The free sample map: 36 places for free samples, and what each licence allows

Adam builds a band out of the samples on your own computer, so the first question a new owner asks is where to get good ones without paying, or without getting into trouble later. This is the map: 36 places, each marked by what its licence lets you do in a song you release. Every light was checked on the source’s own licence, terms or download page on 24 September 2026.

The one rule almost everyone shares. You may use the sounds inside your own tracks. Almost nobody lets you pass the sounds on as sounds: no re-uploading them, no selling them in a pack of your own. Several now forbid using them to train AI, a few have rules about Content ID, and some want the sound mixed with other audio rather than released on its own.

Always read the licence of the exact pack you download, at the moment you download it: licences change. This page is a guide, not legal advice.

How to read the lights

Green Free, fine in a released track, no credit, no signup.
Yellow · email Would be green, but you give an email address or make a free account.
Yellow · condition Free and fine in a release, with one real rule you must follow: a credit, a format, a use to avoid.
Red Not for releases, or the rules change from file to file.
Paid A subscription or a purchase, royalty-free once paid.

A Check before release tag means we could not read every word of that licence. Fine for making music tonight; read the small print before you put the song out.

The fastest start: five for tonight

Five that fill a first folder with very different sounds, every one green or behind nothing more than an email:

MusicRadar SampleRadar, for a bit of everything, in every genre.
Goldbaby, for drum machines and synths recorded through analog gear.
Black Octopus free 1 GB, for house, trap and hip-hop, bass and drums included.
VSCO 2 Community Edition, for strings, brass and keys, public domain.
99Sounds, for cinematic and ambient sounds, foley and synths.

Keep it tidy: one folder per source inside one sample folder, and keep the tempo and key in a file’s name when they are there (guitar_loop_122_Cmin.wav). Adam reads both from the name.

Green Free, for releases, no strings

Source	What is there	The rules	Licence
MusicRadar SampleRadar	MusicRadar’s hub of free packs: close to 99,000 WAVs across every genre, from drum machines and synths to hip-hop and rave.	Royalty-free in your own music. Do not share the samples themselves.	On the hub page
VSCO 2 Community Edition	A free chamber orchestra: strings, woodwinds, brass, keys and percussion. About 3 GB of WAVs, plus two small starter sets.	CC0, which is public domain: no rules, no credit, no email. Take the WAV version; the other formats lower on the page are not the maker’s.	Licence
VCSL (Versilian Community Sample Library)	A wider CC0 set from the same maker: keys, percussion, world instruments and oddities, as WAVs.	CC0: no royalties and no credit.	Licence
University of Iowa MIS	Dry, note-by-note recordings of orchestral instruments, piano and guitar. Clean building blocks.	Use them in any project, without restrictions.	Licence
Philharmonia Orchestra samples	Every standard orchestral instrument, plus guitar, mandolin, banjo and plenty of percussion, as short single notes.	Fine in a commercial release. Do not sell or give them away as they are, as samples or as an instrument.	Licence
Goldbaby free packs	Dozens of free drum-machine and synth packs recorded through analog gear. 24-bit WAV.	Any musical production, commercial releases included. No redistribution of any kind, and no AI or machine-learning use.	Licence

Yellow · email Free for releases, after an email or a free account

Source	What is there	The rules	Licence
99Sounds	Free packs of drums, cinematic and ambient sounds, foley, synths and effects.	Personal and commercial use, credit optional. Do not redistribute, and not for white-noise or sleep-sound apps. Downloads are pay-what-you-want on Gumroad ($0 works), which asks for an email.	Licence
Bedroom Producers Blog (its own packs)	BPB’s own releases, such as the Cassette 808, 909 and 606: drum machines run through tape.	Free and commercial audio and video. Do not redistribute or pass the recordings off as yours. Email via Gumroad. The other freebies BPB links to carry their makers’ licences, not BPB’s.	Licence (example pack)
Black Octopus free 1 GB	About 1 GB for EDM, house, tech house, trap, hip-hop and psytrance: bass, drums, live instruments and one-shots.	Sell and stream the songs you make with it. One user, not transferable. The download joins their newsletter, which you can leave.	Licence
Ghosthack Ultimate Freebie Collection	About 1,000 files (1.95 GB): acapellas, vocals, loops, one-shots and MIDI. A limited number of copies each week.	Releases, streaming, YouTube, film and games, no credit. Do not build new sample packs from it. Do not switch on Content ID for tracks built on its unedited melodies or acapellas, and do not name or picture the vocalist.	Licence (FAQ)
Loopmasters free label samplers	Free tasters from many labels, across most electronic genres.	Royalty-free and fine in commercial releases. They ask, without requiring it, that you buy the full pack if you release with one. Downloads go through their store.	Licence
Function Loops	About a dozen free packs: trap drums, FX, synthwave, funk, soul and RnB, psytrance, vocals, and a label sampler.	Royalty-free in commercial productions. No reselling, sharing or uploading the sounds. We did not follow the download link, so the sign-up is not checked.	Licence
Looperman	A huge community library of loops in every genre, plus acapellas. Free account.	Loops: commercial use, no credit. Content ID on your finished track is fine, but never file a takedown over the loop itself. Acapellas are different: by default they are personal, non-commercial use unless the uploader says otherwise, so read each one’s terms.	Loops FAQ · Terms
SampleFocus	A moderated community library of one-shots, loops and vocals, each screened for copyright matches. Free account, with a weekly allowance of downloads.	Music, video, games and more, no credit. Never share a sound on its own or in a pack. No AI training of any kind.	Licence
Pianobook	Hundreds of community-sampled instruments (pianos, textures, oddities), mostly for the free Decent Sampler, with the WAVs inside each download. Free account.	Commercial and non-commercial compositions, no credit. No redistribution in any form, reworked versions included. Pianobook says it cannot guarantee every upload is copyright-free.	Terms · FAQ
Sounds of Revolution / Resonance Sound	About 2.86 GB of loops and one-shots for electronic music.	Royalty-free in commercial music. The link arrives by email once you subscribe to their newsletter.	On the page
Samples From Mars Check before release	Free drum-machine and analog-synth samples, emailed after you join the newsletter.	Commercially released music only: not in apps, websites or software. No redistribution. Their rules are written for purchases; we are assuming the free samples follow them.	FAQ
Cymatics Free Download Vault Check before release	60+ free packs for hip-hop, trap, lo-fi, EDM and dubstep.	Cymatics says its samples are royalty-free, placements and beat sales included. Unlocked with a signup. The free packs’ own licence is only emailed after a form, and we could not read it. Read it when it arrives.	Vault FAQ
Reverb “in the style of” drum packs Check before release	About 40 small drum packs recorded in the style of famous records, 24-bit WAV. (Reverb’s big Drum Machines collection is no longer free.)	Reverb calls them royalty-free for any production. A Reverb account is probably needed. We found no licence page. Look for a licence file inside the zip.	On the page

