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Replacing Music with a Player's Own Music

The Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, iOS, and Android platforms allow their game players to replace the game music with their own. For all platforms, you must enable the Mute for Background Music option on all the busses you want to mute when the user's music starts. Multiple busses can be selected and this is not restricted to music busses.

To assign a bus to a platform's background music option:

  1. Load an Audio Bus into the Property Editor.

  2. Select the Mute for Background Music option.

    This bus will now be muted when users start their music through the console's music player.

Platform-Specific details

The behavior of Mute for Background Music is slightly different on each platform. Also, additional programming needs to be done at the initialization of the sound engine.

  • Android: The Mute/Unmute action will occur only when the user switches from the music player app to the game. This means that there is no "Unmute" if the user music finishes by itself.

  • iOS: If the AudioSession flag "MixOther" is set in the sound engine initialization settings, the Mute/Unmute action will occur only when the user switches from the music player app to the game. This means that there is no "Unmute" if the user music finishes by itself. On iOS 8 and later, if the AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient category is used, muting and unmuting of the game music will occur for all application audio interruptions.

  • Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5: Some platforms have a DVR function that allows the gamer to record their gameplay and publish it. This raises a few legal issues regarding copyrighted music that might be part of the game audio, or user-replaceable music. While the game studio has the rights to use the music in their game, the end-user may not have the rights to distribute it in any form. Thus, the platform requirements usually state that user background music should not be recorded. The cost-effective solution (CPU-wise) for this problem is to mix the music separately from the rest of the game. This is done using the Secondary Output feature.

    Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 provide a virtual device to which to send the sounds that should not be recorded. You will need to create a new master bus to be able to define a different mix for this DVR-bypass Audio Device. Then change the Audio Device property on that new bus to point to the DVR-bypass device. Then the sounds can be routed normally to the new bus, or any child bus. See Understanding Secondary Outputs for more information.

    [Note]Important Note for PS4 and PS5

    You must add the secondary output in code (using AddOutput) if you want to use the Mute for Background Music feature. If this output isn't used, the system will not provide notification that the user's music has started.


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