Exploit the unexpected

A Halloween gathering calls for a different kind of party prep. Your chill playlist won’t do for this shindig. Instead, you’ll want something spookier: think creaking doors, rattling hardware, and gusting wind, as if every window in the house has been shattered. You can stream these sounds from a speaker. But to take it up a notch, get creative with your audio placement. Your guests might anticipate these traditional Halloween sounds to come from the usual places, like the speakers near the TV or in the den. To create suspense, find a few hiding spots for your speakers to live. Conceal Era 100 behind a curtain. Put Sonos Roam in the attic. Tuck Move 2 inside a hollow tree. The sound of a blood curdling scream in the living room is already scary. Now imagine that scream coming from a closet.

Here’s a Spotify playlist of sounds we created to help you unnerve and petrify your guests.

Tell a scary story

Don’t underestimate the written word’s power to frighten people. Classics like Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are made scarier by people’s own imaginations. Take advantage of that, and allow your guests’ minds to do the heavy lifting for you. Dedicate one room in your home for playing audio versions of the stories that have been keeping people up at night for centuries. If your guests leave with nightmares, you have done your job.

This Spotify playlist covers everything from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” to a reading of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Push past the “Monster Mash”

Your playlists are building tension among your guests — people are unnerved by the noises coming from the attic, and their minds are spinning with the content of the ghoulish stories they’ve heard. You’ll want to give them the chance to let their hair down, preferably under the light of the moon. Grab Move 2 and head outside to end the night on a dramatic note with a playlist of our favorite goth jams from the 80s and 90s, including Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, the Cure, and more. Dance and howl at the moon with your guests — there’s no other way to end this night that’s more fitting.

Whether you’ve spent all month transforming your home into something out of a nightmare or just want to set the right mood for trick-or-treaters, these playlists on your Sonos system will make sure to put the boogie in boogeyman.