General FAQs

Our platform is a marketplace which allows creators and artists to sell their assets and services. Our primary way of doing this is through our royalty free sample library subscription. This is where users can get samples and packs directly from individual artists rather than large studios or sample pack providers. Users can reach out to artists directly through our sample library as well as visiting the artists profile. Here you can browse the artists library of music & services to purchase, license or hire directly from the artist. We aim at creating a diverse marketplace full of fresh and quality content.

Yes you can! You can hire artists directly through their listed services, message them for something customised, or if you have found one of their tracks, packs or samples that is along the right line then you can make a custom request for something tailored to meet your specific needs. Another way to hire through our site is through the jobs page. Much like how artists can list their services, here you can list a job with a specific budget and artists with the relevant skillset can place bids for the job and then you can choose to accept or reject these offers and start your collaborative journey with your chosen artist.

Tracks are any tracks which you purchase or license directly from the artist. These will never appear in the royalty free sample library. So if you want to browse for artists tracks, you can do this either from the artists profile pages, or from our “Instrumentals and Acapellas” listing page. In general, a track will be a full length Instrumental, Acapella or musical part. however this may not always the case. These tracks are either purchased or licensed depending on the exclusivity of the track. All tracks are royalty free.

The sample library is curated entirely by our ever growing network of artists, vocalists, producers and session musicians. Our artists upload their collections of royalty free samples as sample packs, we do some quality assurance on these and then make them available to you in the sample library. Our artists get paid each time you download one of their samples, and we give you a gentle push in their direction to check out the rest of their work such as their direct tracks and services. If you like the sound of a particular artist, pack or sample, we also make it very easy for you to reach out to them if you have a request for something custom.

Whilst all users have free access to a limited selection of promotional samples within the sample library. The sample library is not free, you must subscribe to one of our sample library subscription packages to access the full library and all of its features. You can see our pricing page for more information.

Packs are sets of samples uploaded by our artists to the sample library. You can download individual samples or the full packs from within the sample library. You can also find an artists packs from their profile page. All packs and samples are royalty-free, meaning that you can use them within your productions without having any issues with copyright, royalty payments or any extra fees aside from your monthly sample library subscription. The only thing you cannot do is re-sell the samples or publish them as they are, they are licensed to you to be used within your own projects.

Services allow artists to list their hireable skillsets. This could be anything, ranging from vocal recording or songwriting right through to production, mixing or mastering services. You can find services on an artists profile page, and you can also browse them by category as well on our services page.

If the work you require is not covered by a listed service, a vendor can create a custom service with its own specific terms to meet you requirements.

Jobs allow you as a user (or even an artist) to post any job, task, or competition you may have. You can provide information such as previews of the project, audio files, required vendor specifications, a timeframe, and budget. Once you have added the job, we will alert any of our artists that fit the specification about your job listing. Shortly after, you should start to receive applications for your job. When you find the right candidate, or the job listing finishes, you can accept or reject any candidates and let the work begin.

Contact requests allow you to reach out to artists with messages such as requesting custom samples or custom vocal recordings. Once you send a contact request to an artist and they accept, they will permanently be within your network and you can contact them through the messaging system on our site whenever you need to speak to them regarding things such as custom recordings or to ensure services are delivered exactly to your specification. We limit contact requests depending on what sample library subscription package you have for a number of reasons. Firstly, it stops our artists from getting bombarded with messages. Some of our artists are extremely popular, and their time is valuable to them, so we only want to send them messages and notifications if we have a user with a serious request. Secondly, it allows our artists the option to reject incoming requests if they are taking a break from the platform for a short period. If they are inactive for too long we will remove them from showing up on any of our listing pages, we do this to try and make sure that any artist that you can find on our site should be easily available for any custom requests or messages. Finally, it stops users messaging multiple artists with no intention of making a purchase. We want to keep our platform as streamlined and efficient as possible, and no one likes getting lots of spammy or pointless messages, especially our artists when they could be using their time wisely making awesome music!

The main difference between tracks, packs and samples is that packs and samples live within the sample library, and are managed entirely by us. You get access to them by subscribing to our sample library through one of our monthly subscription packages. We have 3 packages which can be seen on our sample library pricing page, and each of them gives more monthly contact requests and credits to meet any users needs. When artists upload packs and samples, they are managed by us (Audiolancer.io) and we pay our artists their fair share of the commission generated through the download of their samples on a weekly basis. Whilst tracks are also always royalty free, they are not part of the sample library. tracks usually come in the form of full length instrumentals, musical parts or acapellas. The artist can upload their tracks and sell or license them at whatever price they choose. The artist also has the option to sell the track exclusively or non-exclusively. To sell a track exclusively means that you are buying the track and all rights associated with it from the artist, they no longer own the track and you would then have full ownership of it. This means you can then do whatever you want with the track. The track only gets sold one time, then it is immediately removed from the platform. These tracks tend to have a much higher one time fee because they are exclusively sold and cannot be re-sold by the artist whatsoever. To sell a track non-exclusively means that the artist can sell the track multiple times over. For example, a vocalist may have written a great house hook line. They can license this out non-exclusively for a one time fee. Multiple producers can then go and use the vocal they have licensed in their tracks, and each producer can release those tracks without infringing on anyone else’s copyright because they must use the vocal in their own production, they cannot release the vocal as it was sold.

