Do you want to learn how to get free game music, loops, samples, and more?
It’s easier than you may think. There are hundreds of royalty-free music sites and game dev resources with free music loops and tunes that you can download for practically nothing. Adding a great soundtrack to your game doesn’t have to be expensive. You can find tons of free video game music and even some cool sound effects online.
So, to help you on your quest of finding awesome game music that your players will love, we’ve compiled a list of the best places online to find free music for games and more. You’ll definitely want to bookmark these sites for later reference and future projects. Most of them offer royalty-free music under a creative commons license that you can download or a combination of both free and premium options. Before you start downloading, be sure to check the license agreement and attribution policy. Every site is different.
Now without further ado, let’s jump right in!
Top Places To Find Free Game Music
digccMixter
If you’re looking for free game music and more digccMixter is the place to be. This global community of musicians and artists create open-source music that’s entirely free for download and use in a variety of projects, including video games. You can find tracks for looping backgrounds in any specific theme or genre and even some cool experimental tracks. The musicians that submit and share on digccMixter are incredibly talented. You can score a lot of high-quality free game music. They also have a search filter and featured sections as well to make finding the perfect tune easier.
At digccMixter, there are three license options available depending on the individual track. The first two are Full CC licenses that allow you to either use for free with or without giving attribution. The third option is called TuneTrack Commercial which enables you to download without having any restrictions for a sliding scale, royalty-free fee.
FreeSFX
You can get more than just killer sound effects at FreeSFX. They also have a nice music collection available. FreeSFX features a wide range of tracks from dance to down-tempo to horror and music with vocals. It’s pretty easy to find a loop to match just about any game theme. And if you’re making a kids game, they have children’s music category that’s worth checking out too. All of the music tracks are free to use in commercial projects but you have to make sure to check the license for each track in case attribution is required.
Twin Musicom
Another good place to score free game music is Twin Musicom. You can search for music by category, mood, most recommended, new or randomly to see what fate brings up. From the Epic Battle track to the 8-Bit March and NES Theme their loops and background music are bookmark worthy. There are definitely a few hidden sound gems on this site. All of the tracks are under a CC license with attribution required, so you can download them for free as long as you give Twin Musicom credit.
PartnersInRhyme
Partners in rhyme is a royalty-free music website that offers free music clips and resources that are ideal for creators. You can download free game music loops and tons of samples to use in any project. All you have to do is give them attribution. They have an assortment of holiday theme soundtracks, dance, rock, pop, ambient, and more. If you’re making a game trailer for YouTube, you can use these tracks in your video as well. PartnersInRhyme also now features a handy signed authorization to use this music form for any music loops that you can download in case YouTube ever flags your video. You can use it as proof to quickly get your monetization unblocked. Cool, right?!
PlayOnLoop
If you like to have options, PlayOnLoop may be just what you need. They offer a wide variety of professional music loops that you can use in your games and even films. Plus each track comes with several different download options that you can choose, depending on your needs and budget. You can download free slightly edited music loops under the Creative Commons Attribute license or full tracks under regular or extended permits. PlayOnLoop is also always having special deals and sales so either way, you’re getting a phenomenal soundtrack for less. You can browse through their game music section and find some awesome 8-bit, 16-bit loops perfect for any retro arcade game. They have a wide selection of game-themed music available.
Purple Planet
The Purple Planet is a cool royalty-free music site created by musicians Geoff Harvey and Chris Martyn. They both composed and recorded all of the amazing soundtracks that are available on the website for developers to download. It’s an impressive body of work from upbeat and playful to dreamy and atmospheric. You can browse through their extensive collection of music and download with appropriate attribution. They also have purchase options available.
ZapSplat
You can find some fantastic sound effects as well as free game music at ZapSplat. With a wide range of niche tracks to choose from its easy score the perfect background music for your game. Browse through electronica, cartoon and funny, mellow and chilled, children’s category and more. New music is added daily on the site too. So, you can always find something unique and original.
SoundCloud
Did you know SoundCloud is also a great place to find music for your games? There are plenty of indie artists listed on the site that allows you to download their songs for free with proper attribution. It requires a little bit of digging around, but you can stumble upon some really incredible music. There are even some artists that are open to creating custom tracks just for your game if requested. So, if you’re on the hunt for game music, you might want to take a look around.
Netlabels
Part of the Internet Archive is Netlabels, a collection of free to download music catalogs from various virtual record labels. Perfectly coined as ‘netlabels’ they offer free MP3 music across a vast array of genres. You can download rare tracks like retro bleep to mellow indie music and more. Most of the soundtracks listed on the site is under the CC license but as always be sure to check before downloading.
