Whether you’re planning a Halloween party, getting ready to trick-or-treat, or just trying to create a spooky atmosphere, you’ve got to have the right music. Sure, candlelight, scary props, and costumed people go a long way, but nothing works better than some spooky music to complete the set. Luckily, you don’t have to spend a fortune buying creepy soundtracks. With open source music, you’ll have your monsters pounding away for free in no time.
Open source music – or audio released into the public domain and through non-restrictive Creative Commons licenses – isn’t that hard to find. In fact, the Internet Archive, founded in 1996 as an Internet-based library, is filled with archived audio, images, software, text, and even web pages that can be used, edited, and redistributed in the spirit of open source.
One problem with the Internet Archive’s collection, however, is that it is large. It’s really big! So sorting through all that content can be time consuming and tedious. And while there’s plenty to see and hear there, not all of it is available through non-restrictive licenses, so be careful if you plan to do anything with the content beyond your own personal, private use. That said, this list of creepy sounds should help you get your search for scary open source music off to a great start.
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Overall Atmosphere
These tracks are filled with the kind of door-smashing, chain-rattling ambient background sounds familiar to ghouls and ghosts everywhere.
- Graveyard Sounds for Halloween
- Artist/Composer: Qweniden
- Length: 03:40 (mm:ss)
- License: Public Domain
- Listen / Download
- Halloween
- Artist/Composer: James Robinson
- Length: 30:23 (mm:ss)
- License: CC0 1.0 Universal
- Listen / Download
- Halloween
- Artist/Composer: JLF
- Length: 60:00 (mm:ss)
- License: CC0 1.0 Universal
- Listen / Download
creepy songs
From dark electronica to hip-hop to horror movie-inspired music, these single songs are the perfect addition to your Halloween party playlist.
- Go easy on that spooky night
- Artist/Composer: Icarus Holmes
- Length: 02:04 (mm:ss)
- License: Public Domain
- Listen / Download
- Music for Horror Movies (8 Track Album)
- Artist/Composer: Ann Hell
- Length: 27:34 (mm:ss)
- License: CC Attribution-ShareAlike
- Listen / Download
- Rippling Music – Part VII 2010
- Artist/Composer: Enduro
- Length: 06:05 (mm:ss)
- License: Public Domain
- Listen / Download
- scary night
- Artist/Composer: Cely Grande
- Length: 03:45 (mm:ss)
- License: CC0 1.0 Universal
- Listen / Download
- spooky action
- Artist/Composer: Mike Caulfield
- Length: 02:13 (mm:ss)
- License: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States
- Listen / Download
- No title
- Artist/Composer: N/A
- Length: 05:24 (mm:ss)
- License: Public Domain
- Listen / Download
Happy soundtracks!