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!
The Dark Knight (Collectors Edition) – Hans Zimmer
The Dark Knight Rises – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
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
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
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:
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack from and Inspired by the film)
Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse Original Score
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 World – Michael Giacchino
American Beauty – Thomas Newman
The Dark Knight – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
Truman Show – Burkhard Dallwitz
UPDATE
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.
I never grow tired of the Mark Knopfler soundtrack to “Local Hero”….
Great movie! That reminds me totally forgot about Paris, Texas…
Contagion or any other Cliff Martinez score. Arbitrage for example.
I made this into a spotify playlist. https://open.spotify.com/user/1110860299/playlist/1bNsis7nhT3dU8DNXU7Tp1?si=HDae9lSkTUeAlvASLRYxkA
[…] You can also check out this previous post for a list of all my favourite soundtracks to work to. […]