Initially releasing music separately from the film was intended by film companies to attract attention to the new films, and initially the records with music from the films were called “Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.” The first commercial soundtrack was the OST cartoon «Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs» with songs, released in 1938 by Walt Disney Studio.

We will clarify all subtleties of the various releases.

Promo Score is an album with original composer music that is released in a limited edition and for promotions by film companies only.

Academy Promo Score is an album with original composer music that is sent to the American Film Academy to consider potential nominees for the «Oscar» award in the category «Best Music to Film».

Expanded Score is the original music for the film, usually in bootleg form (an audio record created without the permission of rights holders). In most cases, this release is created by extracting the track from the DVD and then editing it. Expanded Score differs from the original Score album by a large amount of material.

Complete Score is all the original composer music that sounded in the film. It is composed in the same way as Expanded Score. Since Expanded Score and Complete Score are compiled from film-cut music, they can contain noises (SFX) and dialogue from the film.

Temp Score («temporary music») is music chosen by the director or editor for temporary voice acting of the film (in the early stages of editing). Temp Score is not written specifically for the film, but is composed of already existing recordings, according to the mood and style of the music that the director would like to hear in the final version of the original soundtrack.

Rejected Score is music composed by a composer for the film, but for some reason rejected by the director (or film company) and not used in the film. Such soundtracks are usually released under the title «Music Inspired By The Film».

Music Inspired by The Film are albums with music (or songs) «inspired» by any film. The same title, as we found out, is often given to «rejected» soundtracks by composers, see Rejected Score.

Of course, most of the releases mentioned above are rare, and in fact some of them are exclusively releases for the production process and are not intended by the film company as the final product for the consumer.

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