Yellow · condition Free for releases, with one rule to keep

Source	What is there	The rules	Licence
Decent Samples free libraries	Free Decent Sampler instruments with the WAVs inside.	Any music or video, but the sound must be combined with at least one other sound: the sample on its own is not a track. No redistribution.	Licence
Zapsplat	A big sound-effect library with a Musical category. Free account.	Free accounts must credit ZapSplat, and free downloads are MP3 (Adam reads MP3). No redistribution, no apps built on their sounds, no AI training.	Licence
Salamander Grand Piano	A multisampled Yamaha C5 grand piano, as WAV or FLAC.	CC-BY: credit the author, Alexander Holm. Commercial use is fine.	Licence
NASA audio	Launch roars, mission control, Apollo and Mercury voices, and space sounds. NASA invites you to use them in music.	Generally free of copyright, but name NASA as the source, never suggest NASA endorses you, and take care with a recognisable person’s voice in a commercial track.	Guidelines
Pixabay	A large community library of sound effects and music.	Commercial use, no credit. Do not pass the files on unchanged. Some uploads may contain other people’s samples, and its music tracks can set off Content ID: short sound effects are the safest use.	Licence
Sonniss GDC bundles Check before release	Years of professional sound-effect bundles, several gigabytes each.	Royalty-free, no credit. Never pass the sounds on, even reworked. No AI training. The licence is written for games, film and TV. A song is probably covered, but music is not named.	Licence
BandLab Sounds Check before release	160,000+ loops and one-shots inside the free BandLab app.	Only as part of a larger song; no packs; no AI training; do not name the artist behind a sound. The terms tie releasing to BandLab’s own sharing. Whether an outside distributor is covered is not spelled out: ask BandLab.	Terms, section 5A
Producer Spot free packs Check before release	Free drum kits (trap, EDM, 808, house) and a loop pack, 24-bit WAV.	The page calls every pack royalty-free. Do not redistribute, and keep the readme from the zip. We found no licence text with actual rules, only the claim.	On the page

Red Not for releases, or file by file

These are not off limits, they need care. Freesound in particular is excellent once you filter it to Creative Commons 0.

Source	What is there	The rules	Licence
Freesound	A huge community library of every kind of sound. Free account.	Every sound has its own licence. For a release, use the search’s licence filter and tick Creative Commons 0. Attribution sounds are fine if you credit them. Never NonCommercial or Sampling+ in a release.	FAQ
BBC Sound Effects	The BBC’s archive: nature, cities, machines, historic recordings.	The free licence is for non-commercial, personal, research or education use only, with a BBC credit. Commercial licences are sold per effect.	Licence
Internet Archive	Millions of recordings: old records, radio, field recordings, netlabels.	Only use items clearly marked CC0 or Public Domain, and remember that the uploader made that claim, not the Archive.	Terms
SampleSwap	Community loops, breaks, one-shots and vocals uploaded between 2000 and 2021.	Uploaders were asked to give their sounds away, but the site itself gives no guarantee they are free of copyright. The risk is yours.	Legal notice
WAVS	About 100,000 samples from named creators.	Many samples sit on royalty tiers: free until a track passes a million streams or comes out on a major label, then the creator takes a share (2.5% to 25%). Check each sample’s tier.	Licence
SoundPacks.com	Free packs uploaded by individual producers.	No site-wide terms. Only use a pack whose download includes a licence you have read.	None published

Paid When free runs out

Source	What is there	The rules	Licence
Splice	3 million+ samples, loops and presets: the industry default. Seen 2026-09-24 (US): $12.99 a month for about 100 downloads, or $19.99 for about 200 with a $4.99 first month.	Royalty-free, no credit, and downloads stay licensed after you cancel; a licence certificate helps with Content ID. No packs, no naming the creator, no AI training.	Licensing FAQ
Loopcloud	Over 5 million sounds by their count, plus two plugins. Seen 2026-09-24: $7.99 a month for 100 points, 14-day trial.	Royalty-free. We did not read the full licence.	Plans
LANDR Samples	A subscription library with credits. We could not see a price.	Personal and commercial use. No reselling or passing on sounds or pack demos.	Your rights

Left out on purpose

Reverb’s Drum Machines collection is no longer free.
Spitfire LABS is a plugin rather than a folder of samples, and its licence does not let you record its sounds into loops of your own.
Zenhiser has no free samples page today.
Hip Hop Makers links to other people’s packs, and its royalty-free claims are its own. Go to the original makers.
r/Drumkits: kits there are often of unknown origin, with no licence you can rely on.

The free sample map.