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What is Soundsnap?

Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD's.

It was originally started by a small group of sound people from all over the world. Our common belief is that sounds and samples should be free for everyone to use in their projects, commercial or not.

Our users are a diverse mix of sound designers, sound artists, web game developers, filmmakers and music producers. Hobbyists and home video makers are welcome too.

What Soundsnap is NOT:

  • An alternative to Myspace, Limewire or BitTorrent.
  • A place to upload your band's songs or your favourite mp3's. Soundsnap is only for sound effects and loops.
  • A place you can upload or find sounds from commercial libraries. All sounds here are original- made or recorded by its users.

We encourage everyone to upload high quality sound FX and samples, helping us make every kind of sound available on Soundsnap.

We are looking for feedback from the community to constantly improve, and we depend on our users for that. So please feel free to leave a recommendation or feedback in the special section of our forum.

I hope you enjoy your time here and Happy Snapping!

Tasos Frantzolas
Soundsnap Founder

What is Soundsnap? Login or Register | Help & Faq
Forum > Soundsnap rules and legal
Legal? Is it made from legal loops? Are the sound effects produced by contributors?
holly's picture
holly
Posts: 3
 Joined: 2007-07-03

hi, i found this site interesting. i am a user and not a contrbutor but before using, i'd like to make sure i am cleared legally. are the stuff here produced by using legal loops and sound effects produced originally? i came across another site offering free stuff and found out FROM MY CLIENT the music sounds familiar from a sampler library. And guess what after some investigation, it was not allowed to be made into free music or resold. Imagine my shame when my customer asked me about it. Good thing I had time to replace it. So is the music and sounds contributed here legal? Just want some assurance before I proceed. thanks

‹ Introduction, Soundsnap, Freesound & Attribution Legal Question ›

Submitted by holly on Tue, 2007-07-03 08:47. login or register to post comments

tasos's picture
tasos
Posts: 669
 Joined: 2007-07-02
Hi Holly, Welcome to the

Hi Holly,

Welcome to the Soundsnap community. I 've moved your posting to the 'Rules & Legal' section.

Sounds here are 100% legal, all made and recorded by its contributors.

Your concerns are very valid, but our Terms of Use only allow Legal sounds. If someone uploads copyrighted/illegal sounds, they are commiting an illegal activity, which is against our rules. To my knowledge, all sounds here are totally original and legal.

Keep in mind that anyone that has submitted sounds to Soundsnap has to agree to the Soundsnap Lincese, which is based on the Creative Commons License. This generally allows others to use their sounds in any project, commercial or non-commercial without having to pay royalties or other fees in the future.

Attributing the original artist is recomended by Soundsnap, but its not necessary, simply because its not always possible, especially in films.

You can read the full license here: http://www.soundsnap.com/licence

If you have any more questions, let me know or checkout the FAQ section:
http://www.soundsnap.com/faq

Tasos
Soundsnap Admin


Tue, 2007-07-03 13:23 login or register to post comments

delanoaudio's picture
delanoaudio
Posts: 3
 Joined: 2007-07-04
Hi Holly and Tsasos! This is

Hi Holly and Tsasos!
This is Anders Carlsson. Sounddesigner from Stockholm, Sweden. I produce a Soundfx library called Digiffects. It is very wellknown. Be very careful when downloading SoundFx that might sound a little to good somehow.. I have stumbled on some FX that i have made for Digiffects. GOLF1.2.3.4 is Digiffects H04.track 46.47.52 uploaded by m idea... who has no email or anything. The sound "bowling" is Digiffects P03.track57 uploaded by ulrich pletcher. no email to.... I am looking into this and its not i nice feeling. Hopefully these matters will be sorted out soon. Mvh/Anders


Thu, 2007-07-05 13:57 login or register to post comments

mikedred's picture
mikedred
Posts: 1029
 Joined: 2007-04-10
Yeah! That sucks. These

Yeah! That sucks. These incidents support my recent post (acknowlegements) in the 'Feedback, Feature Requests and Bugs' Section.

Sidenote: There is some high quality bepoke audio on here unavailbale anywhere else.


Thu, 2007-07-05 15:27 login or register to post comments

tasos's picture
tasos
Posts: 669
 Joined: 2007-07-02
Hi Anders, Welcome to the

Hi Anders,

Welcome to the community.

