Y2K and a return to the roots of house music: What music samples say about 2022

Tracklib has compiled an exclusive look into the impact of sampling in 2022, presented as their annual State of Sampling report. Sampling is becoming more popular, as 1 out of every 5 hits on the Billboard Top 100 are sample-based. Tracklib summarizes the latest stats, top trends, and stories to give insight into sampling’s role in the culture of today’s music. View the full State of Sampling report here.

Sampling has been steadily increasing over the past 3 years, for a 31% increase in samples used in total. We’ve seen genre shifts, shifts in how artists utilize samples and who they pay homage to through their samples, and changes in how new technologies are utilized to share and discover samples. All is expanded upon in Tracklib’s report.

A few takeaways from this year’s report include:

• Sampling is becoming more popular. Every 1 out of 5 hits this year sampled other songs.
• The 2000’s have become the most sampled decade, overtaking the 90’s.
• Sampling from dance music is more popular than ever.
• R&B has dethroned Hip-hop as the most sampled genre.
• Stems are more important than ever, likely thanks to the wider availability of stems to producers.
• Sampling finally qualified for the World Cup.
• Sample drill is one of the world’s most fast-growing subgenres.
• All samples on Beyoncé’s Renaissance are an homage to LGBTQ+

Tracklib’s State of Sampling report is often quoted by various publications in the music industry. In past State of Sampling reports, Tracklib tracked genre, average year of tracks sampled, highly sampled tracks, social-media platform’s impact on sampling, and other discussion around trending topics related to sampling. This is Tracklib’s 5th annual State of Sampling report.

About Tracklib
Tracklib is the world’s first and only digital service for clearing samples, finally solving a huge problem in the music industry and leveling the playing field by making sample clearance accessible and affordable. Their catalog consists of over 100k all-original recordings from over 400 record labels/publishers around the world. The catalogue includes everything from Isaac Hayes to Mozart and Jazz artists Bob James, whose music has been sampled in 1000s of songs. Samples from Tracklib have been used in major songs from artists like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Nas, Phantogram, Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled and BROCKHAMPTON.