Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

If your design philosophy in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is anything like mine, to some degree you want to control visitor experiences on your island. I like to play with visitors' perceptions of an area through perspective and the use of sound, especially background music.

The normal background music in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is pretty decent, but it doesn't have that "it" factor for a lot of KK Slider tracks make them fun to listen to - that's why I like to put some background music for each key area of โ€‹โ€‹my island.



For some island decorators, all it takes is to drop one of the many stereos and turn it on. For others more interested in maintaining the aesthetics and sound of an area or the entire island, installing stereos becomes an entire project.

If you're serious about streaming audio around your island, you need to know which stereos you should use to get the best effects and how to place them discreetly but effectively.

Stereos and sound quality

Not all stereos are created equal, both in real life and in Animal Crossing. There are over 15 stereo elements in New Horizons, between them (from what I can tell) three distinctive audio fidelity levels with a single outlier (Portable Radio).

Audio fidelity in this context means how clear the sound is, how loud it is, and how bass the stereo outputs are.

I've separated the game's stereo options into three categories: high, medium, and low fidelity. I will explain what this means for you as an island designer.


(Single stereo images were taken from Nookpedia.)

High fidelity stereos

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music GuideThere are only two high-fidelity audio players in New Horizons, one of which is available to you early on.


These two stereos stand above the rest because they are louder than the others when positioned correctly, they have great sound quality, and they produce the most bass.

  • Wooden Block Stereo
  • hi-fi stereo

In my extensive testing between these two, both sound identical at all angles, volumes and distance. The only difference is what they look like and how much they cost.

The stereo is a whopping 82 bells! Meanwhile, you can just make a bunch of wooden stereos for free and have equally high audio fidelity.

I like to use the hifi stereo when I have no choice but to let visitors see the music player, and still want it to sound good. Otherwise, the wooden stereo does a fantastic job, even compared to mid-fidelity stereos that cost a handful of bells.

Medium Fidelity Stereos

The two high-fidelity stereos are a bit obvious even without testing them, but the same can't be said for the mid-fidelity stereos in the game.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music GuideThe main visual difference between most mid and low fidelity sound systems in Animal Crossing is that low fidelity stereos tend to be smaller, which is a feature that has its uses (more on that later).

Mid-fidelity stereos tend to sound fine, but their quality isn't on the same level as both high-fidelity stereos, and all three have additional feedback noise from the speakers and/or turntable. Neither of these have the bass of the two high fidelity options.


I will list them below, with notes on their notable aspects.


  • Jukebox (minor sputtering from speakers, but 1ร—1 tile)
  • High-end stereo (basic audio quality similar to high fidelity, but lower bass and perpetual crackle from low speakers)
  • Retro stereo (major sizzle from the speakers)

Low fidelity stereos

And here we are in the biggest category of audio systems in gaming.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music GuideLow-fidelity stereos are always three things: they're 1ร—1 tiles, they have relatively low maximum volumes, and they have a tiny quality to their audio.

In short, these stereos will work in a pinch but aren't suitable for setting the tone for an area of โ€‹โ€‹your island unless you specifically want the music to be muffled, thin, or not traveling far.

I like to use them when I'm trying to match the decor and want to hide my stereos, or to create an impression of music fading when entering or leaving an area. Anyway, we'll get to that in a moment. For now, here's the low-fidelity stereo list.

  • Cherry speakers
  • Shell Speaker
  • cute music player
  • portable record player
  • bamboo speaker
  • cassette player
  • tape deck
  • Radio Skull Throwback
  • Portable radio (plays random music at very low volume)

Using Stereos to Create Background Music in New Horizons

When the game initially released, you couldn't set stereos on your island to play different music tracks. It was my biggest disappointment back in New Horizons, and thankfully it's been fixed to allow your auditory creativity to roam free.



Now you can place as many stereos as you want on your island, playing any piece of music you want on each one. Which is great, because it takes a few to ensure that an area plays the music you want without being interrupted by the game's default music.

There are a number of things to keep in mind when trying to create background music for an area:

  • The music will only travel up to five tiles from the stereo and will be clear, although you can hold multiple tiles away and hear the music in the distance.
  • The closer you are to a stereo, the louder it is.
  • Every stereo is loudest when facing south โ€“ towards the screen, to be precise.
  • Your villagers will sing along to a song that's playing whether they're near the stereo or not.
  • The music from the stereos doesn't mix much at all, which means that if you have two stereos playing different music side by side, you'll only hear the song coming out of the closer one.
  • Fences and buildings muffle the audio if you are on the other side.

The last point can be a big hurdle if you have a neighborhood you're trying to make a single BGM for, but it can be a boon if you're just trying to give individual islanders yards and only want to hear the music in the courtyard .

