. "Cleared" describes documented evidence, not a legal clearance opinion. Confirm rights before commercial release.
Can I verify a sample myself, without a Selekt account?
Yes. Every sample has a public certificate page (/cert/<id>) and a signed audit receipt (/audit/<id>) that load for anyone — no login. The records are signed with Ed25519 and hash-chained; you can re-check the signatures against our published public key right in your browser, or offline with a few lines of code. You don't have to trust us — you can verify the cryptography.
What is actually on a Selekt certificate?
The source archive and a link back to it, the rights basis (CC0 / public domain / CC-BY) and any attribution required, the clearance path and its evidence (a fingerprint-screening result or a public-domain attestation), a certificate ID, and the signed audit chain that ties those facts together. It downloads as a PDF; the signed audit receipt and public key are also available.
Where do the samples come from?
Named sources include the Library of Congress / Citizen DJ, Freesound (CC0 and CC-BY contributors), Musopen, and qualifying historical recordings from the Internet Archive. We document the applicable rights basis at the source: license terms for CC0 and CC-BY, or source authority and recording-publication eligibility for public domain.
Are public-domain recordings fingerprint-screened?
Not necessarily. Qualifying historical recordings can be cleared through a documented source and first-publication date, or through source-curator attestation. Age alone is not enough if it belongs to a different recording of the same song or the source cannot establish the date. Other archive and open-upload material takes the fingerprint-screening path; the certificate and audit receipt show which check was used.
See a real certificate
Browse the catalog, open any sample, and pull its certificate — source, rights basis, clearance path, and a signed chain you can verify. Producers and composers use that URL to show anyone exactly where a sound came from.
