Soundtrack

Technical meaning

The band along a film's edge that carries its optical or magnetic sound record^[1]

Common meaning

The music of a film, show or game, and the albums that publish it^[5][15]

AFI's top film score

Star Wars (1977), John Williams^[2]

First Grammy for a game score

Stephanie Economou, Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, 65th Grammy Awards (2023)^[4]

A complete film score edition

Conan the Barbarian, Intrada, 2012: 3 CDs, 53 tracks, 3 hours 7 minutes^[5]

A game soundtrack at launch

Aion 2's The Echoes of Eternity, Nov 19, 2025: 70 tracks, 3 hours 47 minutes^[24][25]

The word

In motion-picture technology a sound track is the narrow band, usually along the margin of the film, that carries the sound record, either photographic or magnetic.^[1] In an optical system the band is a photographic record of a beam of light that the sound waves modulated, and it is played back by passing light through it onto a photocell connected through an amplifier to a loudspeaker.^[1] The word long ago moved from the strip to what it carries. Record labels sell film music as an "original motion picture soundtrack", and game publishers use the same word for their own releases: Amazon Games announced "the New World Soundtrack" in 2021, and NC titled Aion 2's album an "original soundtrack" in 2025.^[5][15][24]

14:04 Homeland, from New World A violin takes the melody in Homeland, the sixth track of the New World soundtrack, in the upload Amazon Games published with the album.

Film scores

A film score is written for one film and recorded for it, and the album that follows usually holds only part of the music. Conan the Barbarian (1982) shows the pattern. Basil Poledouris composed and conducted the score, which was played in Rome by members of the Orchestra and Chorus of Santa Cecilia and the Radio Symphony of Rome with a chorus singing in Latin, and its main title is written for timpani and 24 French horns.^[6] The director, John Milius, suggested the sound of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, after the producer had first favored a pop score.^[6] Poledouris said in 2006 that he had the main themes before filming and that Milius played them on set to pace a scene.^[14] The album released with the film had 12 tracks and ran about 48 minutes.^[5]

2:52 The choir enters in Riders of Doom The chorus comes in during Riddle of Steel / Riders of Doom from the 1982 Conan the Barbarian score, the piece written in the manner of Carmina Burana.

Editions and new recordings

A well-regarded score is rarely released only once. Varese Sarabande expanded the Conan the Barbarian album to 16 tracks on a CD released on Nov 10, 1992.^[27] Intrada released the complete recording in 2012 on three CDs with 53 tracks running 3 hours 7 minutes, the first edition mixed from the studio's own session tapes.^[5][6] The score has also been recorded again: Prometheus Records and Tadlow Music issued a new recording by a 96-piece City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and a 100-voice chorus conducted by Nic Raine, and followed it with the sequel's score, announced on Nov 29, 2011.^[10][11]

The sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984), followed the same path later. Its 13-track album held about half of a score recorded in Rome with a smaller orchestra and no chorus, and one critic judged the playing and the sound poor.^[7][8] Intrada released a 43-track expanded edition on two CDs in December 2022, and Back Lot Music issued the same program digitally on Mar 10, 2023.^[8][9]

1:10 Dream Quest, from Conan the Destroyer The loudest passage of Dream Quest in the 1984 recording of Conan the Destroyer, from the expanded edition Back Lot Music released digitally in 2023.

Game soundtracks

A game's music is usually published by the game's own maker. Amazon Games released the New World soundtrack on Sep 21, 2021, a week before the game, as 35 tracks credited jointly to Ramin Djawadi and Brandon Campbell and performed by the Czech Film Orchestra.^{[15][16][17][19]} The composers said they began with artwork and no footage, and wrote for regions and moods, with one main melody returning in many arrangements, where a film composer follows a story.^[17][18] NC released the album of Aion 2, The Echoes of Eternity, on the day the game launched in Korea and Taiwan, Nov 19, 2025: 70 tracks in three chapters, led by Simon Franglen and Ryo Kunihiko, with a title track recorded at AIR Studios in London.^[24][25]

2:49 Wings of Destiny, from Aion 2 The orchestra reaches its peak in Wings of Destiny, a track from the first chapter of Aion 2's album The Echoes of Eternity, in NCSOUND's own upload.

Music for games that keep changing

An online game keeps adding music after its first album, and its soundtrack can outlast it. Amazon Games published the music of New World's tenth season, Music of Nighthaven, on Sep 30, 2025, written by Brandon Campbell, Keegan Musser, Michael Finley and Kyle Bailey.^[23] On Jan 15, 2026 the company said the game had been taken off sale that day and that its servers would go offline on Jan 31, 2027; the notice said nothing about the soundtrack albums.^[22]

6:34 Elegy for Nighthaven A choir enters in Elegy for Nighthaven, from the soundtrack of New World's last season, published four months before Amazon set the date the game's servers close.

Awards

The American Film Institute named Star Wars (1977), by John Williams, the greatest American film score in its 2005 list of 25, followed by Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia.^[2] The list was chosen from a ballot of 250 nominated scores, which included Conan the Barbarian.^[3] Game scores gained a Grammy category of their own at the 65th Grammy Awards in 2023, when Stephanie Economou won Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media for Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.^[4] The Hollywood Music in Media Awards also honor game scores: New World was a nominee in 2021, and the score of its expansion Rise of the Angry Earth, by Edouard Brenneisen, won in 2023.^[21][20]

In the concert hall

Film scores are also played apart from their films. Poledouris conducted a large part of his Conan the Barbarian score at a concert in Ubeda, Spain, in July 2006, four months before he died.^[13] On Jul 22, 2022 the Los Angeles Film Orchestra played a suite of about 20 minutes from the score at Walt Disney Concert Hall, with introductions by Milius and the actor Sandahl Bergman.^[12] A third Conan film, with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning and Christopher McQuarrie writing and directing, was reported on Mar 9, 2026; the report named no composer.^[26]

1. 1982 Conan the Barbarian is released with a 12-track album of Basil Poledouris's score.^[5]
2. 1992-11-10 Varese Sarabande releases the score expanded to 16 tracks on CD.^[27]
3. 2005-09-23 The American Film Institute names Star Wars the greatest American film score.^[2]
4. 2012-11-26 Intrada announces the complete Conan the Barbarian recording on three CDs.^[5]
5. 2021-09-21 Amazon Games releases the New World soundtrack.^[15]
6. 2023-02-05 The Grammy Awards give their first award for a video game score.^[4]
7. 2023-03-10 Back Lot Music releases the expanded Conan the Destroyer soundtrack digitally.^[9]
8. 2025-11-19 NC releases Aion 2's 70-track album The Echoes of Eternity.^[24]
9. 2026-01-15 Amazon Games sets Jan 31, 2027 as the day New World's servers close.^[22]