Sounds and Music
Last updated:
Searching for high quality sounds and music for that upcoming project? This page is a frequently updated collection of resources with an emphasis on games and audiogames, but useful in other cases just as well. While many are freely available, cost is not a requirement. Finding all free content should be as easy as using your browser's find function and searching for "price: free".
A Few Notes
For years this was a living topic on the Audiogames forum. I moved it here as it kept growing past what could reasonably work within the bounds of a single post and BBCode.
Please remember to provide attribution where required. Many authors on this page have worked hard in bringing all this content to the table, the least you can do is respect licensing. The info I've provided, while accurate at the time of this writing, isn't guaranteed to stay that way. When considering using stuff found here, it might be a good idea to periodically check back in case of changes. Some links don't contain information on where content can be used, simply due to the fact that I couldn't find anything. They have been included here to give a wider array of options. If you have licensing info for any of these, let me know.
Contributing
This page is a living resource and updated regularly. If you know of a source that belongs here, I'd love to hear about it. Stick to the format below and include as much detail as possible, especially licensing info. You can reach me through my contact page.
Things I'm actively looking to improve:
- Better descriptions for existing entries, particularly those that are vague or outdated
- Categorization (right now everything is in one long list, which doesn't scale)
- More collections, especially from indie creators who aren't well represented elsewhere on the internet
- More sources for high quality vocals, dialogue, and voice acting
- Region-specific or non-English sources that are hard to find through typical searches
Licensing
There are a number of licenses commonly used here. They are listed below, along with a rather rough description. Consult the actual license for more information.
zero: Content is admitted to the public domain. You can copy, distribute, whatever just so long as you don't claim you are the original author.
attribution: You are permitted to freely share, copy, and redistribute. However, you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and tell if the content was modified.
attribution noncommercial: Same as attribution, but you are unable to use the content commercially - in any project that isn't completely free.
Sources
Free Sound
type: sounds
price: free
description: Freesound is probably the biggest resource for coming by a large variety of pretty much anything. Anyone is free to contribute, allowing the database to expand at a rapid rate. With that said, quantity does not always mean quality. Most of the content found here isn't exactly professionally ideal. When navigating, you might find it easier to search by specific and reputable users, tags, and packs as opposed to names/types of sounds.
licensing: various. the user is given the ability to select from a couple different creative commons licenses. At this time, zero(cc0), attribution (by), and attribution noncommercial (by-nc). This info is always listed on the respective page.
Defenders collection of 2733 HQSFX from freesound
type: sounds
price: free
description: Defender from this forum threw together a bunch of rare yet high-quality content from freesound. He has weapons of war both modern and medieval, footsteps, gore, UI elements, emergency, alarms, cinematic, ambience, a bunch of other good stuff. More information on the forum topic.
licensing: Same as freesound above.
Adobe Audition sound effects
type: sounds
price: free
description: Adobe offers thousands of uncompressed, royalty free sound effects from a wide range of categories. They are those used in the Adobe Audition suite and of pretty high quality. Downloads are on an individual basis, so you can get specific sections. Altogether you're looking at around 11.7GB. Highlights are probably the blades, gun handling, footsteps, ambient sounds both indoor and outdoor, material impacts, explosions/fire, and SciFi UI's/alarms.
licensing: The adobe software license agreement. The gist is this. You may use, display, modify, reproduce, and distribute the associated Content File. However, you may not distribute the Content File on a standalone basis (i.e., in circumstances in which the Content File constitute the primary value of the product being distributed). You can't distribute sounds individually.
ZapSplat
type: sounds and music
price: free
description: At the time of this writing, ZapSplat is home to a growing list of more than 34000 sounds all recorded professionally. The quality is decent, and you can choose from a wide array of categories. Additionally, a small collection of royalty free yet good quality music can be found. By default everything is in mp3, but you can upgrade to a gold membership for wav's. An important note, after clicking download, the link will silently appear at the bottom of the page.
licensing: On each page you'll find a link to the one used. Most are the standard license, essentially attribution with modification. You can get a paid account to remove the need for crediting though. information on the standard license
Sonnis
type: sounds and music
price: paid
description: Sonnis is a massive reseller for both sound effects and music. Most libraries are of superb professional quality. All content is only listed after going through a strict quality control procedure. They advertise honest pricing and simple licensing. You can both buy and sell.
licensing: All of the sound effects libraries on Sonniss are high-quality, commercially-usable & royalty-free - no attribution is required. See the complete set of terms
Sound Ideas
type: sounds and music
price: paid
description: With over 40 years of experience and over 500000 professionally recorded sound effects, production elements, and royalty free music... Sound ideas is quite possibly the industries most well-known and trusted vendor for high quality content.
licensing: the sound-ideas end user license grants the rights to use each and every sound on a project to your hearts content. Limitations include the inability to make multiple copies and redistribute libraries without the purchase of a multi-user license
Pro Sound Effects
type: sounds
price: paid
description: Pro Sound Effects is home to over 2tb in curated sound libraries. As the name suggests, everything is said to be used in the field by industry leading audio professionals so superb quality is a given.
licensing: Depends on the library in question.
