Resource (Sound & Music) Icon by Jorge Flores, MX - made available by Noun Project, used under license by JL ITS
Sonniss
Sound Effects
Every year they give away thousands of dollars worth of sound effects for free in celebration of the Game Developers Conference. This is our archive. Everything is royalty-free and commercially usable. No attribution is required and you can use them on an unlimited number of projects.
https://sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc#1605030813191-c5a1f3d0-8baf
OC Remix
Collection of music
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by various traditional means
https://ocremix.org/
FreeToUseSounds
Ambient & Area sounds to enhance your campaign!
Los Angeles, California. Royalty-Free Sound Effects! Free To Use Sounds have the largest sound library collection on Bandcamp!
https://freetousesounds.bandcamp.com/
Morphvox Jr (FREE)
Voice-Changing Software
Free voice-changing software from screaming bee!
https://screamingbee.com/morphvox-free-voice-changer
RPG Sounds
Audio Software for Dungeon Masters.
Users can easily set the mood of the session by adjusting Music, Soundscapes,, and triggering Sound Effects to greatly enhance their great game sessions.
RPG Sounds boosts your immersion and grants the best auditive tabletop experience.
RPG Sounds is a tool, not a service. It lets you import and store in a single place all your favorite songs, ambient sounds, and sound effects. It supports most of the mainstream types of audio files.
You will never lose track of your sounds, it does a great job sorting and categorizing them by libraries and game sessions. That way, you will always know where your sounds are exactly when you need them.
While the base version of the software is free, you will have to pay for content packs!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1480140/RPG_Sounds/
Tabletop Audio
Original, 10-minute ambiances and music for your games and stories.
Creating Sound Effects and Music for Tabletop Games & Storytelling
Tabletop Audio is the premier, advertising-free / free-to-use, user-supported ambient game audio site on the web. It has been nominated for the prestigious ENnie awards every year since its launch and to date has won 3 ENnies: The Silver Medal for 'Best Website' in 2015, the Gold Medal for 'Best Website' in 2017, and the Silver Medal for 'Best Free Product' in 2018. Each year millions of tracks are played and downloaded from the site and it is entirely supported by its users. (Thank You!)
While it was originally developed as a resource for players and GMs of tabletop role-playing games, I have received so many emails from other types of users that I felt it was time to refine this section.
According to you all, Tabletop Audio is for Role-players, boardgamers, writers, coders, artists, graphic designers, teachers, house-cleaners, lucid dreamers, gym-rats, distance runners, commuters, and ANYONE who wants to immerse themselves in the audio-space of one environment, while physically inhabiting another.
On the main page, you will find more than 200 10-minute, situational audio files called ambiances (over 24 hours!). Press play. Listen.
https://tabletopaudio.com/
Tabletop Audio Patreon
For those who wish to help!
Asking for donations doesn't come easily for some. People kept asking me when my Kickstarter was going to be and I assumed that was going to be my next step. But the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. I don't need a large amount of capital upfront. I'm not publishing a book or manufacturing something physical. I'm already set up to do this. I'm already doing this! Nothing would make me happier than being able to do this more, but that, unfortunately, takes time. And time is...well, you know.
Running the site does actually come with some overhead. I pay for hosting, I pay for bandwidth. Plus I've got some ideas for the site that are, frankly, beyond me coding-wise. I'd like to one day get some help with that.
Why monthly donations and not per-track?
Another thing I've thought about quite a bit. Each track is 10 minutes long. It takes me between 8 and 12 hours to complete a track. I release them when I feel like they're done. Since I launched the site back in February 2014 I've released an average of 4-6 ambiances per month. I don't want to be tempted to rush things out just to complete another pay cycle. With a monthly donation, you won't have to worry about capping your donations because I'm producing "too much work".
As a monthly subscriber/patron, you should think about tabletopaudio.com as a collection of work that you are supporting. The content is not time-sensitive like issues of a magazine or a blog. If the idea of a monthly donation does not appeal to you, you can always donate a single, one-time donation via the pay-pal link on the site.
