diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index f2c2b83..cac8b7d 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ keywords = ["time", "clock", "tui"]
 categories = ["date-and-time"]
 
 [features]
-default = ["desktop"]
+default = ["desktop", "sound"]
 desktop = ["dep:notify-rust"]
+sound = ["dep:rodio", "desktop"]
 
 
 [dependencies]
@@ -24,4 +25,5 @@ humantime = "2.1.0"
 libpt = { version = "0.6.0", features = ["cli"] }
 notify-rust = { version = "4.11.0", optional = true }
 ratatui = "0.27.0"
+rodio = { version = "0.19.0", optional = true }
 tui-big-text = "0.4.5"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0010af8..9bc9bf1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,3 +13,21 @@ A little clock for your terminal, written in rust.
 * [Original Repository](https://git.cscherr.de/PlexSheep/crock)
 * [GitHub Mirror](https://github.com/PlexSheep/crock)
 * [crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/crock)
+
+## Compilation
+
+The `desktop` and `sound` features require additional system dependencies:
+
+| Feature   | Dependency | PKG Name on Debian based Distributions |
+|-----------|------------|----------------------------------------|
+| `desktop` | dbus       | `libdbus-1-dev`                        |
+| `sound`   | alsa       | `libasound2-dev`                       |
+
+If you want to compile without these features, you will not have notifications 
+and sound alerts for countdown mode. (Use `cargo build -r --no-default-features`)
+
+## Acknoledgements
+
+The included alarm sound is from pixabay, royalty free:
+
+-> ["Alarm Clock 1"](https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=105903)
diff --git a/data/media/alarm.mp3 b/data/media/alarm.mp3
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..26d6c33
Binary files /dev/null and b/data/media/alarm.mp3 differ
diff --git a/src/clock.rs b/src/clock.rs
index 8194695..194c30b 100644
--- a/src/clock.rs
+++ b/src/clock.rs
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ use ratatui::layout::{Alignment, Constraint, Direction, Layout, Rect};
 use ratatui::style::{Style, Stylize};
 use ratatui::widgets::{Block, LineGauge, Padding, Paragraph};
 use ratatui::Terminal;
-use std::io::{Stdout, Write};
+use std::io::{Cursor, Stdout, Write};
 use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
@@ -405,6 +405,21 @@ impl Clock {
     }
     fn notify(&mut self) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         Self::beep()?;
+        #[cfg(feature = "sound")]
+        {
+            trace!("playing bundled sound");
+            use rodio::{source::Source, Decoder, OutputStream};
+
+            // only 30 KiB, so let's just include it in the binary and not worry about reading it
+            // from the fs and somehow making the file be there
+            let sound: Cursor<_> = std::io::Cursor::new(include_bytes!("../data/media/alarm.mp3"));
+
+            // Get an output stream handle to the default physical sound device
+            let (_stream, stream_handle) = OutputStream::try_default().unwrap();
+            let source = Decoder::new(sound).expect("could not load the included sound");
+            stream_handle.play_raw(source.convert_samples())?; // the sound plays in another thread
+            debug!("played bundled sound");
+        }
         #[cfg(feature = "desktop")]
         {
             let mut notify = notify_rust::Notification::new();
@@ -420,6 +435,10 @@ impl Clock {
             //
             // TODO: add something to make a sound without the notification system,
             // as that is not reliable but the user might depend on it.
+
+            // only play this when we don't use built in sound, this
+            // isn't as consistent
+            #[cfg(not(feature = "sound"))]
             notify.sound_name("alarm-clock-elapsed");
 
             // The user sets the time with the expectation to be notified, but it's