Commands/playsound

Plays a specified sound to a player, in a location, and in a specific volume and pitch.

Syntax[]

Java Edition

playsound <sound> <source> <targets> [<pos>] [<volume>] [<pitch>] [<minVolume>]

Bedrock Edition

playsound <sound: string> [player: target] [position: x y z] [volume: float] [pitch: float] [minimumVolume: float]

Arguments[]

JE: <sound>: resource_location
BE: sound: string: basic_string

Specifies the sound to play.

In Bedrock Edition, it must be either a single word (no spaces) or a quoted string. Should be a sound event defined in sound_definitions.json (for example, mob.pig.say).

In Java Edition, must be a resource location which will be resolved during command execution into unregistered content or client-side content. Should be a Sound Event defined in sounds.json (for example, entity.pig.ambient).

A sound event may be affiliated with multiple sounds, and the sound that is actually produced is chosen at random from them, modified by their "weight", just as the game normally would. For example, the entity.pig.ambient sound event plays one of several pig sounds at random, because the event has multiple sounds associated with it.

Resource packs may add their own events to sounds.json; the command successfully plays these. File names are not used by this command; it strictly uses the events defined in sounds.json (which may not even be similar to the original file names and paths), and thus a resource pack adding new sound files must define events for them (this is not necessary when replacing old sounds already defined in events).

JE: <source>

Specifies the music category and options the sound falls under. Must be master, music, record, weather, block, hostile, neutral, player, ambient, or voice.

JE: <targets>: entity
BE: player: target: CommandSelector<Player>

Specifies the sound's target.

Must be a player name, a target selector or a UUID‌^{[Java Edition only]}. And the target selector must‌^{[JE only]}/should‌^{[BE only]} be of player type.

JE: <pos>: vec3
BE: position: x y z: CommandPositionFloat

Specifies the position to play the sounds from.

Must be a three-dimensional coordinates with floating-point number elements. Accepts tilde and caret notations.

JE: <volume>: float
BE: volume: float: float

Specifies the distance that the sound can be heard. If not specified, defaults to 1. For values less than 1, the volume diminishes. For values greater than 1, the sound does not actually grow louder, but its audible range (a 16-block radius at 1) is multiplied by volume. There is always a gradual falloff to silence based on distance from the center of the sphere. For values equal to or less than 0, no player can hear the sound.

Must be a Single-precision floating-point format number. In Java Edition, it must be greater than or equal to 0.0.

JE: <pitch>: float
BE: pitch: float: float

Specifies the pitch and speed of the sound. If not specified, defaults to 1.

Must be a Single-precision floating-point format number. In Java Edition, it must be between 0.0 and 2.0 (inclusive).

In Java Edition, values less than 0.5 are equivalent to 0.5. Values lower than 1 lower the pitch and increase the duration; values greater than 1 raise the pitch and reduce the duration. The pitch value is a multiplier applied to the frequency, so if a value from 0.5 to 1 is doubled, the pitch goes an octave higher. (See Note block § Usage for converting other intervals to pitch values, but be aware that 1 isn't F♯ for all sound effects.)

In Bedrock Edition, only values between 0 and 256 work. Values above 256 are equivalent to the default value; values less than 0 default to 1, while values equal to 0 makes the sound inaudible. The value of the pitch is also the value for the speed multiplier, ex. if you set the pitch to 2 then the sound will play at double the pitch and double the speed.

JE: <minVolume>: float
BE: minimumVolume: float: float

Specifies the volume for targets outside the sound's normal audible sphere. If a target is outside the normal sphere, the sound is instead centered some short distance (two blocks away) from the target, and this argument determines its volume. If not greater than 0, targets outside the normal audible sphere cannot hear the sound.

If not specified, defaults to 0.0.

Must be a Single-precision floating-point format number. In Java Edition, it must be between 0.0 and 1.0 (inclusive).

Result[]

Command	Trigger	Java Edition	Bedrock Edition
any	the arguments are not specified correctly	Unparseable	Unparseable
	`player: target` is not in player type	N/A	Failed
	`<targets>` or `player: target` fails to resolve to one or more online players	Failed
	nobody can hear the sound (`minVolume` or `minimumVolume: float` is not greater than 0.0, while all the targets are outside the normal audible sphere)	Failed
	one of the specified players cannot hear the sound^{[needs testing]}	N/A
	Otherwise	Successful

Output[]

Command	Edition	Situation	Success Count	`/execute store success ...`	`/execute store result ...`
any	Java Edition	On fail	0	0	0
	Java Edition	On success	1	1	the number of players who can hear the sound
	Bedrock Edition	On fail	0	N/A	N/A
	Bedrock Edition	On success	the number of targeted players	N/A	N/A

Examples[]

To play the creeper hissing sound 3 blocks behind the nearest player:
- /execute at @p run playsound entity.creeper.primed hostile @s ^ ^ ^-3 1 0.5‌^{[Java Edition only]}

History[]

Java Edition
1.6.1	pre	Added `/playsound`.
1.9	15w49a	`/playsound` now accepts tab-completion.
1.9	16w02a	`/playsound` now requires a source parameter, specifying what is the sound's category for volume purposes.
Pocket Edition
1.0.5	alpha 1.0.5.0	Added `/playsound`.