A note on the reward levels:
Hey Tim! What gives? I noticed that all the reward levels give the exact same thing, access to the site! Which I can get for nothing!
Here's the basic idea: I honestly give every spare second I have to making this site and the sounds on it. I want to keep this site free and, importantly, advertising-free. Your donation amount to Tabletop Audio should be based on what it's worth for you to have access to this type of service. I like to think in terms of coffee or pizza (hey, I'm a New Yorker). If you can spare the equivalent of a latte, then that might be $3/month. If you can spare a latte and a slice of pizza, maybe that's $5/month, etc.
But, if you honestly can't spare a dime, because you're a student, between jobs, broke whatever...that's cool too, I've been there, but here's the thing - you can still have access to this site like everyone else does. When your fortune takes a turn for the better, maybe come back and put a tip in my jar.
https://www.patreon.com/tabletopaudio
Syrinscape
Epic Games Need Epic Sound
Syrinscape is an app that brings beautiful, immersive, dynamic sound effects and music to tabletop games.
Broadcast the sounds of your RPG to all of your players, anywhere in the world with the
Syrinscape Online Player! The Syrinscape Online Player includes a simple to use, yet in-depth sound toolset, which gives you the power to create and customize your own fantastical sound environments.
Syrinscape has an amazing community of creators. Find out what new worlds they have dreamt up.
https://www.syrinscape.com/
The StoryMaster's Tales
Horror and Cthulhu players - YOU'RE WELCOME!
Poster's Note: This along with Tabletop Audio, has tied for my personally preferred source of ambient audio for horror-themed games. I have yet to find anyone who comes close to matching their offerings. I have lost countless hours listing to a single track on repeat, and have yet to fully listen to everything I have purchased from them! I would encourage everyone to follow them on Kickstarter, as they will sometimes allow you to back their current project.
The Storymaster's Tales soundscapes have been designed to enhance your roleplaying and board gaming experience.
Produced by Interactive theatre producer Olly Mc, they will take your games into the next level of immersion.
https://ollymc.selz.com/categories/all
Free Music Archive
Your #1 resource for free music and royalty-free music.
Free Music Archive (FMA), founded in 2009 by radio station WFMU, offers free access to open licensed, original music. Historically, radio has always offered the public free access to new music. So with the help of curators, netlabels, and thousands of independent musicians around the world FMA became a continuation of that purpose. Tens of millions of visitors every month download music for personal use and many share and remix music from FMA in videos, podcasts, films, games, apps, and even school projects.
Every MP3 you discover on Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era. These uses vary and are determined by the rights-holders themselves (please see our FAQ) who feel that allowing a degree of free cultural access is beneficial not only to their own pursuits but to our society as a whole. Free Music Archive is a resource for audiophiles of all stripes, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by one of our established audio curators.
Free Music Archive is a platform for collaboration between curators and artists, including radio stations, netlabels, venues, artist collectives, museums, music festivals, and more. The platform combines the curatorial approach that these organizations have played for the last few decades, with the community-generated approach of many current online music sites.
Inspired by Creative Commons and the open-source software movement, FMA provides a legal and technological framework for curators, artists, and listeners to harness the potential of music sharing. Every artist page will have a bio and links to the artists’ home page for users to learn more about the music they discover via Free Music Archive. We also seek to compensate artists directly where possible. Artist, album, and song profiles may contain links to buy the full album from the artist and/or label’s preferred vendor(s). Users can also “tip” an artist if they like what they hear, sending a donation directly to the artists’ PayPal account. FMA is also experimenting with "web monetization" tools.
While Free Music Archive is free and open to anyone regardless of registration or other requirements, written and audio content is curated, and permission to upload/edit content is granted on an invitation basis.
In September 2019, Free Music Archive was acquired by Tribe of Noise, a music platform and licensing company with many common features, facilitating a community of more than 34,000 independent artists across 190+ countries. Both FMA and Tribe of Noise support free-to-access, Creative Commons licensed, music and offer independent creators a variety of (revenue) opportunities.
https://freemusicarchive.org
Storyblocks
Find the perfect track for your next video or podcast project.
