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Press Play: Free music loops and sound effects you can use in your Scratch and Python games

Add this music to your Scratch and Python games!

album cover for Press Play, showing a retro platform game

Use my sound pack to add exciting looping music to your Scratch and Python projects. I've created about 30 music loops and tunes you can use in your games. Some of them have a couple of variants you can switch between, so you can create a longer sequence with more variety. This sound pack has been created using a variety of synths including the Novation Mininova.

Find out more about Scratch and Python in my books Scratch Programming in Easy Steps, Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps, and Mission Python. Free chapters here!

On this page, you can:

  • Preview the sound loops in the pack using a Scratch player
  • See how to download the music loops and sound effects
  • Learn how to use sound effects in your Scratch projects
  • Learn how to use these sound effects with Python
  • Read the full track listing, including length and tempo numbers for the tracks

Preview the sound effects in my soundpack

Use this player to preview the sound effects. The double-headed arrows select a loop, and the Play button plays it. When you choose a new loop, the current one plays to the end before it starts, unless you press Play. This is so you can test how the loops work together. Some are designed to play different parts of the same tune.

Download the Press Play soundpack

This sound pack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons Licence

How to add music and sound effects in Scratch

  • Before you can use a sound, you need to add it to your sprite. Click the Sounds tab, and then hover over the Add Sound button at the bottom left. Choose Upload a Sound. If you use my project on the Scratch website, the sounds are already added to the Play (triangle) sprite.

    Screenshot showing the upload a sound button described above

  • To start a sound playing, use the start sound block. This starts the sound playing in the background, while the script continues. You can use the name of a sound, but you can also use a number (the first sound on a sprite is 1, the second one is 2 and so on). You can use a variable that contains either a number or a sound name, and drop it on top of the menu in this block.

    start sound block

  • To start a sound playing, but make the script wait until it's finished playing, use the [play sound until done] block. Again, you can use a name, number or variable to choose your sound.

    play sound until done block

How to make music loop or repeat in Scratch

  • To create looping music, you need to use the [play sound until done] block, and start the sound playing again when it finishes. Here's a simple script to start and stop looping music. The [loop sound] and [stop sound] blocks are created using the My Blocks feature in Scratch.

    Script to start and stop looping music

  • Here's an example of how you might use those blocks. Press 1 to start sound 1 playing, 2 to start sound 2 looping, and S to stop the music. You can make any key play any tune, and use a sound name, number, or variable containing either of those to tell the script which sound to loop.

    Scripts to make the music play and stop

  • I used the My Blocks feature to create the new blocks for [loop sound] and [stop sound], because they make it easy to tell the script the sound number you want to play. However, when you run the [loop sound] block from a script, that script will pause until the tune stops. To get around that, use a broadcast that starts the sound looping. Here's an example that will start the background music, but without stopping the sprite moving.

    Script showing a broadcast used to start the sound looping

Creating special music effects with this sound pack

  • Some tunes have different parts that you can combine to make a longer sequence, like this:

    Script showing different tunes played in order

  • The "cool suspense" and "frantic suspense" loops are the same tune at different speeds. You could use them to make the music speed up when the game is becoming particularly intense.

    Script showing frantic tune played is oxygen is less than 20, and slower tune played otherwise

  • When creating scripts like this, you can go to the Sounds tab, click the sound on the left, and then copy its name above the soundwave. Go to the Code tab, and you can paste it into your script.

How to make music loop or repeat in Python using Pygame Zero

Pygame Zero does not support the MP3 format, so you'll need to use the .ogg format sound files instead. Copy the sound into your sounds folder.

To make a sound repeat indefinitely, use:

sounds.twinklestar.play(-1)

where your sound file is called "twinklestar.ogg", or use:

sounds.ballet_jam_104bpm.play(-1)

where your sound file is called "ballet_jam_104bpm.ogg".

I wrote instructions for adding background sounds to the lunar surface locations of the Escape game from Mission Python, my book which shows you how to build a space adventure game.

Track listing for Press Play

Here are the details of the tracks, together with their length (in seconds) and tempo (in beats per minute, or BPM). I've also noted whether the track loops.

Title Length Tempo Does it loop? Notes
Ballet Jam 18 104 Yes A light twinkly melody floats above bouncy bass.
bells loop 32 60 Yes Bells chime above a throbbing bass line. Repeats nicely. Quite a long loop.
Breathe In 8 100 Yes A gently throbbing but abrasive electronic riff, the backing to Breathe Out.
Breathe Out 8 100 Yes Breathe In, but with a smooth sci-fi synth line across the top.
camel 18 104 Yes A synth loop that seems to lollop along, good for a "thoughtful" game sequence perhaps.
completion jingle 10 N/A No A slow, triumphant jingle for the completion of a space game, or a suitable "Your mission begins…" jingle.
Cool HipHop 10 90 Yes A short electronic ditty.
Cool House 31 120 Yes A looping synthy dance vibe. Comes in several parts you can play in any order.
Cool Mission 9 N/A No A slightly twisted sci-fi fanfare to begin your game.
Cool Puzzler 53 90 Yes A gentle tune that would fit a thoughtful puzzle game. Includes a quiet "concentration" section you can alternate with the main tune.
Cool Sting 1 N/A No A short "Game Over" style jingle, recorded from an Amstrad CPC 8-bit computer. Created in 1985!
Cool Strategy 17 80 Yes A looping march, like a military band.
Cool Success 4 N/A No Rising tones to celebrate the completion of a level.
Cool Suspense 27.5 105 Yes Platform game music, as if created by the people who make music for quiz shows.
Cool Trance 7 130 Yes A short trance music loop to bring energy to your game.
Cool Whoops 4 N/A No A short cartoony jingle for a failed Game Over.
Cotton Eye Cat 17 120 Yes This simple synth riff has a bit of a barn dance feel to it, I think.
elephant pt1 12 80 Yes A lumbering tune with a bouncy synth bass and a snappy top line.
elephant pt2 12 80 Yes A variant of elephant with additional vocal synth stabs. Use it to break up the repetition of the elephant pt1 loop.
factory dance 16 120 Yes A slightly more sci-fi loop, similar to Cotton Eye Cat.
Fiddlesticks 8.5 112 Yes A short looping tune with a subtle violin-like motif.
Fiddlesticks Jam 8.5 112 Yes Fiddlesticks, with a prominent synth line riding on the top.
Frantic Suspense 24 120 Yes This is Cool Suspense speeded up. Feels intense!
Jingle Fast 2 N/A No A celebratory, bouncy tune.
Jingle Slow 3 N/A No A slower version of Jingle Fast. As a pair they could be used for the start and end of the level.
mud monsters 5 91 Yes A short, squelchy loop.
newsflash 7 127 Yes An insistent pulsing jingle similar to the soundtrack of a news program.
Sounvenir of Japan 16 120 Yes A slightly Eastern sounding synth melody.
space eagle 7 125 Yes A short synthy loop.
Steel Dance 15 129 Yes A short loop with an artificial and softened steel drum sound.
Trampoline Bubbles 17 110 Yes An eccentric tune with bubbles popping and cartoon boings.
Twinklestar 8 120 Yes A delicate and short looping tune.

Where next?

Credits

© Sean McManus. All rights reserved.

Visit www.sean.co.uk for free chapters from Sean's coding books (including Mission Python, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps and Coder Academy) and more!

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