All of the above applies no matter what stereo you use, from hifi stereo to tape recorder, so you can use this information to your advantage.

Maybe you want to completely obscure a stereo, maybe you just want it to blend in. Whatever you are aiming for, you can probably find a solution.

I'll use a few parts of my island as examples, as I've used a number of tricks to force the music into different areas without detracting from their aesthetics.

Example 1

This one is going to be a little weird but stay with me. I have two songs playing in this restaurant, but I can easily have three totally separate ones.

At my snapping turtle restaurant, Tonde's Torts, I have two stereos in the dining room as well as one in the snapping turtle enclosure behind the kitchen.

The first stereo is right next to me, a wooden stereo, and you can see the Jukebox in the back. They both play the same song.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

There's a pastel wooden stereo on the ledge path aft, which is there to turn on at my leisure and play the piano in that area. However, it can be used to grant the kitchen of Tonde's Torts its own song, which will not be heard in the rest of the restaurant.

With this setup I have the same song on the front wooden stereo and the Jukebox. It fills the whole dining room with the song I choose. Not only that, but the cute "outdoor seating area" I set up gets music from the wooden stereo at a volume high enough for me to fiddle along to the music.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

The cassette player in the snapping turtle enclosure can only be heard at the entrance to the enclosure, or if you are standing outside the fence enclosing it. The sound doesn't travel well, which is what I want.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

From this, there are a few key takeaways:

  • The sound in the snapping turtle enclosure is muffled because it faces west rather than south.
  • The restaurant's Jukebox and wooden stereo are close enough to each other that the music doesn't fade at all in the restaurant.
  • The pastel painted wooden stereo block on the ledge is placed facing north and close to the jukebox, so its music does not play over the restaurant music, but it only plays in the kitchen as it is taken sandwiched between the jukebox and the Cassette Player.

Example #2

My walk area was a pain to set up and run and still isn't complete, but uses a few tricks to obscure the stereos or attempt to blend them into the aesthetic. All these play the same song.

Looking at the image below, how many music players do you see? Two, right? The wooden stereo downstairs, which has been colored to blend in, and I honestly barely notice day to day, and the Jukebox in the back right.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

There are actually two hidden stereos in the image above. One is behind Tuna and the other is behind Nook's Cranny.

But that's not all here. My boardwalk has another hidden stereo. You'll notice it behind the popcorn maker.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

What you need to know about how it works:

  • Behind the tuna is a wooden stereo, and it faces south for maximum volume.
  • Behind Nook's Cranny is a retro stereo, and it can only really be heard when you're standing next to the store or walking out of it.
  • The tiny din of the Shell speaker serves to fade the music in or out depending on whether you're coming to the area or leaving; it is also at maximum volume.
  • There is a slight audio gap between Nook's Cranny and the Jukebox, as the Retro Stereo is behind the building and therefore a few tiles back.

Example #3

The swamp is one area I had to tinker with in terms of sound, as I don't have bamboo speakers. Otherwise I would slap them all over the area.

Just to note, all of these stereos play the same song.

Since I had to get a little creative, it serves as a reasonable example and hopefully gives you some ideas. Although I recognize that the back area has no music and needs to be completed. This section of the marsh is not shown here.

In the picture below, you'll probably notice two stereos right away: the tape recorder in front of the house, and the wooden stereo to the right behind the bamboo.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

There's also an unpainted wooden stereo downstairs, and it's against a cliff but still faces south. But that's not all! There are Cherry speakers on the left, facing north to disguise the fact that they are speakers.

If we walk a little to the right...

Animal Crossing New Horizons Background Music Guide

Two more speakers appear! Another wooden stereo near the bottom against the cliff on the right, and a painted Shell speaker behind the bamboo on the top right. These are to help provide audio coverage.

And of course, some things to note:

  • All three wood-block stereos face south for maximum volume, and ideally all three would be painted to match the area (I always forget to paint the last one).
  • A stereo has been installed behind the house, but the music cannot go far because the building is in the way; hence the Tape Deck in the front yard.
  • To force the music to travel properly further north, I would have to place another wooden stereo north of the brown Shell speaker.
  • The Cherry speakers work similarly to the Shell speaker on the boardwalk, in that they serve to make music sound like it blends in or out.

I've spent a lot of time fiddling with the game's stereo systems trying to get the music perfect in key areas of my island, and I hope all those hours of having the TV volume turned up too high helps you become an even better island designer.

Decorating for sound as much as aesthetics is hard, but getting KK Condor or whatever your favorite KK track is to play consistently in your favorite areas is well worth the extra effort and thinking about furniture positions .

Related content

That's all about our background music tutorial. Check out our other tips in the link above, or head over to our Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides for even more.

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