Our library of fresh, curated, 100% royalty-free music has everything you need to tell your story. Find the perfect track for your next video or podcast project.
Born out of a desire to solve the problem of accessible, affordable stock for creatives, Storyblocks is the world’s first stock media subscription service offering video, audio, and images.
https://www.storyblocks.com
FreeSound
A collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds. Browse, download and share sounds.
Freesound aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, and all sorts of bleeps, ... released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse. Freesound provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to:
browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a "sounds-like" type of browsing, and more
upload and download sounds to and from the database, under the same Creative Commons license
interact with fellow sound-artists!
We also aim to create an open database of sounds that can also be used for scientific research and be integrated into third-party applications. Using the Freesound API researchers and developers can access Freesound content a retrieve meaningful sound information such as metadata, analysis files, and the sounds themselves. See the developers section and the API documentation for more information. Freesound API usage is free for non-commercial use, but it can also be licensed for being used in commercial applications.
https://freesound.org/
Arcane Anthems
Arcane Anthems is creating free music for tabletop role-playing games
From their Patreon Page:
I create free music for Table Top Role Playing campaigns, streams, and podcasts.
Why Role-Playing Music?
Music adds emersion, tension, and emotion to role-playing games. But often streams and podcasts shy away from using music for fear of legal ramifications. I want to make it simple to add music to your games.
Your Support
I'll continue to create royalty-free epic anthems but with your help, I'll be able to make them much more often and with greater variety. I would love to be able to make music full-time and provide a massive catalog of songs for GMs, creators, and players to use.
Rewards
Everyone gets the anthems for free! Patrons receive the highest quality files and can help me decide on the style of future anthems via our discord. (more rewards coming soon)
https://www.patreon.com/arcaneanthems
Michael Ghelfi
Thanks to @ELF for this one
A sound designer and orchestral music composer from the misty mountains (Switzerland). I'm expanding the ultimate audio library for Tabletop Roleplaying Games, like D&D and Cthulhu.
I manage the most expansive and immersive RPG ambiances audio library on YouTube, with already more than 300 ambiances and 170 songs. The community is huge as well with 65'000 members, and thousands new each month. You can hear my work in hundreds of podcasts, movies, music, and games, such as MORDHAU or The Black Dahlia Murder.
He has a number of collections of 30-minute ambiance tracks for hundreds of environments but has recently started to publish also shorter tracks better suited for VTT use. The tracks can be freely streamed on the Bandcamp site, but as is customary with Bandcamp, you can also purchase either individual tracks or full albums to download them:
https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfi
Music d20
creating tabletop music for D&D and other RPGs
Music d20 is your one-stop-shop for RPG music
My name is Will Savino, and I'm a veteran video game composer who loves tabletop RPGs as much as I love composing and recording music. Whether you need combat music for Dungeons and Dragons, tavern tunes for Pathfinder, or cyberpunk ambiances for Shadowrun, I've got you covered. Join today to gain access to:
Darkraven Games
Cool sounds for cool games.
Darkraven Games strives to provide tabletop gamers with quality map and soundscape products to maximize any game experience through immersion and flexibility.
Our products are designed to accommodate both traditional and virtual game platforms. Our maps are provided in several formats to make printing as convenient as possible for the end-user.
We love and support the modding community! Each of our map products come with a "clean" version that you can decorate yourself
http://www.darkravengames.com/
Groupees
Working to transform the distribution of digital media entertainment into a fun, social, and exciting
Groupees is a unique online and mobile platform for the distribution of digital media, including games, comics, ebooks, and music, with real-time social features so users can share their passions with like-minded people from around the World. Based in Portland, OR, USA, the Groupees team spans continents and includes passionate professionals with backgrounds in games, music, social media, and technology.
https://groupees.com/
Sonniss
Sound Effects
Every year they give away thousands of dollars worth of sound effects for free in celebration of the Game Developers Conference. This is our archive. Everything is royalty-free and commercially usable. No attribution is required and you can use them on an unlimited number of projects.
https://sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc#1605030813191-c5a1f3d0-8baf
OC Remix
Collection of music
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by various traditional means
https://ocremix.org/
FreeToUseSounds
Ambient & Area sounds to enhance your campaign!