Sound Bits
type: sounds
price: paid with a couple free ones thrown in as well
description: 30+ high quality sound libraries created by sound designer and recordist Saro Sahihi.
licensing: Sounds can be used anywhere, must be saved on local storage/no online downloads, no unauthorized reselling or distribution, no refunds. complete terms here
Airborne Sound
type: sounds
price: paid, but some additional free sounds are provided as well
description: Airborne Sound contains the content from a small group of collective field artists. the site features recorded effects that have been created, gathered, and even featured in a couple films. Main points of interest are probably the high quality blades and firearms.
licensing: Pretty strict on what your allowed to do. E.g. you aren't able to have any of their sounds playing alone or isolated for the entire duration of the clip. Check the sound effect use guidelines for more info
Incompetech music
type: music
price: free for individual downloads. You can obtain a copy of everything the site has to offer with a one-time purchase of $38
description: Music produced by Kevin MacLeod. All tracks are of excellent professional quality, undoubtedly some of the best and most popular to be found online.
licensing: attribution on a track per track basis, or you can pay for the ability to exclude them
GameSounds.xyz
type: sounds and music
price: free
description: A collection of various royalty free or public domain sounds or music suitable for games. This site doesn't actually create anything, they merely host. Quite a few official links are now dead and this is the only place to get them.
licensing: depends on the resource in question. Read the license file in each directory.
Sonnis GDC Bundles
type: sounds
price: free
description: Once a year, sonniss gives away free portions of their vastly growing, high quality collection. Miscellaneous sounds are taken from different libraries in an attempt to allow creators to show off their work. And it's only getting larger!
licensing: Same as sonniss above
FreePD
type: music
price: free for individual downloads, though you can pay for the ability to grab more than one track at a time
description: A bunch of high quality, freely usable music in the public domain.
licensing: CC0. Free for everything including commercial use.
Sound Image
type: sounds and music
price: free
description: High quality royalty Free Music (over 1800 tracks), Sound Effects, Texture Images (over 3000), Game Art and Video Footage for your Projects by Eric Matyas.
licensing: Attribution on a track per track basis unless your project uses sound image content exclusively. You can optionally pay to remove the need to credit, more info here
Andre Louis FF Shorts
type: music
price: free
description: FreakyFwoof Shorts is your one-stop-shop for producers, podcasters, media students, radio stations and hardcore enthusiasts looking for high-quality intros, outros, sweeps and stings for your projects.
licensing: Free for noncommercial use. Attribution is required.
nihilore
type: music
price: free
description: A collection of high quality, royalty free music composed by James Opie.
licensing: Attribution
sound Bible
type: sounds
price: free
description: Sort of like freesound, although a lot lot smaller. Various designers are given a place to share their work. Milage may very where quality is concerned.
licensing: Pretty sure multiple types are allowed, just check the page for each respective sound and it'll tell you.
Free SFX
type: sounds
price: free
description: An assortment of freely-usable contributions from content producers across the net.
licensing: All depends on the sound. Most are attribution noncommercial with a couple differences. E.g. you can't use content in a project where sounds are the main focus. See this page for more info.
BBC SFX
type: sounds
price: free
description: Over 16000 freely usable, high quality, uncompressed SFX from the BBC's various productions. Note, you can get a complete download at gamesounds.xyz. One downside, you can only use this library in an educational context. See license.
licensing: the remarc license only able to be used in an educational environment
99Sounds
type: sounds
price: free
description: A place for talented sound designers from around the world to collaborate and promote their work in the form of packs. Hasn't been updated in a while, but some of the stuff on here seems like it could be useful. The stuff is heavily based on drones and impacts and the like. good for si-fi and horror.
licensing: According to the downloads page, "The sounds hosted on 99Sounds are completely royalty free. You can use them for music and video production, game development and any similar creative process. Our sounds may not be redistributed or resold as part of another sound library or virtual instrument. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions."
Audio Blocks
type: sounds and music
pricing: paid
description: With a monthly or annual purchase, you gain access to a large and rapidly expanding library of music, sound, video, and image content.
licensing: Royalty Free. Sounds downloaded may be used perpetually across any project, even if the user cancels their subscription.
Free Stock Music
type: music
price: free
description: An assortment of music taken from audio blocks but offered for free. sign up for the ability to download. Tracks are of pretty good quality, many have been used by producers such as graphic audio.
licensing: Not too awfully specific, I'm assuming you can use tracks anywhere you so choose since there's nothing prohibiting it. The only mention of a license I was able to find says "Our music comes with a royalty-free license allowing you to use the music in all types of productions for worldwide distribution, forever. There are never any fees".
