Hey! I sometimes start wondering about 'basic' things, and started considering a while back the numerous names the 'genre' of library music has, and has had.
Pieces of library music originate from a music library or archive, I'm not here curious about the names used to describe the music library, but the phrases used to desribe the music itself.
I don't think this is a conclusive list by any means, but taking a good ol' sift through my own notes and archives, I have found the following phrases:
English:
Library Music
Production music
Stock music
Source music
Library production music
Media music, music for media, multimedia music
Mood music (seemingly antiquated)
Photoplay music (silent film era)
Sound library
Recorded music
Background music
Recorded background music
Film music
Scoring music
Theme music
Trailer music
Cue music (used in some academic writing, seldom elsewhere)
"Muzak"/Elevator Music (slang)
French:
Sonorisation
Illustration sonore ("sound illustration")
Illustration musicale ("musical illustration")
Musique d'ambiance
Musique d'illustration ("illustration music")
Musique de stock ("stock music")
Ambiance musicale ("musical environment")
German:
Musikalische untermalung (something like 'musical underlay', literally "musical underpainting")
Produktionsmusik ("production music")
Filmmusik ("film music")
Italian:
Sonorizzazione, musiche per sonorizzazioni
Commenti sonori, musiche per commenti sonori ("sound commentary", "music for sound commentary")
Sottofondi musicali ("musical foundation")
Musica d'ambiente ('environmental music')
Spanish:
Ilustración sonora ("sound illustration")
Música de biblioteca ('library music', literally "music from/of library")
Stock musical
Swedish:
Mediamusik ("media music")
... does anyone know any other terms, possibly in other languages? What terms do you use?
