Sample Hop: Licence Agreement

Version 1.4 · Effective 3 October 2026

This agreement is between you and Alexander Marshall, trading as Keypress Automation, of Hillside, Brighton Road, Hassocks, BN6 9TR, United Kingdom ("we", "us"). It covers the Sample Hop software, its updates, and the documentation that comes with it (together, the "Software"). It does not cover the open-source components described in section 6, which have licences of their own.

By installing or using the Software you agree to this agreement. If you do not agree, do not install or use it. If you bought it from us through samplehop.com, you can get a full refund within 30 days of purchase for any reason by emailing beta@samplehop.com. If you bought it from the Microsoft Store, ask Microsoft for a refund under its rules (section 13).

If you got the Software from the Microsoft Store, this agreement applies instead of Microsoft's Standard Application License Terms.

1. Who this agreement is for

If you use the Software for purposes mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession, you are a "consumer" and sections 10 and 11 give you protections that businesses do not get. Using the Software to make music you later sell does not by itself stop you being a consumer. If you use it for a business, you confirm you have authority to accept this agreement for that business.

2. Your licence

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the Software:

on devices you own or control, up to the number the store you bought it from allows for your account (the Microsoft Store currently allows up to ten Windows devices); and
for any lawful purpose, personal or commercial, including producing, performing and selling music.

The Software is licensed to you, not sold. Apart from the rights in this agreement and in section 6, we and our licensors keep all rights in the Software.

3. Your files and what you make

Your audio files and the maps, tags, analysis and exports the Software makes from them belong to you. We claim no rights in them.

The Software analyses your files on your own device. It does not upload your audio or its analysis to us. During the beta it sends us:

feedback only when you choose to send it (a report, a survey answer or a crash report), after showing you what will be sent; and
usage statistics only if you switch them on: which features you use, build times and library sizes (with your processor's core count, how many analysis workers a build used, and the kind of graphics chip it used, such as Intel or NVIDIA, never its model), and your ratings and corrections of matches, tempos, keys and roles, described by sound features rather than names.

Each carries a random beta id made for this install (not your name, and not taken from your hardware), the app version and your operating system. A report can also carry system details and recent log lines if you tick that box. None of it contains your audio, file names, folder paths, library names or your computer's name, which the Software removes before sending. Because the beta id links what one install sends, this data is pseudonymous rather than anonymous. We keep reports, statistics, ratings and corrections for two years and then delete them; Delete my beta data deletes them sooner (section 8.1). What the Software sends over the internet, to whom, and how long it is kept is set out in our privacy policy at https://samplehop.com/privacy.html.

The Software only reads the folders you add. It keeps its cache, maps and working data in your user profile, and does not change, move or delete your audio files. As with any software that reads a large collection of files, keep your own backups.

4. What you may not do

Unless the law or section 6 allows it, you may not:

copy the Software, except to install it as section 2 allows and to make backups;
sell, rent, lend, sublicense, distribute or otherwise make the Software available to anyone else, or let others use it as a hosted service;
reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Software, or try to extract its source code;
modify the Software or make works based on it;
remove or change any copyright, licence or attribution notice in it; or
use it to break the law or infringe anyone's rights.

Points 3 and 4 do not limit:

what the law lets you do and a contract cannot take away, including decompiling to achieve interoperability under section 50B of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; or
anything section 6 allows.

5. Updates and changes

We may provide updates that fix problems, change features or add new ones. Updates are delivered by the store you got the Software from. This agreement applies to every update unless an update comes with new terms. We will not remove features you have paid for in a way that breaks your statutory rights.

6. Open-source components

6.1 Their own licences apply

The Software includes, and when it is set up installs, open-source software made by other people. That includes a Python interpreter, Python packages for audio analysis and machine learning, and pretrained model weights. They are listed with their licences in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, in the licenses folder of the installed app.

Each of those components is licensed to you under its own licence, not under this agreement. Nothing in this agreement limits any right that a component's licence gives you. If this agreement and a component's licence conflict about that component, the component's licence wins.

6.2 LGPL libraries

Some of those components are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (the "LGPL"). They include libsoxr, libsndfile, mpg123 and LAME. They are listed in NOTICE-LGPL.txt in the licenses folder, and a copy of the LGPL is next to it. For those libraries, and notwithstanding section 4:

You may replace them. They are separate files, loaded while the Software runs, and you may replace them with versions you have modified or built yourself. NOTICE-LGPL.txt explains how: the Software checks a "package overrides" folder, shown in its About window, before it uses the copies it shipped with.
You may modify the Software for your own use as far as you need to in order to use it with such a modified library.
You may reverse engineer the Software as far as you need to in order to debug those modifications.
You can have the source code. The complete source of each LGPL library is in the licenses/source folder of the installed app. If it is missing, we will send it to you free of charge (or for no more than the cost of sending it) if you ask using the contact details in section 16, for at least three years after we last distributed that version of the Software.

You may not pass on modified copies of the Software itself except as the LGPL allows for the libraries. If you replace or modify a library, we cannot support that set-up, and section 10 does not apply to faults caused by it.

7. Optional downloads from third parties

Some features download extra components the first time you use them, and only when you ask. At present these are:

the GPU version of PyTorch, from PyTorch's servers; and
additional similarity models, from Hugging Face.

