Libgdx audio lifecycle

libGDX Audio

Quick reference for libGDX audio APIs. Covers Sound, Music, platform gotchas, and common audio patterns.

Audio: Sound vs Music

	Sound	Music
Loading	Fully into memory	Streamed from disk
Use for	Short effects (<1MB on Android)	Background tracks, long audio
Concurrent	Multiple instances via play()	One stream per Music object
Auto pause/resume	No	Yes (libGDX handles automatically)

Formats: WAV, MP3, OGG all supported. OGG not supported on iOS — use WAV or MP3.

Sound API

Sound snd = Gdx.audio.newSound(Gdx.files.internal("click.wav"));

// play() returns instance ID (long).
long id = snd.play();                          // default volume
long id = snd.play(volume);                    // volume: [0, 1]
long id = snd.play(volume, pitch, pan);        // pitch: [0.5, 2.0], pan: [-1, 1]

long id = snd.loop();                          // same overloads as play()
long id = snd.loop(volume, pitch, pan);

// Per-instance control (pass the id from play/loop)
snd.setVolume(id, volume);
snd.setPitch(id, pitch);
snd.setPan(id, pan, volume);                   // NOTE: pan+volume together
snd.setLooping(id, true);
snd.stop(id);
snd.pause(id);
snd.resume(id);

// All-instance control (no id)
snd.stop();
snd.pause();
snd.resume();

snd.dispose();                                 // MUST call when done

In non-trivial projects, prefer loading audio via AssetManager rather than raw Gdx.audio.newSound(). AssetManager handles disposal via unload() and supports async loading.

Gotchas:

• Pan only works on mono sounds (stereo sounds ignore pan).
• Android: uncompressed PCM must be <1MB for Sound. Use Music for larger files.
• play() on an already-playing Sound plays it concurrently (new instance).
• Behavior when exceeding platform limits is backend-dependent — sounds may silently fail to play. Do not rely on the return value to detect this.
• play() called in create() can silently fail on Android before the audio system is fully initialized. Defer initial sound playback to the first render() frame or use a boolean flag.

Music API

Music bgm = Gdx.audio.newMusic(Gdx.files.internal("theme.ogg")); // OGG not supported on iOS — use MP3 for cross-platform

bgm.play();
bgm.pause();
bgm.stop();                                    // resets to beginning

bgm.setVolume(volume);                         // [0, 1]
float v = bgm.getVolume();
bgm.setPan(pan, volume);                       // [-1, 1], [0, 1]

bgm.setLooping(true);
boolean playing = bgm.isPlaying();
boolean looping = bgm.isLooping();

bgm.setPosition(seconds);                      // seek (float, in seconds)
float pos = bgm.getPosition();

bgm.setOnCompletionListener(music -> {
    // Called when music finishes playing
});

bgm.dispose();                                 // MUST call when done

In non-trivial projects, prefer loading audio via AssetManager rather than raw Gdx.audio.newMusic(). AssetManager handles disposal via unload() and supports async loading.

Gotchas:

• OnCompletionListener does NOT fire when looping is true. If you need looping + completion callback, set looping=false and restart in the listener.
• libGDX automatically pauses/resumes Music on Android pause/resume. You do NOT need to manually pause music in ApplicationListener.pause(). Doing so is redundant.
• Only one OnCompletionListener per Music instance (last set wins).
• setPosition() is unreliable on some Android devices for MP3 — seeking uses bitrate estimation and can be off by several seconds. OGG seeking is more accurate, but OGG is unsupported on iOS. For cross-platform seeking accuracy, consider WAV (large files) or accept MP3 imprecision.

Common Patterns

Shared Music Across Screens

Store Music in the Game class, not in individual Screens. Dispose only in Game.dispose().

public class MyGame extends Game {
    public Music bgm;

    @Override
    public void create() {
        bgm = Gdx.audio.newMusic(Gdx.files.internal("theme.mp3")); // use MP3 for iOS compatibility
        bgm.setLooping(true);
        bgm.play();
        setScreen(new MenuScreen(this));
    }

    @Override
    public void dispose() {
        bgm.dispose();
        getScreen().dispose();
    }
}

Platform Differences

Behavior	Desktop (LWJGL3)	Android	iOS (RoboVM)
OGG support	Yes	Yes	No
Music auto-pause	On minimize only	Yes	Yes
Sound size limit	None	<1MB PCM	None
MP3 seeking accuracy	Good	Unreliable	Good

Common Mistakes

1. Manually pausing Music in pause() — libGDX does this automatically. Redundant code confuses readers.
2. Using Sound for long audio — Sound loads entirely into memory. Use Music for anything over a few seconds.
3. Expecting OnCompletionListener with looping — It won't fire. Use looping=false + manual restart.
4. Using OGG on iOS — Will fail silently or crash. Use WAV/MP3.
5. Playing Sound in create() on Android — Audio system may not be ready. Defer to first render() frame.
6. Relying on Music.setPosition() accuracy with MP3 on Android — Seeking can be off by seconds. Use OGG for accuracy (but not on iOS).
7. Checking Sound.play() return value for failure detection — Behavior is backend-dependent. Don't rely on it.