I am looking into this matter as soon as possible. I am in contact wih M idea and Ulrich Pletcher and I will email you shortly about this important issue.

Soundsnap respects people's copyright and their right to keep it or share it with the world.

We have a 'report a sound' process for all the people that could potentially find sounds of theirs that have been uploaded here without their approval. This process complies with the DMCA act that has been passed to resolve such issues on the internet. This is something that could happen- even as an accident.

I am planning to be very severe on people uploading illegal/copyrighted sounds and I am talking with my legal consultant.

However, work from Hollywood sound designers, top game sound people and cutting edge producers is uploaded on the site (like Mike Dred) by them. Their sounds will usually sound GREAT, and professional. Thats why this library is so cool, because of the amazing contributors that have given their sounds.

I will soon email you about this issue on your provided email.

Tasos


Thu, 2007-07-05 16:52 login or register to post comments

tasos's picture
tasos
Posts: 669
 Joined: 2007-07-02
The two sounds mentioned

The two sounds mentioned have been 'unpublished' and removed from the library until we have further information on this, just to be on the safe side.

Tasos


Thu, 2007-07-05 17:56 login or register to post comments

guy's picture
guy
Posts: 65
 Joined: 2007-03-09
Hi Anders, Mike and

Hi Anders, Mike and Tasos.

The above issue is indeed an important one. The soundsnap library consists from 100% of original material, and I know so because I have worked with Tasos close to build this site and know where the sources come from :) and I can genuily say that, It's all legit and that is the power of this site. Quality material that are protected by the soundsnap licence (allowing you to use it accordingly).

Now, maybe you spotted the needle in the hay and if that is the case then those sounds should become unavailable, and I believe that Tasos rightly did so. I really hope something like this won't happen again.

However, it makes me wonder?!!:) how many different ways are there to record a Golf swing??? :-)
Some sounds are going to sound so similar that you need a frequency analyser to verify if two sounds are the "same".

Did you managed to donwload the hi-res file (wav, aif) or do you base this comparison on the preview mp3?

It would a great help if you could send us the particular files from your library so that we can infer if they are actually the same ones. The case could be that they are not the same and we have unfairly "unpublished" those sounds.


Thu, 2007-07-05 19:28 login or register to post comments

delanoaudio's picture
delanoaudio
Posts: 3
 Joined: 2007-07-04
Hello guy and everybody I am

Hello guy and everybody
I am pleased to inform that some sounds have been removed from the soundsnap web. I would like to thank Tasos for acting in a quick and proper way. And guy,if you wonder, yes,there are many ways to record a golfswing.... Jus for fun go to soundogs.com and check the golf section. Anyway, problem sorted out and i wish you all the luck with soundsnap. I will put up some sounds soon. Thanks again Tasos for calling me up!
Kind regards/ Anders


Thu, 2007-07-05 21:32 login or register to post comments

octatone's picture
octatone
Posts: 1
 Joined: 2007-07-06
May I make a

May I make a suggestion?

That every contributer must have valid contact information and or a non-anonymous web presence attached to samples uploaded. Producers and composers like myself, are often wary of samples we find listed as free on the internet without proper citation of the original creator or without a way to contact the creator to verify if the sample was in fact created by the uploader.

--

http://raymond.rnamusic.com


Fri, 2007-07-06 18:23 login or register to post comments

mikedred's picture
mikedred
Posts: 1029
 Joined: 2007-04-10
Great idea! I'd be happy to

Great idea! I'd be happy to verify on request. It's one step closer to final attribution for our donated files. Cheers, Mike.


Fri, 2007-07-06 18:49 login or register to post comments

tasos's picture
tasos
Posts: 669
 Joined: 2007-07-02
Hi Octatone, Thanks a lot

Hi Octatone,

Thanks a lot for your input on this.

I 'm certainly looking into this issue. However, keep in mind that you need to verify your email to sign up and we can monitor IPs of who is doing what. I 'll be more than happy to expose users that have uploaded illegal/copyrighted material. And not to mention deleting those, if such a problem arises again.

On the other side, we have to make the sign up process easy. We live in a civilised world, and I want to believe that most users will stick to the rules- only accidentaly would someone upload someone else's samples. And in this case we have a 'report this sound' process that people can follow.

This open model has worked for Wikipedia and various other open source projects. It will work for Soundsnap too and we 're doing fine!

Thanks,

Tasos


Fri, 2007-07-06 18:55 login or register to post comments