Los Angeles, California. Royalty-Free Sound Effects! Free To Use Sounds have the largest sound library collection on Bandcamp!
https://freetousesounds.bandcamp.com/
Morphvox Jr (FREE)
Voice-Changing Software
Free voice-changing software from screaming bee!
https://screamingbee.com/morphvox-free-voice-changer
RPG Sounds
Audio Software for Dungeon Masters.
Users can easily set the mood of the session by adjusting Music, Soundscapes,, and triggering Sound Effects to greatly enhance their great game sessions.
RPG Sounds boosts your immersion and grants the best auditive tabletop experience.
RPG Sounds is a tool, not a service. It lets you import and store in a single place all your favorite songs, ambient sounds, and sound effects. It supports most of the mainstream types of audio files.
You will never lose track of your sounds, it does a great job sorting and categorizing them by libraries and game sessions. That way, you will always know where your sounds are exactly when you need them.
While the base version of the software is free, you will have to pay for content packs!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1480140/RPG_Sounds/
Tabletop Audio
Original, 10-minute ambiances and music for your games and stories.
Creating Sound Effects and Music for Tabletop Games & Storytelling
Tabletop Audio is the premier, advertising-free / free-to-use, user-supported ambient game audio site on the web. It has been nominated for the prestigious ENnie awards every year since its launch and to date has won 3 ENnies: The Silver Medal for 'Best Website' in 2015, the Gold Medal for 'Best Website' in 2017, and the Silver Medal for 'Best Free Product' in 2018. Each year millions of tracks are played and downloaded from the site and it is entirely supported by its users. (Thank You!)
While it was originally developed as a resource for players and GMs of tabletop role-playing games, I have received so many emails from other types of users that I felt it was time to refine this section.
According to you all, Tabletop Audio is for Role-players, boardgamers, writers, coders, artists, graphic designers, teachers, house-cleaners, lucid dreamers, gym-rats, distance runners, commuters, and ANYONE who wants to immerse themselves in the audio-space of one environment, while physically inhabiting another.
On the main page, you will find more than 200 10-minute, situational audio files called ambiances (over 24 hours!). Press play. Listen.
https://tabletopaudio.com/
Tabletop Audio Patreon
For those who wish to help!
Asking for donations doesn't come easily for some. People kept asking me when my Kickstarter was going to be and I assumed that was going to be my next step. But the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. I don't need a large amount of capital upfront. I'm not publishing a book or manufacturing something physical. I'm already set up to do this. I'm already doing this! Nothing would make me happier than being able to do this more, but that, unfortunately, takes time. And time is...well, you know.
Running the site does actually come with some overhead. I pay for hosting, I pay for bandwidth. Plus I've got some ideas for the site that are, frankly, beyond me coding-wise. I'd like to one day get some help with that.
Why monthly donations and not per-track?
Another thing I've thought about quite a bit. Each track is 10 minutes long. It takes me between 8 and 12 hours to complete a track. I release them when I feel like they're done. Since I launched the site back in February 2014 I've released an average of 4-6 ambiances per month. I don't want to be tempted to rush things out just to complete another pay cycle. With a monthly donation, you won't have to worry about capping your donations because I'm producing "too much work".
As a monthly subscriber/patron, you should think about tabletopaudio.com as a collection of work that you are supporting. The content is not time-sensitive like issues of a magazine or a blog. If the idea of a monthly donation does not appeal to you, you can always donate a single, one-time donation via the pay-pal link on the site.
A note on the reward levels:
Hey Tim! What gives? I noticed that all the reward levels give the exact same thing, access to the site! Which I can get for nothing!