These components come from third parties under their own licences and terms. We choose which versions the Software asks for, but we do not control those services and cannot promise they will stay available.

8. Free, trial and beta versions

If we provide the Software free of charge, including as a public beta or trial, it may be incomplete and may change or stop working. Section 11 still applies to you, but because you paid nothing, section 10's rights about paid digital content do not.

The beta is free until it ends. We will announce the last day in advance, inside the Software. After it ends, the beta version stops building and opening maps unless you have the full version. Your files, maps and tags stay on your device either way.

8.1 Beta rewards

Complete any one beta task before the beta ends and you get a free Sample Hop licence for life. The optional tasks are the About you answers, Pricing answers, two-week check-in, or a bug report or idea. The quality and content of what you send do not affect the reward. Any answer counts, including a low price or criticism.

The licence covers Windows and Mac, includes every update, never expires, and is never charged, whether we sell Sample Hop as a one-off purchase or subscription. It excludes separate products and third-party downloads (section 7), and can end under section 9.

Enter your email in the Software's Beta reward window so we can reach you. Within 30 days of the first paid release, we will email you how to use the free licence on Windows and Mac. We may provide a Store entitlement, a code, or a licence option in the Software. If a code expires before you claim it, contact us and we will still provide the licence.

One licence per person, regardless of devices or installs. It cannot be transferred or exchanged for money. Delete my beta data removes your claim, what you sent, your statistics and any mailing-list sign-up. You give up an unissued licence, but keep one already issued: we keep the record of an issued or bought licence, with the email it was issued to, so that it can be restored on your other devices and for our accounts. If we never release a paid version, there is nothing to reward.

The email you give for the reward is used only to send you the licence. An email you give with feedback is used only to reply, unless you tick the box to use it for the reward too, or to hear about the launch or a Mac version, and then only for what you ticked. You can ask us to remove you from either list at any time (section 16).

This section does not affect your statutory rights.

9. Ending this agreement

You may end this agreement at any time by uninstalling the Software. Uninstalling does not give up a licence you hold, whether you bought it or got it free (section 8.1): you can install the Software again at any time, and this agreement applies again when you do.

We may end it by notice to you if you seriously or repeatedly break section 4 and, where the breach can be fixed, you have not fixed it within 14 days of being asked to.

When the agreement ends you must stop using the Software and uninstall it. Sections 3, 6, 10, 11 and 14 to 16 continue to apply. Your rights under the LGPL licences to the components in section 6.2 do not depend on this agreement, and do not end with it.

10. If you are a consumer: your statutory rights

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, digital content you pay for must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. If it is not, you may be entitled to a repair or replacement, or to some or all of your money back. If digital content we supply damages your device or other digital content, and that happens because we did not use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you fair compensation.

Nothing in this agreement affects those rights. Citizens Advice (https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk) can tell you more about them.

11. Our liability

What we never exclude. Nothing in this agreement limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.
If you are a consumer, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this agreement or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that was not foreseeable. We are also not responsible for lost profits, lost business or business interruption, because the Software is supplied for domestic and private use. If you use it for commercial work, point 3 applies to that use instead.
If you are a business, or for any commercial use: - we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill or anticipated savings, or for any indirect or consequential loss; and - our total liability to you under or in connection with this agreement is limited to the greater of the price you paid for the Software in the 12 months before the claim and £100.
Warranties. Except for what section 10 and the law give consumers, the Software is provided "as is". We do not promise that it will be error-free or uninterrupted, or that its analysis, tags or similarity results will be accurate for any particular recording. They are estimates made by statistical models.

12. Export and sanctions

You must follow any export control and sanctions laws that apply to your use of the Software.

13. Microsoft Store purchases

If you buy the Software from us through samplehop.com or our Stripe checkout, email beta@samplehop.com within 30 days of purchase for a full refund for any reason, no questions asked. This promise is in addition to your statutory rights.

If you got the Software from the Microsoft Store:

this agreement is between you and us. Microsoft is not a party to it and is not responsible for the Software or for supporting it;
payment, refunds, and how many of your devices can install the Software are handled by Microsoft under its own terms. Ask Microsoft for a Store refund; we cannot refund a Store payment ourselves; and
if you ask Microsoft for a refund within its refund rules, that is in addition to your rights under section 10, not instead of them.

14. General

Whole agreement. This agreement, together with the licences in section 6 for the components they cover, is the whole agreement between us about the Software.
Transfer. We may transfer our rights and obligations under this agreement to someone else, for example if the Software is sold or we incorporate. If we do, your rights under this agreement will not be reduced. You may not transfer your licence.
Changes to these terms. We may change this agreement for future versions of the Software. Changes will not apply to a version you already have unless you accept them.
Severability. If a court decides part of this agreement is unenforceable, the rest still applies.
No waiver. If we delay enforcing this agreement, we can still enforce it later.
Third parties. No one else has any right to enforce this agreement, except that the licensors of the components in section 6 keep all their rights under their own licences.

15. Law and courts

This agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales. You may bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your home courts, and you keep the protection of any mandatory consumer law of the country where you live.

16. Contact

Alexander Marshall, trading as Keypress Automation
beta@samplehop.com · Hillside, Brighton Road, Hassocks, BN6 9TR, United Kingdom

To ask for source code under section 6.2, write to the same address and say which version of the Software you have. You can find the version in the app's About window.