TeknoAxe
type: music
price: free
description: 1500 or so high quality tracks for use in videos and games alike. Site navigation is a bit, weird, but you'll get used to it.
licensing: CC (creative commons) 4.0
OverClocked ReMix
type: music
price: free
description: OverClocked ReMix is a not-for-profit site that accepts high-quality submissions of arranged or "ReMixed" video game music from talented ReMixers the world over. These arrangements are more than just updated versions of the original tracks, but are reinterpretations, often in an entirely different musical genre than the source material.
licensing: attribution noncommercial. As long as you credit the site and use in an environment where revenue isn't generated. If wishing to use commercially, get in contact with the track's author.
sound effects plus
type: sounds
price: free
description: Free high quality sounds designed for use in your productions. Create an account and you should be all set. Something to keep in mind, the site makes a point of letting users know that systematically grabbing everything is not permitted. Instead, download only what you know you'll use. You may only download up to 100 sounds per month without the risk of account suspention.
licensing: You're allowed to use content in productions, just as long as you don't claim ownership, resell, redistribute, and use individually. A complete rundown here
Sound gator
type: sounds
price: free
description: Has some overlap with sound effects plus, and the collection isn't as large, but limitations seen in the aforementioned site have pretty much been removed.
licensing: You can freely use these sounds wherever just as long as you don't resell or redistribute. full license info here
PacDV sounds
type: sounds and music
price: free
description: A smaller collection than other sites, but quality is decent. This direct link points to the URL where sounds can be found. The main site's homepage is a bit inaccessible. It seems like sounds found here are free.
licensing: You can use content anywhere just as long as attribution is provided
jalastram from itch.io
type: sounds
price: free
description: jalastram (Jesús Lastra) from itch.io has a couple small but nice looking packs of custom made 8-bit and retro sounds fit for use in productions.
licensing: unknown
Sound Effect Lab
type: sounds
price: free
description: A high quality library primarily composed of anime and Japanese style sounds including Samurai swords and the like.
licensing: You don't need to report, give links, or credit. Use as you wish.
A sound Effect
type: sounds
price: paid
description: Another big reseller of curated, hand-picked, high quality, professional content sort of like sonniss.
licensing: You can do basically everything aside from using sounds in an application where another media element isn't included, e.g. ringtones. The end user license agreement
sound Morphe
type: sounds
price: paid, although you can get some samples provided at no cost which following the same licensing scheme
description: Yet another high quality, professional retailer. These guys have testimonials from a number of big names in the indistry including transformers, Skywalker Sound, The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.
licensing: Pretty straightforward. You may rerecord, duplicate, and use in your productions through any medium. You may not include content in a library of your own without consent, share, or redistribute. complete license
Open Game Art
type: sounds and music
price: free
description: another community driven site, one which has both sounds and music. It's focused on gaming, so it has more voice acting stuff and more sounds for genres that others may not, like card games and rts games. Quality is generally hit and miss but you can find lots of high quality simpler stuff which doesn't require much recording knowledge, like UI, 8Bit, and retro,. There are a few people, like kennyaudio, vehicle, and littlerobotsoundfactory who are doing more complex stuff though. Not insignificant overlap with freesound.
licensing: unknown
FX Home sounds
type: sounds
price: free
description: a small collection but large variety. Some trippy alien sounds, along with some pretty awesome SciFi weapons, some kinda meh but still cool lightsaber recreations, some generator sounds, and a bunch of cool music stingers for logos. I've seen others remixing their stuff and putting it on freesound, so there is a little bit of overlap, but not direct copying. They do also have a couple small packs of really badly recorded realworld sounds.
licensing: Creative Commons attribution
Noise For Fun
type: sounds
price: free
description: All synth, and has some weird stuff that I can't really see being useful in games, but also lots of nice UI sounds and some nice drones/flurishes. Kinda reminds me of soundimage's stuff.
licensing: Creative Commons License, no royalties
itch.io
type: sounds and maybe some music
price: free at least mostly, but no way to really tell for everything
description: While this site isn't directly based on sound, there are game assets and you can find a small selection of decent things if you search for keywords like audio and sound.
licensing: may vary
PacHD
type: sounds
price: free
description: Almost identical to PacDV above but different content. the music is super 90s and most of the ambients have no real stereo spread... but still, it exists at least...
licensing: same as PacDV
Free Music Archive
type: music
price: free
description: You can find a lot of weird niche stuff that might be a little hard to integrate but it's at least mostly high quality, community driven and a few truly awesome composers there like Kai Engle, Creo, Pocketmaster, Captive_portal, and VYVCH.
licensing: All depends on the track. Most are creative commons, although some don't have any license information what so ever.