To keep it very simple, all assets on our site are royalty free. Any pack or sample from the sample library is royalty free, and likewise any track bought or licensed directly from a vendor is royalty free. The only parts of the platform where royalties may be involved are when engaging in custom services or jobs where it is mutually agreed that royalties are being offered. This will always be made clear between both you and the vendor within the job or custom service.

A exclusive agreement can be seen as an assignment of ownership. The artist selling the asset is selling it to you entirely, meaning you become the rights holder (and copyright holder) to the asset (commonly referred to as the “musical works”). This gives you free-reign to do as you please with the asset as it is now owned entirely by you. The artist now has no claim to the work they created, they can not claim any rights or royalties to it, re-sell it or distribute it in any way shape or form. A non-exclusive agreement, is when the artist still maintains the rights to the work. When you purchase this from them, you are not buying ownership of the work, instead you are purchasing a license to use the work. The artist is licensing you certain rights to use their work under a set of given terms that they can state in a contract. Typically a non-exclusive agreement may specify things such as; you are not allowed to re-distribute the work in isolation, you can only use it within your own, or your clients productions & projects, you may also need to credit the artist if they specifically state it. Its important to understand that exclusive tracks, whether they are instrumentals, acapellas or musical parts, can be sold multiple times over to many users. Each user enters a licensing agreement with the artist and each user has equal rights to use the work in their productions without infringing on each others copyright. This is why there’s clauses within these non-exclusive agreements to modify or change the parts prior to releasing them, otherwise it’s not a new entity of work owned by you, its just you re-releasing the artists work which they own the rights to.

Commercial use would be any usage of an artists work that you can benefit from. Commercial use relates to any use of a product or service for financial gain. In the case of music, this may not always be the release of music to generate a profit. Commercial use may also be sharing or publicly releasing the music on any platform (such as SoundCloud) that may result in some form of gain (such as publicity). The reason for this is you will be sharing another artists work into the public domain without their permission nor without any renumeration (either in one off fees or royalties) to the artist who created the work. The implication of this is an opportunity cost to the artist if users of the platform were to download and copy the work as it is now out of their control due to their work being released into the public domain.

We recommend that you try to resolve an issue with an artist directly. If this is unsuccessful you can escalate a complaint to us for mediation. If an issue is payment related you may also request a refund through Stripe payments.

You can contact us for support through our help and support page. Please read any relevant support documents and FAQ prior to contacting us, as in most cases issues can be resolved faster through taking the appropriate course of action through other organisations such as Stripe. If you are still unable to resolve an issue, please use the contact form on the support page to raise a ticket with us. We aim to reply to all issues within 24 hours but may take up to a maximum of 5 working days in busy periods.

Yes we offer a free trial. You can sign up for the free 7-day trial for the sample library here. Once the 7 day trial ends you will be moved onto your chosen subscription package and your monthly rolling subscription will start. Your subscription can be cancelled at any time during the trial with no charge. If you cancel after the paid subscription start date, we will stop taking payment immediately, but your subscription will remain active till the end of the billing period. This saves your credits, connects you with the artists you love and most importantly supports the artist by helping them grow their following.

Yes your data is safe. All payment information is encrypted, managed and stored directly on Stripes secure servers. Only the personal bio information you choose to fill in is shown and searchable by the users of our site and will never share it with any third parties. Whilst you don’t have to fill this information in, we recommend that you do so that you can fully benefit from the advanced search and filtering features of our platform to maximise your profile exposure.

When making a direct payment to an artist on our platform you will automatically be redirected to Stripes secure online checkout page to complete payment before being redirected back to our orders page where you will be able to download any assets. You should never make off-platform payments (such as PayPal or bank transfer) to artists under any circumstances. Artists requesting payment off-platform are likely trying to scam you and will face an immediate ban from the platform. We cannot help you as a user, protect your payment or try to get you a refund if you pay an artist off of the platform. Please report any artists that are requesting off-platform payments to us immediately. To make payments for the royalty free sample library, you can simply sign up for a sample library subscription or the free trial. You will be redirected to stripe to setup your subscription and recurring payments will be taken automatically. You can sign into our platform at any time to manage your subscription.

Sample library payments will be paid into your stripe account automatically by Audiolancer on a weekly basis. We only make payments over a certain threshold. If you do not meet the threshold for a payment then the money will continue to build up until the threshold is met, then your payment will be made the following week. For purchases such as services, custom services and jobs. once a user pays. We hold the money in payment protection until you have fulfilled the order. once the user has accepted your work as being complete we release the funds to you after taking our fees. If there is an unresolved issue or complaint we will review the order, correspondence and submitted work and make a decision on the release or refund of fees depending on the outcome.

