Music

Minecraft contains many music tracks, which play in various places in the game, including on the main menu, in Creative mode, in the Nether, in the End, and during the credits. Certain tracks from music discs can also be played with a jukebox. The music tracks in the game are composed by C418, Lena Raine, Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, Amos Roddy, Hyper Potions, and fingerspit.

Music tracks can play at various points during gameplay. Some types of music are triggered by events, while others play randomly while certain criteria are met.

• If the player is in the menu screens (not in a world), a random menu track starts playing after 1 to 30 seconds. Menu music stops playing in Java Edition when the player enters the loading world screen, or fades out in Bedrock Edition when the loading screen finishes.
• If the player is in the Overworld and not in Creative, a random general track plays which depends on the biome.
• If the player is in the Overworld and is currently in Creative mode,^{[note 1]} a random track plays from the Creative music (as well as regular in Java Edition).
• If the player is underwater in an ocean or river biome, random underwater tracks play.
• If the player is in the Nether, a random general Nether track or a Nether biome-specific track plays, except warped forests, which don't have any music.

• If the player is in the End and the ender dragon has been defeated, the normal End track plays.
• The song "Boss" always plays instantly while the player is in the End if the ender dragon is undefeated or resummoned.
• The song "Alpha" always plays instantly during the credits.

If a music track is playing while the player is entering a pale garden, it fades into silence. The music resumes when the player exits the biome.

Game music stops playing when the player quits the world, or fades out in Bedrock Edition. When the game is paused, game music continues to play in Java Edition, while in Bedrock Edition it pauses and resumes when the player exits the game menu or disables pausing.

The regular, Creative, Nether, End, and underwater gameplay music randomly plays 10 to 20 minutes^[verify] after currently playing tracks are finished. In Java Edition, the player can change how frequently music plays by changing the "Music Frequency" setting in the "Music & Sounds" menu.

In Java Edition, when the "Show Music Toast" setting is enabled in the "Music & Sounds" menu, a toast showing the track name and artist appears on-screen when a new track starts playing. This toast is also shown in the game menu.

An additional 21 tracks in Minecraft are exclusive to music discs. These are rare items obtained through specific loot chests or mobs killed in a specific way. A music disc can be played in a jukebox block and can be heard up to 64 blocks away by any player.

For a full list of jukebox tracks, see Music Disc.

The player can force specific music tracks to play using the /playsound command with the track's ID. In Bedrock Edition, the /music command can also be used and allows to set a queue, or stop only music sounds.

All music as well as sounds in Minecraft are stored in the sound directory. In Java Edition, however, the sound files are obfuscated and cannot be directly accessed. To get around with this, the sound directory can be extracted by the methods showed in Tutorial:Sound directory. In Bedrock Edition, the music files are not obfuscated and can be found directly at Content\data\resource_packs\vanilla_music\sounds\music.

The song name shown in the music toast is found by converting the sound file's resource ID into a translation key that can be looked up in the current language file. Note that this is the sound file, not the sound event. To form a translation key, all path and namespace separators in the resource ID are replaced with periods. For example, a resource ID like custom_namespace:music/game/custom_song would use the translation key custom_namespace.music.game.custom_song. If the song is in the vanilla minecraft namespace, the namespace is not included, so the vanilla song minecraft:music/game/creative/blind_spots uses the translation key music.game.creative.blind_spots.

These music tracks are played when the player is in the Overworld.

These music tracks can be heard while the player's head is submerged in water in any river or ocean biome.

These music tracks play while the player is in the Nether.

These music tracks play while the player is in the End.

These music tracks play in the menu screens and during the End Poem and credits specifically.

Originally, all of Minecraft's music was composed by C418. According to Mojang, as the game got more popular (specifically starting with the Update Aquatic^[3]), others were hired to produce music and soundtracks for the game. However, C418 has cited legal disputes between himself and Microsoft, who wanted to own the music he produced outright, as the real reason for additional composers.^{[citation needed]} Since the Nether Update, new tracks composed by Lena Raine, Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, Amos Roddy, Hyper Potions and fingerspit were added. Samuel Åberg also composed many recent ambient sounds. Famous music producer and DJ Deadmau5 was also meant to make music for the game alongside C418, but his works didn't make it into Minecraft for unknown reasons.^[4][5][6][7]

Due to the way assets are downloaded in Java Edition, changes can be seen in development versions released before the change was made, due to them using the same assets index file.

Issues relating to "Music" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

• "The End" is heavily built on modified versions of several tracks from "Minecraft - Volume Alpha".^[11]
• "calm3.ogg", or "Sweden", is a Passacaglia, with a changing melody over a repeated bass line.
• On April Fools' Day 2014, Mojang played a bunch of villager themed pranks on the players, including temporarily replacing the track "hal1.ogg", or "Subwoofer Lullaby", with a version that had a villager singing along, as well as temporarily replacing all the menu songs with the villagers singing the Game Of Thrones theme song. This was reverted on April 2, 2014.
• hal3.ogg (Haggstrom) is in septuple meter (precisely 7/4 time).
• According to C418, the track "Mice on Venus" (game filename is piano3.ogg) was originally a short piano solo, but was then changed later in Minecraft's development and an addendum was added, which made the track what the game has currently.^[12]
• Some of the music tracks have a special title:
  • The word "Shuniji" (主虹, しゅにじ) means "primary rainbow" in Japanese.
  • The title of the track "So Below" is a reference to "As above, so below"^[13], a phrase associated with Hermeticism that is derived from a passage from the Emerald Tablet of Thoth, relating to the secrets of creating the philosopher's stone.
  • The word rubedo is Latin for "redness". The term was adopted by alchemists to refer to the final stage of creating the philosopher's stone.^[14]
  • The word chrysopoeia (χρυσοποιία) is an alchemical term that describes the creation of the philosopher's stone, or the transmutation of a given object into gold.^[15]
  • "Bromeliad" refers to a taxonomic family of flowering plants. This family contains pitcher plants and species resembling torchflowers.

• 👁 Artwork for the (now removed) official music pack in the Marketplace
  
  Artwork for the (now removed) official music pack in the Marketplace

• Music Disc
• Musicians:
  • C418
  • Lena Raine
  • Kumi Tanioka
  • Samuel Åberg
  • Aaron Cherof
  • Amos Roddy
  • Hyper Potions
  • fingerspit
• Soundtracks:
  • Minecraft - Volume Alpha
  • Minecraft - Volume Beta
  • Minecraft: Nether Update (Original Game Soundtrack)
  • Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs (Original Game Soundtrack)
  • Minecraft: The Wild Update (Original Game Soundtrack)
  • Minecraft: Trails & Tales (Original Game Soundtrack)
  • Minecraft: Tricky Trials (Original Game Soundtrack)
  • Minecraft: Chase the Skies (Original Game Soundtrack)