Having a hard time finding the perfect sound effects and music to implement in your new app? It can be troublesome when you are building a great app with awesome graphics and design, but you don?t have the sound effects to match the quality. This list of top 17 websites with free sound effects and music for your mobile app has been created based on their use here at Peaksel in the last 5 years. Many sound effect websites you can come across are outdated or have piracy content, so caution is recommended when searching the web for your app sounds.
The overview of free sound websites (from worst to best ranked according to Alexa website ranking tool): Music for Video, Zap Slat, OpSound, Pac DV, Partners in Rhyme, Flash Kit, CC Mixter & CC Mixter Digital, Free SFX, Audio Micro, Open Game Art, Bensound, Incompetech, Sound Bible, Free Music Archive, Free Sound, Archive Org, SoundCloud.
Top 17 Websites With Free Sound Effects and Music
17. Music for Video
Music and sound effects on this website can be used for productions such as film-making, games, documentaries, trailers, etc. The sound effects are in broadcast quality (uncompressed WAV 44100, 16bit), so they can be used in professional productions.
16. Zap Slat
Zap Slat is a free sound effect and royalty free music library. There is a file with 11426 free sound effects to download instantly in mp3 or original WAV file format, but there are 27 different sound categories on the website itself. The sound effects can be used in non-commercial and commercial projects, as well as for broadcast.
15. OpSound
OpSound has had technical issues maintaining their website lately, but provide a solid sound library with good quality and safe sound effects. However, make sure to use the material with CC BY-SA 2.5 licence only.
14. Pac DV
Pac DV contains royalty free sound effects and royalty free music! There are only nine categories of sounds: ambience (background sounds), domestic (household sound effects), interfaces (beeps, clicks, clunks, zings, and zoops), machines, mechanical sound effects, music tracks, human sound effects, transportation and voices.
13. Partners in Rhyme
A website rich with free and royalty free music and sound effects. There are dozens of categories and thousands of sound effects to find for any app or game you are making. It is totally worth exploring.
12. Flash Kit
Flash Kit is a safe website, very simple and easy to handle. There are 15 different categories of sound effects to go through. It may be very useful when you need to find a sound effect in a hurry.
11. CC Mixter & CC Mixter Digital
CC Mixter and CC Mixter Digital might be a little underrated because of its modest website design, but with hundreds of categories and thousands of sound effects and tracks, it can be of great use. NOTE: Only sound effects with Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) and Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) are free to use in commercial purposes.
10. Free SFX
With 25 categories and hundreds of subcategories of free sound effects, this is the most complete online sound library so far. The quality of sounds might be questionable in some cases, but with a sound library this big, there is something for everyone.
9. Audio Micro
This sound effects website only contains a little over 2000 sounds, but still could be useful to many. There are collections of stock music, sound effects and loops packs, but only sound effects are free to use.
8. Open Game Art
This sound library contains over 6000 free sound effects and music clips. High quality sounds is the only thing you will find here. The only downside is that there are no categories, but ?search by title? and ?search by tags? options can help you find what you need.
7. Bensound
Very popular, very well-organized. Rich with music and sound effects for kids games and various app types. Contains a large collection of HQ sounds and music, but only the sounds and music with CC BY-ND 3.0 licence are free to use.
6. Incompetech
Unfortunately, Incompetech does not have sound effects, but it is one of the most complete free music websites. Easy to manage, divided into many categories to help you find just the music you need. Pay attention under which licence the sounds you would like to use are registered.
5. Sound Bible
In comparison to Incompetech, Sound Bible is the actual Bible of free sound effects. There is no free music, but the free SFX collection is humongous.
4. Free Music Archive
The fourth best free music website on this list contains free music only, as well. One can use it to download music for their videos or short movies created to promote their apps and games, or, perhaps, incorporate them as content in music apps.
3. Free Sound
Free Sound is a very popular sound-effect website with a variety of sounds and sound-effects to use in your app. One might need a bit more patience to get a grip of how the website works, but the quality of these free sounds will most certainly satisfy.
2. Archive Org
Archive has it all! Music, videos, images, books, concerts, etc. But over 3 million HQ sound effects and music at your service is what ranks Archive as second best website with free sound effects and music for your mobile app.
1. SoundCloud
The best and the most popular free music library online is definitely SoundCloud. Not all music is free and not all of it is available for commercial use, so you should pay close attention which tracks you will use in your apps.
Finally, to put the cherry on the top, for all of you who create promo videos or app trailers for your apps and upload them on YouTube, there is a YouTube audio library with background music and sound effects to implement in videos created solely for YouTube.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Whenever using music and sound effects from any of the websites mentioned above, make sure to check the licence under the content you use is registered in order to avoid copyright violations and legal issues.
If you like the article, follow us on Medium or LinkedIn.
