Spooky Music for Halloween & the Day of the Dead (Updated for 2015)

It's that time of year for scary, spooky music. And whether you want such tunes for a party, your workplace, or just to listen to at home, we're got some options below—and you can listen to some of them free online.

One of the inexpensive Halloween albums on sale at Amazon.com.

Pandora has a few Halloween-themed stations this year. I've been listening to the Spooky Symphonies Playlist, which includes scary or creepy classical pieces like "Night on Bald Mountain" and Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt suite. Pandora also has Halloween Party, which lets you rock out to familiar Halloween pop tunes like "Monster Mash."

If you've got young people around, the Family Halloween Playlist might be more appropriate, with its holiday-themed songs designed not to strike fear into the hearts of children.

Interested in buying and keeping some ghoulish music? Amazon.com has a number of albums for the occasion. For example, there are two "Halloween Haunted House" collections for just three dollars each. One features 250 songs and sound effects for spooking your friends and other guests, while the other offers a continuous music playlist.

And there are soundtracks to movies including "Rosemary's Baby" and "Halloween II." 

Similar to Pandora's "Spooky Symphonies" playlist is Amazon's "99 Must-Have Halloween Classics" for $5.49, and "Scary Classical Music for Halloween" for $5.99 $7.99. They include familiar pieces such as the theme from "The Exorcist," "Ride of the Valkyries," "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and several selections from "The Rite of Spring." (Note: both the Pandora and Amazon collections contain songs that aren't really spooky per se, but sound dramatic, or were used in a dramatic movement of a movie (such as tunes from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "Harry Potter" films.)

If you want to observe Day of the Dead, check out my post from a couple of years back, "Spooky Spanish Tunes for Day of the Dead," which features videos from NPR Music's Alt.Latino program, and a list of the songs used in a seasonal episode of the defunct music podcast Ritmo Latino.

Update, Nov. 2015: Alt.Latino has put out a new Day of the Dead music mix this year, which it's calling the "horror movie mix-tape." See the tunes and listen to it here. 

Also new (new us) for 2015: Songwriter Andrew Gold (who penned such hits as "Thank You for Being a Friend" and "Lonely Boy") has a collection of Halloween songs for young people & adults called "Halloween Howls," which you can listen to on SoundCloud.

Happy scary listening!

Great Music Cheap: Last Call for Amazon's $5 MP3 Albums for Oct. (Plus a FREE Halloween Music Mix)

Today is the last day to scarf up $5 MP3 albumsfrom Amazon.com for October. Since I bought a number of CDs this month, I'm going to have to restrain myself in getting some of these Amazon $5 specials. Too bad, since there are some classic titles and some new favorites.

(One album that I will be buying: through the end of today, Amazon is offering one of my favorite albums of 2010,"The Five Ghosts" by Canadian band Stars, for only $3.99.)

Among the $5 MP3 albums from Amazonfor October:

"The Five Ghosts" by Stars
"Myth Takes" by !!! (Chk Chik Chick)
"Thief" by Destroyer (Dan Behar from The New Pornographers)
"Momento" by Bebel Gilberto
"Isolation Drills" by Guided By Voices
"Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91)" by Superchunk
"Who Is This America?" by Antibalas
"Fidelity!" by Chrissie & The Fairground Boys JP (Chrissie Hynde's latest project)
"Passing Strange" - Original Cast Recording
"Rio" by Aterciopelados
"The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire
"Dookie" by Green Day
"The Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance
"Transference" by Spoon
"Under The Blacklight" by Rilo Kiley
"See You On The Moon" by Tift Merritt
"Exile In Guyville" by Liz Phair
"Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
"Shaking The Tree - 16 Golden Greats (Remastered)" by Peter Gabriel

On a totally different subject, today is Halloween and if you're looking for some free music to stream for a party, or to get yourself in a spooky mood, check out the 2009 Creative Commons Halloween Mix from the Free Music Archive. It has a selection of interesting folk, industrial, and rock music; it's not your typical "Monster Mash" selection of familiar Halloween cliches.

There's a 2010 mix too, but it seems to have less music and more noise, sound effects, etc.