The music in movie trailers can often be misleading. It's typically inserted to provide a specific mood, but since the trailers go out before the movie's soundtrack is completed, the music doesn't always show up in the movie itself. That makes it especially hard to identify, since it likely won't appear on the soundtrack CD and no mention is made of the title or artist in the trailer. The easiest solution is to check one of a pair of Internet websites set aside for the purpose: Soundtrack.net and Adtunes.
Using an Internet web browser, go to http://www.soundtrack.net, a website dedicated to movie soundtracks and theme music.
Click on the "Resources" link at the top of the page. It should show you a new display with a number of additional options. Click on the "Trailers" link, which takes you to the website's database for movie trailer music.
Look for the string of letters at the top of the page--they run in alphabetical order from a to z. Click on the letter corresponding to the first letter of the movie's title in which you are searching. Ignore definite articles like "The," "A" or "A." in your search. A number symbol (#) at the start of the string can be used for movie titles beginning with numbers.
Find the movie from the list of movies that appears and click on it. It should give you the music and composer for the trailer, as well as the teaser and TV spots, if appropriate.
Go to http://www.adtunes.com if you can't find the movie you need on Soundtrack.net. While Adtunes doesn't have a database like Soundtrack.net, it does have a forum with knowledgeable people who can provide an answer.
Click on the "Movies" link at the top of the page, then the "Movie Trailer Music" link from the list that comes up. It should take you to the appropriate forum.
Browse through the forum for the title of the movie for which you are searching. Every thread is listed by movie title, making it fairly easy to find it if it exists. Once you find the movie thread, open it to see if the answer to your music question is there.
Click on the "Register" logo on the upper right corner of the page if you still can't find your movie trailer title. Follow the instructions for registering with the site.
Return to the Movie Trailer Music forum and post a thread requesting the music information for a given trailer. Check back with the forum regularly until an answer has been posted.
Tip
While these websites are an outstanding resource, they're not yet comprehensive. So if you're looking for a particularly obscure movie trailer, they may not have an answer for you. The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) is another resource to check if you can't find the answer on the two websites discussed in this article.
