list of places to find sounds and music
note: For ease of navigation, this post is laid out by headings at level 5 (blame BBCode not me). Thus, if you're wishing to get to other posts, skip to the next heading at level 3 by pressing the 3 key with most screen readers. Apologies for the inconvenience, I went back and forth about how to best organize this post and ultimately chose the heading method.
Searching for high quality sounds/music for that upcoming project? Look no further!
This post aims to provide a frequently updated and concise collection of resources useful for anyone wishing to obtain high quality sounds or music with an emphasis on games/audiogames, but useful in other cases just as well. While many are freely available, cost is not at all a requirement. I've attempted to maintain a sort of kind of organizational structure, so finding all free content should be as easy as using your browsers find function and searching for "price: free".
Remember, it's important to give 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. I personally suggest getting in contact with the creator and if you wouldn't mind posting here. I'll try to make frequent updates, but if I take too long don't hesitate to reach out with info found in my profile.
Additions to this list are greatly appreciated. Every little bit helps! Keep in mind, this is designed to be a list of places from which to obtain content useful in productions, hence sites like getsounds.com with extremely low quality were and will be ignored. When giving suggestions or providing contributions, it would be nice if you could attempt to make my life a little bit easier by sticking to the format and providing as much info as possible, most notably where content can be used along with relevant license information. thanks in advance.
todo:
Better descriptions
categorization, I begun attempting this but as you can see it went to hell pretty quickly... Oops
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 admited 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 creddit, 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.
Free Sound
type: sounds
price: free (duh)
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.
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 through together a bunch of rare yet high-quality content from freesound. He has war 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 your looking at around 11.7GB.
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.
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 credditing 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.
licensing: Pretty strict on what your allowed to do. E.g. you aren't able to have any of their sounds playing without background of some sort. 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 excelent 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 colection 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 creaters to show off their work. And it's only getting larger!
2015 (10.27GB, 646 files, from gamesounds.xyz)
2016 (16+GB)
2017 (20+GB)
2018 (30+GB)
2019 (25+gb)
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 creddit, 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.
licensing: the remarc license
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.
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: unknown
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 offal 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 noncomercial. As long as you creddit 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 licens 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 sounds fit for use in productions
licensing: unknown
Below is a list of everyone who has contributed in one way or another. If you would like to be excluded, let me know at the time of contribution. Thanks for help.
Kaigoku, for writing another like post which is the foundation of this one but seems to have been lost.
magurp244 for his big list of free sounds from which I've taken some links
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