You can request custom vocals in a number of ways: - Directly through the artists profile page - On the artist search page - Through the buttons found on any track, pack or sample - Through a direct message contact request

We collect as much data about our artists as possible to enhance the browsing process. We understand that as a user of the platform, sometimes your needs are extremely specific. So we wanted to give you the scope to search as far and wide or laser focused as you need. Artists are not obligated to fill in all this information, however we recommend they do if they want to benefit from maximum exposure to our users. With silver subscription memberships and above, we allow a slighter finer grain of search and filtering by allowing you to search for things like artist traits or specific tags, words and lyrics within our tracks, packs and samples.

We rank our artists on feedback received through sales, downloads and services. Within the sample library, artists with high quality content that are active in the sample library (E.G. artists that regularly contribute to the library) will be prioritised over artists that contribute less or with less value in terms of the quality of their work. If you are ranking highly in our sample library you can expect to be featured throughout other areas of the platform as well as seeing a stronger flow of users visiting your profile and purchasing your direct tracks and services. Artists that have pro membership will have priority over non-members, however we want to stress that the most important metrics we rank by will always be the quality, recency and relevance of an artists work.

We limit the amount of contact requests a user has dependant on their sample library subscription package. This is to ensure that users send requests more wisely rather than spamming lots of vendors with with no intention to use their services. Likewise it keeps our vendors inboxes less full so when they do receive requests they can reply promptly.

When a subscription to the sample library is cancelled we will stop taking further payments and automatically cancel your subscription at the end of the billing period. after cancellation all contacts and credits stay on your account.

This is done as a safety precaution on the site to keep all correspondence within the platform to protect against fraudulent and off platform payments.

The Camelot Wheel is a tool to help DJs mix tracks in key so that they work together harmonically. Fundamentally, it is the circle of fifths that has been adapted with a numerical value system to make it as easy as possible for those not accustomed to working with key signatures.

Artists have two upload slots when uploading tracks. Raw tracks are used for the raw recording, this could be something like a dry (or wet) acapella, or a guitar riff. The processed upload slot is an opportunity to upload the same file but with more context, for example the same acapella but with processing such as reverb and delay and a basic instrumental loop behind it so its easier for the listener to hear how it sounds in context. Likewise having the guitar riff with a beat behind it helps the listener hear the timing and other elements of the raw audio when in context of a beat.

When you download samples from our royalty-free sample library, you are licensed the music, allowing you to use the included samples in your music without having to pay any additional royalty fees. These sounds are now free for you to use in any personal or commercial project, meaning you are free to use them for music you produce and sign, film projects, tv and anything else you can think of, as long as you aren’t re-selling or re-distributing the samples in isolation.

This totally depends on the license terms associated with a given acapella or instrumental which is specified by the uploading artist. The two typical scenarios are “Exclusive” and “Non-Exclusive”. Exclusive is where you purchase the full set of rights for the work and you have them assigned to you, making you the full legitimate owner of the copyright to the work. Once the track is sold exclusively the artist cannot re-sell it and it is removed from the platform. You can then use this music however you see fit as you are the new owner. The second scenario is “non-exclusive”. This is when the artist keeps hold of their rights to the music and instead they lease certain rights to you as a user via a license. This license will specify certain terms.

You can request custom vocals from any vocalist who is active on the site. Their profile page will display a ‘request custom vocals’ button as well as any of their tracks, packs or samples.

The license for vocals you download from audiolancer can be used for both commercial and non-commercial use so long as you comply with our terms on the terms & conditions page

Feel free to contact our support at any time via the contact form on our support page. We aim to reply to you within 24 hours, but this can sometimes be up to 5 working days in busy periods.

Yes. You can use Vour royalty free samples in any project or composition.

Artists can upload in a multitude of formats but most choose to upload in .wav format. Once the music is uploaded to the platform we automatically convert it to .mp3 previews to make them easier to preview in the browser. When you download files you will get them in the raw format they were uploaded in.

If you buy it exclusively then yes, the rights will be assigned to you. Otherwise no, If you license a track, the uploading artist still owns the rights to the music, they are simply allowing you to use it under the terms of the agreement set out in the license.

If you are signed up to our sample library you can get additional samples for free from some artists without the need to spend any of your credits. This is possible through our ‘Social Like’ system, whereby you can like or follow an artist on their connected accounts such as Spotify or social media in return for downloading the sample for free.

You can become a vendor by visiting the vendor sign-up page in the sidebar when logged in to the site. You will need to sign up for a free Stripe account on the stripe website and link it before you can start taking payments.

You can upload packs and samples to the royalty free sample library from the “packs” menu item in the sidebar when logged in. Once a pack is uploaded we will check it for quality assurance and notify you once it is live on the platform. If a pack does not pass the quality checks we let you know so that you can rectify any issues and re-submit. track uploads are managed from the tracks menu item in the sidebar