Music and sound effects (SFX) in video games increase the immersion and create a more believable experience for the player. From footstep sounds when the character is walking to the birds chirping in a forest scene, good audio can take any game to a whole new level.

Good audio doesn't always come cheap, but there are places where you can find good music and sound effects at no extra cost.

Here are five websites where you can download free music and sound effects for your game made in the Unity Game Engine.

Pixabay

Pixabay has thousands of royalty-free music and sound effects you can use in your games or trailers. The sound effects include gunfire, footsteps, monster sounds, user interface (UI) sounds, and more.

You can start downloading audio without creating an account, but the option is available for anyone who expects to use the platform often. If you love a particular track or sound effect, you can donate to the artists, or, if they're available for hire, hire them to create more audio for your game.

The platform is community-driven, so if you or someone you know creates music and sound effects, you can create an account and start uploading your content. It offers additional resources, including illustrations, vectors, and photos, that may be useful for game development.

Mixkit

Mixkit offers a rich library of music and sound effects you can download and use without any attribution. There's a search bar where you can type in the type of sound effect you want, and the results will be revealed shortly.

Although it's not as vast as Pixabay, Mixkit remains a viable alternative if you don't find what you're looking for on Pixabay. You don't have to create an account to get started and can download audio right away.

Mixkit is tailored towards video editors, so you'll find other resources there, such as stock video footage and templates for video editing platforms like DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere Pro.

Streambeats

Streambeats began as a provider of free royalty-free background music for live streaming on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, but has expanded its catalog in recent years. Most of the tracks are in the lo-fi genre, perfect for laid-back games aiming for calm, relaxed vibes.

What Streambeats lacks in sound effects, it makes up for in hundreds of audio tracks you can use for free without attribution. Some of the other genres include rock, electronic, and chiptunes that would be perfect for pixel art games.

There are no accounts or sign-ups necessary to use music from Streambeats. You can download the music directly from the website. The website doesn't include previews of the music, but you can listen to them on Spotify by searching for an artist by the same name.

Unity Asset Store

The official Unity asset store remains the best place for any assets you'll need to make a game in the Unity Game Engine. It's curated for game developers seeking assets ranging from free to hundreds of dollars, all with varying quality.

The Asset Store offers audio and sound effects for multiple video game genres. Whether you're looking for chip tunes for a pixel art game or sci-fi explosions for your sci-fi first-person shooter, you'll most likely find it in the Asset Store.

You can also save any assets you like but don't currently need for later. Once you find one, add it to your assets and download it inside the Unity Game Engine.

YouTube

YouTube might not be the top place to look for music and sound effects to use in a game, but there are some channels offering royalty-free, no-copyright music you might be interested in. Some of these channels include Audio Library and Audio Library - Free Music.

A simple search for royalty-free or free sound effects should reveal more channels offering the kind of audio you're looking for.

Bonus

If you're a fan of the AI hype train, you can leverage one of the AI models to generate music and sound effects for your Unity game. There's been some friction between artists and AI companies over the use of their work to train AI models and the ethics behind it, but the argument remains unresolved.