Where to find instrumentals?

Question

I enjoy rapping along with the artist while listening to (Hip-Hop / Trap) music. But sometimes I'd like to rap all myself over the beat.

In such an occasion I have to search for the instrumental, the beat only without the artist's voice. I usually do so on YouTube. But for certain songs there don't seem to be an instrumental at all or all I find are different versions or beat-remakes.

Are there web-services or databases which I can use to search for instrumentals? I'm talking about Hip-Hop or Trap beats here, but a general place for instrumentals may also be helpful if they have some Hip-Hop beats available.

It doesn't need to be for free. Some songs were released on vinyl with the beat on the backside. But some instrumentals may not be released officially and are hard to find.

Bonus points if the web-service/database can tell if there is an instrumental at all.

Answer 1

Generally speaking it's called "karaoke". There are many companies that sell rap karaoke tracks. These are re-creations or cover versions of hit songs, not the actual original instrumental tracks. Karaoke companies pay licensing fees to the songwriters and publishing companies that own the copyrights to the songs being covered. The quality of rap karaoke tracks varies a great deal.

Google search for "rap karaoke"

As for the original instrumental tracks, they are created by the producer of the original song, and the tracks are owned by the record company or production company that financed the recording sessions. The instrumentals are their property. Therefore the original instrumental of a specific rap song is only available to the public if the record company or the production company decides that they want to sell that particular instrumental or, in more rare cases, to permit that instrumental to be available on the Internet without having it removed as a violation of their copyright.

My point is that just because you like a particular rap song and want to find its instrumental, this does not mean that it is necessarily available.

Answer 2

At 8tracks they have a section with only instrumental music, most of them are not samplers to be reused, but might be useful here and there: http://8tracks.com/explore/instrumental

A very good way to find Instrumental samplers is on Soundcloud, most of them are royalty free and can be used freely: https://soundcloud.com/.

Looperman is a more professional option, they have really good tracks but most of them are paid, but you can stream for free: http://www.looperman.com/tracks

Even YouTube provides an audio library with some royalty free music, where you can filter by genre, tempo and others: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music - the only problem is that these songs are very used on Videos, so they might not sound "fresh" for your listeners.

Answer 3

If you're able to get a file of the beat, PhonicMind is a website where you can take songs and it will extract the instrumental and remove the vocals from the song for a couple bucks. It is kind of hit or miss though, some songs it does great some songs it does sound like garbage.