What is film music?

In the widest sense, film music is the term for the musical backdrop to a film. Film music is also often referred to as a "soundtrack" or "score music". When a film is produced, the music is either composed directly by a commissioned composer, or pre-existing music is chosen and carefully aligned to the visuals.

Since music is an excellent means of conveying emotions, film music is often chosen with the intention of evoking certain feelings in the viewer: a gentle piano ballad at a romantic rendezvous, high-energy action music during a chase - film music usually underlines the content of the footage of the scene.

However, music can also be deliberately used to transport emotions that are not visible in the picture: a child, sitting on a playground swing to the sound of a dark, creepy melody – here, on the acoustic level, a mood is transported which is in stark contrast to the visible image. In this way, the viewer is acoustically introduced to the idea that something unexpected and terrible could happen. There are no limits to creativity in film scoring.

Typical film music

Film music is just as multifaceted as the film genres themselves: from a romantic comedy to an action thriller full of suspense, an epic monumental film to a funny children's movie – the range of music used is as wide as that of the kind of stories told. However, there are some standards that are often heard in soundtracks. The following audio samples illustrate this:

Royalty free film music

The music titles in musicfox’s repertoire are royalty free. If you use music from our repertoire in one of your films, you do not have to pay any royalties to a performing right organization for the use of the music. After payment of a one-time license fee for the use of our film music you are entitled to use the music in your film for an indefinite period of time.

Music collection