This category includes song articles missing an audio sample. Song samples are often fair-use items, and their addition to Wikipedia requires compliance with certain criteria for non-free content. The policy at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Music samples provides detailed information about how samples can best be added, but the basic guidelines are:
Copyrighted song samples should be no more than 10% or 30 seconds (whichever is shorter).
Copyrighted song samples should be of reduced quality.
All samples should be well named (Artist name - Song title.ogg).
The description page should contain all relevant information and a fair use rationale for each page on which the sample appears. The template {{Music sample info}} should help in this regard.
The sample should be properly placed in the article. For free content, the template {{Audio sample}} can be added to infoboxes. Non-free content should be added to the article body using the template {{Listen}}.
The presence of the non-free sample must significantly increase readers' understanding of the article, to the extent that omission of the sample would be detrimental to that understanding. To satisfy WP:NFCC #8, non-free content should be accompanied by a description of what is heard on the sample.
Resources:When finding the details about a particular recording, most of it will probably be available in the article's infobox. Otherwise:
Songwriter, publisher and performer information for songs popular in North America and England (some of Europe) can be found at the following sites:ASCAP, SESAC and BMI.
Other information can be found at CD Universe or Amazon.com.
Useful software:Creating song samples usually involves finding the song, trimming the size, reducing the quality and converting to the ogg or mp3 formats. The following programs can assist you in doing that:
Audacity(download) - allows for easy file editing. Available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
Windows Media Player - included as standard in the Windows line of operating systems, it will allow you to convert CD audio into a format such as MP3, but will require a second conversion in another product.
QuickTime(download) - QuickTime Pro allows you to do everything but convert to OGG.
Slice(download) - A freeware audio file splitter. Allows you to slice an audio sample into files of whatever length, or into 10 equal segments.
PMPro Flash To Audio Extractor(download) - allows you to convert flash audio files (e.g. SWF) to OGG.
Tips:
For non-free content, select a portion of the song that demonstrates a characteristic discussed in the literature. Provide a prose description which highlights this characteristic, and cite the literature.
For free content, choose a section of the song that contains the chorus. If the song does not contain a chorus, choose a popular or "important" section of the song. Also, try to choose a portion that has a natural beginning, and does not begin in the middle of a line or measure.
