A soundtrack has both a broader and a narrower meaning, in broad sense, a soundtrack is that file that is attached to a strip of film and has sound coding. In its narrow sense, a soundtrack is simply the audio track that accompanies a movie or videogame.

A soundtrack includes all the voices that play, the sound effects and everything required to make the whole viewer experience better. It is more than just music.

You may choose to come up with a track just for a movie feature or decide to take an old track and use it since it relates to the movie. You do not always have to be the composer. You can get authority to use the music.

A movie will have its scenes changing often and this should be accompanied by a changing soundtrack. Since these are short, a soundtrack album is the way to listen to a whole composition.

Single tracks can sell like hot cakes once they are used in a movie. The best example yet is that of the movie "the body guard", which was done by Whitney Houston.

These days, sound effects are almost inseparable from any high-octane video game, be it a shooter, adventure or simulation. They are so common yet before the eighties, these were unheard of. There were no sound effects back in the days.

These days, you can get music used in a video game and all the sound effects from CDs available on the shelves today. These sound more realistic compared to decades ago when video games came without sound effects. Nintendo can be credited as having a composer who played a key part in the introduction of soundtracks to video games.

Even books and novels have soundtracks these days. It is a new idea that is still in the trial stages. Some books that have soundtracks are Steve Perry's shadow of the empire. These are all readily available on the internet although no book has a CD so far. They bring out certain moods when you are reading thorough various chapters of the books.