What is the state of sampling in 2019? A new report explains what’s going on.
TrackLib is a service that allows creators of music to discover and license original recordings for use as samples in new compositions. They’ve just released their first-ever State of Sampling report.
Here are a few top-line stats:
- One in five songs on Billboard’s Top 100 contained some kind of sample.
- Kanye West released 42 songs in 2018. They featured samples from 53 different songs.
- It’s not just pop and rap performers who use samples. About 8% of last year’s biggest rock songs featured samples. Examples include Panic! at the Disco using James Brown and Death Cab for Cutie sampling Yoko Ono.
- Two-thirds of all albums released in 2018 contain samples.
- What gets sampled? The most popular samples come from songs that were big in the composer’s childhood (i.e. ages 5-10).
- ZERO songs from the 70s were sampled for last years’s Hot 100.
- 70& of samples are taken from vinyl or CDs.
- One of the strangest samples from last year: a BMW i8 seatbelt warning chime for XXXTentacion’s “SAD!” That song has been streamed 1.5 billion times.
For more on the report, go here.