The Sound Of Picture Production Library aka Podington Bear Music
type: music
price: free
description: High quality and widely recognised music library. This guy uses the same melody quite a bit, but the content is still good
licensing: creative commons attribution
Music by Tim Beek
type: music
price: free
description: This guy has some well put together, custom made tracks which you can find on his music page. The majority of them are of a cinematic or orchestral nature.
licensing: creative commons attribution 4.0
Looperman
type: music
price: free
description: This site caters to music producers more than anything, so a good amount is in the form of loops and whatnot. Unfortunately they don't have a way to sort out simple beats and backing tracks/beds from full songs but there are plenty still. this is another community based one but seems to have a lot of bigger names posting stuff.
licensing: Free to use in commercial and noncommercial projects, as long as you don't redistribute, claim you are the original creator, or forget to give attribution in the credits
Opsound
type: music
price: free
description: Mainly new age, strange noises, and techno stuff, some unfinished/incomplete, but still there's some goodness to be had.
licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license
CC Mixter
type: music
price: free
description: A community driven, remixing area featuring a great variety of remixes and samples fit for your production. Sister site to freesound so there might potentially be a little bit of overlap but I don't know for sure.
licensing: Creative commons attribution mostly, depends on the track but on each page you should see specific information
audionautix, aka music by Jason Shaw
type: music
price: free
description: There's a bunch of stuff here, and nearly all of it is really great. The front page has a detailed search/filtering system that makes finding what you're looking for a no-brainer. He also has an arrangement with youtube that basically says your videos won't be flagged if his music is used.
licensing: creative commons 3.0
kongano
type: music
price: free
description: Music produced by Eino Toivanen. Not unlike many others on this list, pick from the categories play and have fun.
licensing: Creative commons attribution 4.0
no copyright sounds - youtube
type: music
price: free
description: A record label dedicated to giving content producers and streamers music to use where they won't run into copyright limitations. They're not the only one, but undeniably the most popular/reputable with 21mil+ youtube subs. A lot of EDM, some new age, but misc overall. Tracks are added with frequency.
licensing: provide attribution. You can use the tracks noncommercially in your video, recordings and whatnot. However, for some reason they make a special point of saying usage in a game will always be classified as commercial. Luckily it looks like all you have to do in order to get a commercial license is fill out a form. more info here
HolFix Royalty free music - youtube
type: music
price: free
description: A youtube channel containing freely usable tracks for use anywhere.
licensing: Use is permitted anywhere, be it commercial or noncommercial, just as long as you include a link to his stuff in the credits
The Youtube Audio Library
type: music
price: free
description: As the name might suggest, the youtube audio library is designed to provide freely obtainable music usable in videos posted to youtube. The stuff might not be of the highest quality, but still there's quite a bit available.
licensing: I've been looking around and there doesn't seem to be anything specifying restrictions, more importantly whether we're limited to only using these on youtube. There's nothing directly saying we can't so...
Josh Woodward
type: music
price: free
description: Music by Josh Woodward, a singer/song writer who's decided to give all his 200+ songs away for use anywhere. Interestingly, and in contrast to most other royalty free music sites listed here, quite a few of his tracks contain vocals. Not exactly ideal for games or podcasts but could work quite well for backgrounds.
licensing: creative commons attribution 4.0
Free to Use Sounds
type: sounds
price: Free for individual downloads, but you can pay ($10 or name your price) to get everything
description: A bunch of sounds recorded semi-professionally for usage across a variety of projects. Quality is hit and miss, and the download system could be better, but all in all good stuff that can't be beat given the price.
licensing: attribution for free downloads, though paying for one or all of the libraries eliminates this restriction. More info here.
The Match Maker Collection
type: sounds
price: free
description: They've got a mix of lower and higher quality sounds (though the LQ ones are separated) and you'll need to use a browser like Chrome that autotranslates the page to use it but it's a pretty good resource! You might recognize a lot of these from games such as BK and Shadowline.
licensing: Attribution as far as I'm able to tell. There's an agreement page.
Changelog
- 2026-02-28: Spelling, grammar, and tone cleanup throughout. Fixed typos, corrected common misspellings, and tightened language that was carried over from the original forum post.
- 2026-02-23: Migrated from the Audiogames forum topic to this site.
Credits
Below is a list of everyone who has contributed to this page. Without them, it wouldn't be a fraction of what it is today. Thank you!
If you would like to help out but don't want your name to show up here, just let me know at the time of contribution.
- Kaigoku, for writing another like post which is the foundation of this one but seems to have been lost.
- Defender
- UltraLeetJ
- magurp244 for his big list of free sounds from which I've taken some links
- ammericandad2005
- Supremekiller