Quick answer: Pygame.mixer.music.fadeout continuing to fade while the game is paused? fadeout runs on a real-time clock; pause doesn't affect it - use volume tween in your pause-aware game loop.
Pause the game during fade-out. Music continues to fade in the background; on unpause, music is already silent.
Manual volume tween
vol = lerp(start_vol, 0, t)
music.set_volume(vol)Tween in your game loop; skipped during pause.
Or pause music on pause
music.pause()fadeout pauses too; unpause resumes the fade.
Audit pause-aware audio
Every long-running audio op should be pause-aware. Lists everything; harder to miss one.
“Audio ops have their own timing. Game pause doesn't affect them unless you opt in.”
Build a single audio controller for the game. It owns pause semantics; everything routes through it.