The Best Film Soundtracks To Work To

One of the benefits of having an Amazon Prime account is the Amazon Music library, which you can stream or download from all day long, totally for free.

One of my favourite things to have on in the background when I’m working – either on a blog post, editing that doesn’t require my brain and/or audio or colour grading are film soundtracks.

You can sign up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime here, which also includes free two-day shipping, Amazon Instant Video and more.  You can also check out my What To Watch on Amazon Instant Video post here. Do I love it? In a word, yes.

Sign Up for a 30 Day Free Trial on Amazon.com

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So putting two and two together, here are my favourite movie soundtracks available on Amazon Prime Music.

Update – There seems to be some difference between what’s available in the UK and US, but also some strange differences between editions.

For example, the Dark Knight soundtrack is not available on Prime in UK but the Collectors Edition of the Dark Knight soundtrack is, and it features more tracks!

John Williams Greatest Hits

Batman Begins – Hans Zimmer

The Dark Knight (Collectors Edition) – Hans Zimmer

The Dark Knight Rises – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

Oblivion – M83

Forest Gump – Alan Silvestri

Lord of The Rings Fellowship of The Ring – Howard Shore

Lord of The Rings The Two Towers – Howard Shore

The Lord of The Rings Return of The King – Howard Shore

Moneyball – Mychael Danna

The Music of Star Wars – John Williams

 The Shawshank Redemption – Thomas Newman

Donnie Darko – Michael Andrews

Home Alone – John Williams (at Christmas only!)

UPDATE: More Superb Soundtracks on Amazon Prime Music

Interstellar – Hans Zimmer

Birth – Alexandre Desplat

Gladiator – Hans Zimmer

Dunkirk – Han Zimmer

Godzilla (2014) – Alexandre Desplat

If you’re as much a fan of Hans Zimmer’s soundtracks as I am, then you’ll definitely want to check out his informative, entertaining and insightful Masterclass.com course on Film Scoring.

At the end of the day I can tell you everything you need to know in one word. Story.

Stick with the story, don’t abandon the story, don’t betray the story. Know the story that you want to tell. – Hans Zimmer

Here’s my in-depth review, including 5 things editors can learn from taking Hans’ class.

2019 Update – More Soundtracks on Amazon Unlimited

I thought I’d quickly update this post to include a few more soundtracks that tickled my eardrums in the last year or so.

Some of these aren’t available on Amazon Prime’s Music service, but only available on their standalone subscription based Amazon Music Unlimited. That costs $9.99/month if you’re not a already a Prime Member, $7.99/month if you are.

You can sign up for a free 30 day trial here, if you want to give it a go.

Anyway, back to those new soundtracks, unsurprisingly it includes two new Zimmer’s and a Johannson:

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Theory of Everything

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack from and Inspired by the film)

Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse Original Score

The Front Runner Soundtrack

 

I’ll try to update this with a few more, throughout 2019.

Great Soundtracks not on Amazon Prime

Obviously not every soundtrack is available on Amazon Prime Music, but while I’m writing up this post I thought I’d share a few of my other favourite soundtracks which are available to buy on regular ol’ Amazon.

Jurassic Park – John Williams

Jurassic World – Michael Giacchino

Apollo 13 – James Horner

American Beauty – Thomas Newman

 The Dark Knight – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

The Kingdom – Danny Elfman

Tron Legacy – Daft Punk

Truman Show – Burkhard Dallwitz

UPDATE

Sicario – Johann Johannsson

Sneakers – James Horner

If I’ve missed out a film soundtrack you love to work to – let me know in the comments!

Soundtracks Officially on YouTube

Sony Pictures Music seems to be offering some of their original soundtracks on YouTube for free, supported by ads of course, but you can check them out here. Here are a couple of my favourites so far.

I am a huge fan of Rob Simonsen’s score for The Front Runner, I’ve probably listened to it a couple of times a day while I’m writing.

You can check out my epic making of post on Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse here.