Here's the basic idea: I honestly give every spare second I have to making this site and the sounds on it. I want to keep this site free and, importantly, advertising-free. Your donation amount to Tabletop Audio should be based on what it's worth for you to have access to this type of service. I like to think in terms of coffee or pizza (hey, I'm a New Yorker). If you can spare the equivalent of a latte, then that might be $3/month. If you can spare a latte and a slice of pizza, maybe that's $5/month, etc.
But, if you honestly can't spare a dime, because you're a student, between jobs, broke whatever...that's cool too, I've been there, but here's the thing - you can still have access to this site like everyone else does. When your fortune takes a turn for the better, maybe come back and put a tip in my jar.
https://www.patreon.com/tabletopaudio
Syrinscape
Epic Games Need Epic Sound
Syrinscape is an app that brings beautiful, immersive, dynamic sound effects and music to tabletop games.
Broadcast the sounds of your RPG to all of your players, anywhere in the world with the
Syrinscape Online Player! The Syrinscape Online Player includes a simple to use, yet in-depth sound toolset, which gives you the power to create and customize your own fantastical sound environments.
Syrinscape has an amazing community of creators. Find out what new worlds they have dreamt up.
https://www.syrinscape.com/
The StoryMaster's Tales
Horror and Cthulhu players - YOU'RE WELCOME!
Poster's Note: This along with Tabletop Audio, has tied for my personally preferred source of ambient audio for horror-themed games. I have yet to find anyone who comes close to matching their offerings. I have lost countless hours listing to a single track on repeat, and have yet to fully listen to everything I have purchased from them! I would encourage everyone to follow them on Kickstarter, as they will sometimes allow you to back their current project.
The Storymaster's Tales soundscapes have been designed to enhance your roleplaying and board gaming experience.
Produced by Interactive theatre producer Olly Mc, they will take your games into the next level of immersion.
https://ollymc.selz.com/categories/all
Free Music Archive
Your #1 resource for free music and royalty-free music.
Free Music Archive (FMA), founded in 2009 by radio station WFMU, offers free access to open licensed, original music. Historically, radio has always offered the public free access to new music. So with the help of curators, netlabels, and thousands of independent musicians around the world FMA became a continuation of that purpose. Tens of millions of visitors every month download music for personal use and many share and remix music from FMA in videos, podcasts, films, games, apps, and even school projects.
Every MP3 you discover on Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era. These uses vary and are determined by the rights-holders themselves (please see our FAQ) who feel that allowing a degree of free cultural access is beneficial not only to their own pursuits but to our society as a whole. Free Music Archive is a resource for audiophiles of all stripes, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by one of our established audio curators.
Free Music Archive is a platform for collaboration between curators and artists, including radio stations, netlabels, venues, artist collectives, museums, music festivals, and more. The platform combines the curatorial approach that these organizations have played for the last few decades, with the community-generated approach of many current online music sites.
Inspired by Creative Commons and the open-source software movement, FMA provides a legal and technological framework for curators, artists, and listeners to harness the potential of music sharing. Every artist page will have a bio and links to the artists’ home page for users to learn more about the music they discover via Free Music Archive. We also seek to compensate artists directly where possible. Artist, album, and song profiles may contain links to buy the full album from the artist and/or label’s preferred vendor(s). Users can also “tip” an artist if they like what they hear, sending a donation directly to the artists’ PayPal account. FMA is also experimenting with "web monetization" tools.
While Free Music Archive is free and open to anyone regardless of registration or other requirements, written and audio content is curated, and permission to upload/edit content is granted on an invitation basis.
In September 2019, Free Music Archive was acquired by Tribe of Noise, a music platform and licensing company with many common features, facilitating a community of more than 34,000 independent artists across 190+ countries. Both FMA and Tribe of Noise support free-to-access, Creative Commons licensed, music and offer independent creators a variety of (revenue) opportunities.
https://freemusicarchive.org
Storyblocks
Find the perfect track for your next video or podcast project.
Our library of fresh, curated, 100% royalty-free music has everything you need to tell your story. Find the perfect track for your next video or podcast project.
Born out of a desire to solve the problem of accessible, affordable stock for creatives, Storyblocks is the world’s first stock media subscription service offering video, audio, and images.
https://www.storyblocks.com
FreeSound
A collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds. Browse, download and share sounds.
