Music is protect by copyright law. Copyright is a form of protection that ensures that a creator’s work isn’t used or profited off of without the creator’s permission. There are two copyrights when it comes to music. One of the copyright is the copyright  of the song (lyrics and musical composition). The other copyright is the copyright of the recording of the song. If someone wanted to sample an already made song, they would have to receive permission from the copyright owner of said song (the music publisher(s)) and the copyright owner of the recording of the song (the recording label and/or music producer(s)). If one doesn’t go through the process of properly obtain necessary permission to sample someone else’s song, they would risk committing copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is pretty much the use or production of a creator’s intellectual property without their permission. Committing copyright infringement can bring about jail time of up to five years and fines up to $250,000. However, there is music one doesn’t have to get permission to use and/or sample – public domain music. Public domain music is music that doesn’t have an exclusive copyright. View a collection of public domain here.