Are soundtracks profitable?

[Sandor 459]

Of course Titanic's or Gladiator's sales would answer the topic question with a resounding "YES"!, but what about the soundtrack releases of John Williams' Stanley And Iris, Goldsmith's Malice or Horner's Spitfire Grill?

In other words; your average, low profile scores... Do these releases make profit?

And what about a super-complete, 6 disc box of Indiana Jones scores? Would such a release be profitable?

And could the fact that we don't have a complete Temple of Doom or Episode II release have anything to do with the minimum economic value of soundtracks?

[pi 0]

I think there is market value enough to cancel out the expenses of the release for most albums. The albums with just score are much much cheaper compared to those which have to pay royalties and fees to pop artists. I bet the big composers actually make money for the studio or at least make enough profit to pay for the music portion of the film. Or else there is no way these cheap studios who care nothing of music would be releasing these albums.

[TheRuleOfThirds 0]

Pop music sucks. It should be renamed poop music.

[Incanus 5,519]

Pop music sucks.  It should be renamed poop music.

Now we only have to make the majority of people to agree with us

[futuremartymcfly 0]

yes, and the majority of the profitable early adults and teens too

[robthehand 3]

Pop music sucks.  It should be renamed poop music.

Now we only have to make the majority of people to agree with us

Isn't that impossible, by definition?

[AC1 3,565]

Pop music sucks.  It should be renamed poop music.

Cut back on the booze, will ya?!

[Trent B 317]

I believe score soundtracks are profitable even though the industry might not thinks so. If they would release the full score for a film right off the bat instead of a 2-disc 'album' set where the first disc has nothing but shitty music on it and the second disc has almost very little film score (IE: Matrix Reloaded "album" for instance) then I'm sure it would generate more sales. Ya ya I know it would never happen because of the re-use fees, but in a sense it kind of nullifies that because some scores do eventually get a full release from either Varesé or Intrada.

I definitely would not want to pay for a high quality mp3 download of the score because I perfer having physical CD's, nothing beats having a real CD.

[orrakul 0]

Soundtracks must be proftable, otherwise the studios wouldn't release them...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Orrakul is correct.

While certainly not all soundtrack releases make a profit, the record labels must make enough money with a large enough percentage of their soundtrack releases to be interested in releasing more.

[Romão 1,931]

Pop music sucks.  It should be renamed poop music.

There's good pop music and there's bad pop music, as there's good scores and bad scores, good classical music and bad classical music.

Good music is good music.

[bob23 0]

Of course Titanic's or Gladiator's sales would answer the topic question with a resounding "YES"!, but what about the soundtrack releases of John Williams' Stanley And Iris, Goldsmith's Malice or Horner's Spitfire Grill?

In other words; your average, low profile scores... Do these releases make profit?  

And what about a super-complete, 6 disc box of Indiana Jones scores? Would such a release be profitable?  

And could the fact that we don't have a complete Temple of Doom or Episode II release have anything to do with the minimum economic value of soundtracks?

I would think that complete scores of Indiana Jones and the Prequels would definiently make a profit if done correctly. Look at how the Complete FOTR scores is doing, and that is overpriced and only for one movie. Especially for the prequels, where I would think that with the up to date equipment, making the cds would be easier, than say with Indiana Jones.

[JoeinAR 1,759]

I wasn't aware that Gladheateher was a hugely successful score. It was Zimmer afterall, which means it sucked.

[robthehand 3]

I wasn't aware that Gladheateher was a hugely successful score.  It was Zimmer afterall, which means it sucked.

Zimmer soundtracks sell surpisingly well actually. Along with Pirates of the Caribbean, Chariots of Fire, Brokeback Mountain... ^_^ Is there something attractive about those damn "simple melodies"...?

[Oskar 70]

GLADIATOR really was quite a successful soundtrack indeed.

So successful that it even warranted a release for a second album including more music from the film (and, unfortunately, also including 'more dialogue from the film').

It's number one at Filmtracks.com most popular viewed reviews.

From Clemmensen's review:

"Zimmer's score album teared up the sales charts in record stores..."

source: http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/gladiator.html

The succes of the soundtrack can probably be explained by a variety of different factors.

- Ofcourse the movie was hugely popular among critics and public. So much that it even won 5 Oscars, with a nomination for Zimmer's work.

- The combination of so-called new age music courtesy displayed in tracks like 'Now we are Free' and 'Earth'. Very popular among some.

- The use of the now much-maligned female vocals, courtesy of vocalist Lisa Gerrard.

- Some very accesible and brutal action and full chorus tracks which cleverly quote classical works by Holst and Wagner. Escpecially the quotes from 'Mars, the Bringer of War' are logical choices since war is being fought at the beginning of the film.

- but for me personally the highlights are not in the vocals, new age hymns or action music, but in the very emotional cues, namely 'Patricide' and 'Am I not Merciful'. These tracks really show Zimmer's talent for scoring emotional charged scenes.

All in all, it is really a very accesible soundtrack with some clearly regognisible themes and motifs. Not everyone will like Zimmer's approach of scoring movies, but ofcourse one can never argue aesthetic views with one another. It is in the ear of the listener, so to speak ^_^

The general public seemed to like it though. Perhaps it is because of the combination of different musical styles all interwoven to create a flowing listening experience. Or perhaps it is a different factor alltogether, which explains why this and a few other soundtrack releases are hugely popular among the general public.

[JoeinAR 1,759]

Ofcourse the movie was hugely popular among critics and public.

It did win best picture, but it was not a monsterous success at the Boxoffice, it never quite reached the 200 million mark, which is the standard of the blockbusters these days.

[Mr. Breathmask 480]

I like Gladiator (the score), but not as much as other stuff. The best parts are Gerrards, and I generally skip most of The Battle and Barbarian Horde, because once Zimmer starts hammering his synths to pieces, it turns to crap, and I start getting a headache.

But yes, it most definitely was one of the more popular soundtrack releases.

[gkgyver 1,638]

The albums with just score are much much cheaper compared to those which have to pay royalties and fees to pop artists.

Honestly, I never experienced that. Score albums I see in stores are always around 16- 19 €. I don't think anything can top that.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Film score releases actually tend to be somewhat more expensive, because they are released in more limited numbers then pop albums by succesfull bands/artists.

[Ollie 859]

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1452207/2...207/story.jhtml

This article is dated 2002 but at the bottom it gives some totals of soundtracks sold. Most are song driven.

[Richard Penna 2,083]

I wasn't aware that Gladheateher was a hugely successful score.  It was Zimmer afterall, which means it sucked.

Yes, it was Zimmer, but only in your world does it suck

I've become more familiar with Zimmer's works recently, and I consider it a step above his normal action stuff like The Rock. True, it's got his synth laden action tracks but it's also got a lot of genuine ethnic stuff and good themes.

Plus, check out Beyond Rangoon if you're still anti-Zimmer. It completely blew me away when I first heard it a few weeks back.

Anyway, this isn't a 'how good is Zimmer' thread... what I don't get about scores is that record companies always claim about how much it costs to record songs, studio time etc, but all of the costs of recording soundtracks are covered by making the film - so apart from physically making the CD and whatever royalties/re-use fees are due (which you get with any other type of music), I can't see what should make them any more expensive than mass market stuff.