Can I use samples in Cubase to make commercial beats?

Cubase
1

Cubase 11 ships with a lot of one shot samples like big ambient chords and other sound efx like rain and so forth. Can I include those sounds in my music beats and songs that I commercially sell? To be clear I am not selling them as samples or sample libraries but as short or longer multi track music compositions

2

yes, you can use them for the described purpose. It’s described in the EULA “Grant of license” if I remember correctly

4

I read this: “1. The samples of so-called Loops remain the property of the respective rights holder and are licensed by Steinberg to you only for use in the creation of a live or recorded performance that includes the licensed samples as part of a derivative musical work created by the licensed end user. This license includes the use of the samples, the modification of the samples and the marketing of the derivative musical work without infringing any rights of copyright collecting societies and/or the owners of copyrights in any samples. The samples may not be included, whether unmodified or as part of a derivative work, in any sample library product.”

So, is a beat (comprised of multiple other sounds) considered a derivative work? And if yes, does that mean the sample used can be included as a stem also?

5

If you’re distributing the original sample unedited then that’s against copyright - that’s the main point of the license.

If you use a sample (i.e. a kick drum) as part of a rendered sequence you’re ok. I believe, even if that sample is the only asset which goes out into a Kick Drum stem, it’s still ok too.

i.e. The simple indicator is, as long as what you distribute would require audio editing by the end user to retrieve the sample back in it’s raw form, you should be good.

It’s quite a grey area in general though, I know a beat maker who creates intros for content creators (Youtube etc), and they’ve had content pulled/demonetized when using ‘free’ licensed samples and it’s taken down the entire library of videos until rectified. Seems that vocal samples are the biggest trigger as you can never guarantee the original source. So be mindful if you’re doing anything like that.