What is the difference between a movie soundtrack and a movie score

Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Follow Following. Cutting Room Music. Sign me up. Scores, like songs, are also licensed. They are also more affordable than songs. When licensing high-quality scores, however, the price can be on par with a high-quality song.

Whereas songs are written primarily for album releases, scores are composed for visual media and film. While there are countless types of songs, there are two main types of Score music: Background and Featured.

The majority of scores are background score music. Background scores are to be felt and not noticed. Featured score music, by comparison, is usually placed in a scene where there is no dialogue and the music is more upfront. A good example of featured score music would be a montage scene — no one is speaking, but there is music and action within the scene. Stock Music is written by stock composers to be licensed for use in visual media, such as low-budget, online videos. Stock composers write a lot of music , really quickly, sometimes cranking out anywhere from tracks per day!

Quantity is often the goal for stock music composers. In my experience, composers who write music in several different styles, like stock composers, end up spreading themselves too thin. Imagine if this were possible: music pieces would sound quite generic since there would be no specialization by musicians within a particular style. Like bands and artists, composers who focus on original styles, rather than many composing pieces in several different styles, are able to compose pieces with a more authentic and interesting sound, since that is their specialization.

A great composer is able to distinguish him or herself with a very unique writing style , that is likely more licensable than generic, stock pieces. There is generally more time spent creating songs than scores or stock music. I'm too lazy for it today. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer.

Zack 3 3 3 bronze badges. Thanks for doing what I was too lazy to do. I was hoping someone who needed Rep Points would do it. The soundtrack can be one of two things. From an editing perspective it is everything which is audible and can include : Original dialogue Additional overdubbed dialogue voice-overs the score foley tracks ie prost production physical sound effects in practice this will often be most non dialogue sounds other than music sound special effects explosions, monster noises etc licensed songs or other audio In terms of merchandising a 'soundtrack' album will usually be non-original music ie not made especially for the production and occasionally excerpts of dialogue.

Chris Johns Chris Johns 3, 15 15 silver badges 15 15 bronze badges. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Version labels for answers.

It has no affect on the actual characters. And is it score, songs, or both? Tell me in the comments! Great question and great film! Not my intention!