> FOR_GAMEDEVS.TXT

Free music for indie games that doesn't sound like a stock asset pack.

The problem: you're solo or two-person on a game, your reference soundtrack is Hollow Knight or Celeste or Inscryption, and your budget for music is "$0 plus credits". The free game-music asset packs you can find sound generic. Subscription libraries cost more per month than your game might earn. The fix: upload the reference soundtrack, get 20 Creative-Commons tracks that sound like it. Pay $5 once, ship them in your game.

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What indie devs actually need this for

Level themes & biome music

Each zone of your game wants its own audio identity. Drop a reference per biome — woodlands ambient, dungeon dread, surf-side beach, neon city — and find a CC track that fits. The 13-trait readout shows the energy and valence of each match so you can pick by feel as well as genre.

Combat & chase tracks

The high-energy track that kicks in when the boss appears. Use the danceability and energy traits from the reference to find CC matches with the right intensity. BPM is the most reliable trait — match within ±5 BPM of your reference and the cuts will feel right.

Menu & main theme loops

Title-screen music sets the tone before the player has done anything. Drop a reference theme you admire (Hyper Light Drifter, Outer Wilds, Stardew Valley), find CC tracks with the same instrumentation profile (acousticness + instrumentalness traits), pick the loop that fits.

Ambient beds & exploration

Long, low-key tracks that play during slow-paced exploration. Filter your reference search by low energy + high acousticness for the meditative feel; or low energy + high electronic / instrumentalness for ambient electronic.

Game jam music

You have 48 hours, you cannot afford to write your own soundtrack from scratch. Drop the reference of a game in the same genre, grab three or four CC matches, ship the jam build. The lifetime $5 means you keep the tool for the next jam too.

Cutscene scoring

Specific narrative beats need specific music. Drop a reference cue from a film/game you admire, get 20 matches, pick the one whose mood arc fits your scene.

License situation for shipping a game

Creative Commons tracks can be shipped inside a commercial game, including paid games on Steam, itch.io, GOG, the Epic Games Store, and the major console storefronts. The catch is attribution per license: CC BY tracks need a credit (most devs put it in the in-game credits roll and a CREDITS.txt in the install directory); CC BY-SA needs the same plus a note that derivative works must use the same license; CC0 needs nothing.

Our catalogue specifically excludes CC BY-NC tracks because their non-commercial restriction makes them unsafe for commercial games — even free games on itch.io that take donations or have a Patreon get into ambiguous territory with NC. Filter to "strictest only" mode if you want to also exclude CC BY-SA (some publishers prefer to avoid share-alike obligations on bundled assets).

Steam, GOG, itch.io, and the console first-party stores have all approved CC-licensed soundtracks in shipped games. The standard pattern is: CREDITS section in the game, attribution line per track with license + source URL.

How it works for game-dev workflow

Upload your reference per scene / biome / mode

One reference per audio context. MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, OGG up to 30 MB. The file is deleted immediately after analysis — we never store your references.

Get the 13-trait readout + 20 CC matches

BPM, key, LUFS, energy, valence, acousticness, instrumentalness, plus 6 more. Each match is ranked by audio similarity and shows its license badge inline.

Preview, download from source

Each match links to the source page on Free Music Archive, ccMixter, or Jamendo. Download in the highest quality available (most of the catalogue ships uncompressed or 320 kbps MP3).

Loop, layer, integrate

Drop the file into your engine (Godot, Unity, Unreal, GameMaker, Construct). Set up looping, layered intensity, FMOD/Wwise event triggers as needed. The track itself is yours to use under the license terms.

Add the credits

In-game credits roll: "[Track Name]" by [Artist] — CC BY 4.0 — [URL]. CREDITS.txt or LICENSES.txt in your install directory or repo. Done.

Common questions game devs ask

> Can I sell a game with CC-licensed music in it?

Yes — that's exactly what CC0, CC BY, and CC BY-SA permit. Commercial use including paid games is explicitly allowed. The only obligation is attribution per the specific license; CC0 has no obligation at all.

> Will Steam / itch.io / Epic / consoles accept CC music in a shipped game?

Yes. There's no platform that bans CC-licensed music in shipped games — the requirement is just that you have the rights to ship the audio you're shipping, which Creative Commons explicitly grants. Many shipped indie games use CC music; the standard practice is the in-game credits roll plus a LICENSES.txt or similar in the game files.

> What about Twitch streamers playing my game?

CC BY and CC BY-SA tracks are safe for streamers. Twitch's DMCA system shouldn't flag CC tracks; if it does, the stream-DMCA dispute uses the same license details. CC0 tracks are completely unflaggable. This is one reason many indie devs lean on CC music: streamer-safe by default.

> Can I edit / remix the matched tracks for my game?

CC BY: yes, derivatives allowed with attribution. CC BY-SA: yes, but your derivative must also be CC BY-SA. CC0: yes, no restrictions. Most game devs need to edit (loop seams, level fades, intensity layers) — this is fine under all three licenses.

> Can I use the tool during a game jam without paying recurring fees?

Yes — $5 once, lifetime. No per-jam, per-game, or per-track fees. Pay once, use everysong forever.

> Is the catalogue good enough for genre-specific games?

For ambient / electronic / chiptune-adjacent / acoustic / indie / experimental, yes — the CC catalogue is dense in those genres. For very specific niches (orchestral epic, J-Pop, metal subgenres, K-Pop) the matches will be weaker. The trait readout still tells you the BPM, key and energy of the closest matches, so you can adjust your design rather than fight the catalogue.

> Can I get an API for in-engine integration?

Not in v1. The web tool is the whole product right now. If you're building a music-discovery game or a tool that needs the matching engine inline, get in touch at [email protected] and we'll talk about a commercial API tier.

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