The term "soundtrack" technically refers to the narrow strip along the side of a film that contains optical sound coding. But in more common terms, a soundtrack refers to the audio component of movies, television programs, video games, or even books. A soundtrack covers not only music, but also sound effects, dialogue, and voiceovers. It serves to enhance the scene or frame that visual images cannot.

You can buy the soundtrack of a movie or television show in the form of a CD recording. Oftentimes, music is composed and recorded especially for a movie or show, but there are instances when songs already existing are used. Expect a soundtrack album to contain not only whole streams of songs, but also segments of the score and even thematic music effects.

The best-selling soundtrack to date is that of the movie, "The Bodyguard." It carries the lead single "I Will Always Love You" performed by Whitney Houston.

It was not until the 1980's that video game labels began to compose music specifically for their games. Sound effects are still universally used for action in almost any game, but music now sets different games apart from each other. Koji Kondo, a composer for Nintendo games, was one of the pioneers of video game soundtracks. Back in his day, these soundtracks just came in midi files. Now, video game soundtracks are available as high-quality CDs. The Final Fantasy soundtrack is among the biggest hits.

You can download free book soundtracks to enhance your reading experience. "Shadows of the Empire" by Steve Perry and all the novels by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke have soundtracks available on the Internet. No book soundtrack CD is available to this date, because this industry is still in its experimental stages.