A soundtrack or score is the recording of the musical accompaniment of a film, play, TV show, series, or video game. An original score is when the music has been purposefully made for that specific production whereas a soundtrack is a selection of songs chosen to be featured in the production.
What to consider when distributing a soundtrack/score with Amuse
There are certain metadata guidelines that are required when distributing soundtracks and original scores. We’ll list them here to make sure your release goes live in stores:
To release a soundtrack/score select the genre Soundtrack or Original Score or any of the following subgenres if they apply: Foreign Cinema, Musicals, TV Soundtrack, Video Game. These genres should not be used if it's not an actual soundtrack/score.
There are certain formatting requirements for titles when releasing this type of content:
The titles should be written in the following format:
Title (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - when it’s a soundtrack of a movie, short film, series, or TV show.
Title (Original Game Soundtrack) - when it’s the soundtrack of a video game.
Title (Original Score) - when it is the original score of a movie, short film, series, or TV show.
Title (From “[Title of the other media]”) - when it’s a 1 track Single, e.g: Main Theme (From “Titanic”)
If you are uploading an EP or Album and the tracks are not from the same soundtrack/score, indicate which one it’s from in the title, e.g. Main Title (From Game of Thrones: Season 7) or Main Title (From The Wizard Of Oz Soundtrack)
Releasing covers of tracks that belong to a score/soundtrack
If you want to distribute a cover of a track from a Soundtrack/Score, the requirements are different:
The chosen genre should not be any of the following: Soundtrack/Original Score, Foreign Cinema, Musicals, TV Soundtrack, Video Game.
The original composer of the soundtrack/score should be added only as a writer (as per the cover guidelines).
The title should only be the original title of the song (no additional information from the film/series/play/video game should be added)
You can learn more about cover song licensing here. Cover song licenses can only be issued if the soundtrack or score was released in the U.S. as an audio-only product. If it wasn’t, a license isn’t available through Amuse.