A system and method of selective sampling for sound signal classification is disclosed. The method of the present invention discloses the elements of: receiving a sound signal; specifying meta-data to be extracted from the sound signal; dividing the sound signal into a set of frames; applying a fitness function to the frames to create a set of fitness data; selecting a frame from the set of frames, if the frame's corresponding fitness datum within the set of fitness data exceeds a predetermined threshold value; extracting the meta-data from the selected frames; and classifying the sound signal based on the meta-data extracted from the selected frames. The system of the present invention discloses means for implementing the method.