Freesound aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, and all sorts of bleeps, ... released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse. Freesound provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to:
browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a "sounds-like" type of browsing, and more
upload and download sounds to and from the database, under the same Creative Commons license
interact with fellow sound-artists!
We also aim to create an open database of sounds that can also be used for scientific research and be integrated into third-party applications. Using the Freesound API researchers and developers can access Freesound content a retrieve meaningful sound information such as metadata, analysis files, and the sounds themselves. See the developers section and the API documentation for more information. Freesound API usage is free for non-commercial use, but it can also be licensed for being used in commercial applications.
https://freesound.org/
Arcane Anthems
Arcane Anthems is creating free music for tabletop role-playing games
From their Patreon Page:
I create free music for Table Top Role Playing campaigns, streams, and podcasts.
Why Role-Playing Music?
Music adds emersion, tension, and emotion to role-playing games. But often streams and podcasts shy away from using music for fear of legal ramifications. I want to make it simple to add music to your games.
Your Support
I'll continue to create royalty-free epic anthems but with your help, I'll be able to make them much more often and with greater variety. I would love to be able to make music full-time and provide a massive catalog of songs for GMs, creators, and players to use.
Rewards
Everyone gets the anthems for free! Patrons receive the highest quality files and can help me decide on the style of future anthems via our discord. (more rewards coming soon)
https://www.patreon.com/arcaneanthems
Michael Ghelfi
Thanks to @ELF for this one
A sound designer and orchestral music composer from the misty mountains (Switzerland). I'm expanding the ultimate audio library for Tabletop Roleplaying Games, like D&D and Cthulhu.
I manage the most expansive and immersive RPG ambiances audio library on YouTube, with already more than 300 ambiances and 170 songs. The community is huge as well with 65'000 members, and thousands new each month. You can hear my work in hundreds of podcasts, movies, music, and games, such as MORDHAU or The Black Dahlia Murder.
He has a number of collections of 30-minute ambiance tracks for hundreds of environments but has recently started to publish also shorter tracks better suited for VTT use. The tracks can be freely streamed on the Bandcamp site, but as is customary with Bandcamp, you can also purchase either individual tracks or full albums to download them:
https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfi
Music d20
creating tabletop music for D&D and other RPGs
Music d20 is your one-stop-shop for RPG music
My name is Will Savino, and I'm a veteran video game composer who loves tabletop RPGs as much as I love composing and recording music. Whether you need combat music for Dungeons and Dragons, tavern tunes for Pathfinder, or cyberpunk ambiances for Shadowrun, I've got you covered. Join today to gain access to:
- Hours and hours of loopable music to score your tabletop RPGs
- Unique variant tracks with alternate moods and instrumentations
- A custom-made music playback app designed specifically for my patrons
- Painstakingly curated RPG Spotify playlists
- D&D 5e homebrew from top creators in the scene
- A non-exclusive license to use my music in your RPG podcast, twitch stream, or video content
Darkraven Games
Cool sounds for cool games.
Darkraven Games strives to provide tabletop gamers with quality map and soundscape products to maximize any game experience through immersion and flexibility.
Our products are designed to accommodate both traditional and virtual game platforms. Our maps are provided in several formats to make printing as convenient as possible for the end-user.
We love and support the modding community! Each of our map products come with a "clean" version that you can decorate yourself
http://www.darkravengames.com/
Groupees
Working to transform the distribution of digital media entertainment into a fun, social, and exciting
Groupees is a unique online and mobile platform for the distribution of digital media, including games, comics, ebooks, and music, with real-time social features so users can share their passions with like-minded people from around the World. Based in Portland, OR, USA, the Groupees team spans continents and includes passionate professionals with backgrounds in games, music, social media, and technology.
https://groupees.com/
After reviewing this, I feel that the forum list will work best for everyone, and I loose the advantages I had hoped to gain by listing them under resources.
Thanks for your help and work on this
Lensman