This page documents an English Wikipedia style guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense and the occasional exception. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

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Music samples can be a valuable addition to articles about bands, musical styles, and genres. They can illustrate the particular instruments or musical elements in a song in a way that a text description cannot. However, usage of such samples needs to comply with copyright law and Wikipedia's guidelines. The limitations on length and quality described here apply only to fair use samples; free content samples are not subject to these limitations.

Guidelines

• Copyrighted, unlicensed music samples should generally not be longer than 30 seconds or 10% of the length of the original song, whichever is shorter. For songs under 5 minutes in length, 10% is shorter.
• Samples must be of reduced quality from the original. A Vorbis quality setting of 0 (roughly 64kbps) is usually sufficient. To do this using Audacity, select Preferences under the Edit menu, and move the "Ogg quality" slider under File Formats to 0 before exporting the file in .ogg format (for Macs, select Preferences under the title menu (Audacity), and go to the File Formats tab).
• Specify a precise title for the media file (eg: "The Beatles - Michelle.ogg" instead of "beatles1.ogg")
• Add proper licensing information to the Image description page. For copyrighted music samples it should be {{Non-free audio sample}}
• All copyrighted music samples must be accompanied by a suitable fair use rationale, or it will be deleted
• Add relevant information about the sample in the description page, especially length and quality, but also copyrights, album, songwriters, producers, etc... The template {{Music sample info}} can help with this. (eg: Image:MariahCareyWeBelongTogether.ogg)
• There should be only one sample per song recording, even if multiple users produce samples. If a new sample is uploaded, the old one must be deleted. In the case of a multi-section/movement work such as a symphony or opera, the use of one relevant sample per section/movement is acceptable.

Inclusion in article:

• It's better to insert the samples next to paragraph mentioning them to justify their fair use, instead of grouping them in the end of the article.
• There's no limit of how many samples you could use in one article, but you have to put in mind that music samples serve as tools for a better understanding of the article, so insert only relevant samples.
• Inserted samples should use Template:Listen for a single sample, and Template:Multi-listen_start for a group of samples. Use of the Template:Sound sample box align left and Template:Sound sample box align right templates allow the sample to 'float' next to the relevant paragraph.
• Template code example, see All Along The Watchtower to see the final rendering:

{{Sound sample box align right|Music sample:}}
{{Listen
|filename=Bob_Dylan_-_All_Along_The_Watchtower.ogg
|title=Bob Dylan "All Along the Watchtower" (1967)
|description=16 second sample from Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower".
|format=[[Ogg]]}}
{{sample box end}}

• "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." features an example of multiple samples within one box.
• If the article in which the sample is to be included is about a song or a single, {{extra musicsample}} can be used. This template allows inclusion of a music sample at the bottom of an {{infobox song}} or an {{infobox single}}. See {{extra musicsample}} for instructions and "Ticket to Ride" for an example.

How much is 10%

See also

• Wikipedia:Creation and usage of media files
• Wikipedia:Fair use
• Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not
• Category:Song articles missing an audio sample