Streaming Trailer Cue
Located in 1 route
The epic, hard-hitting music of teaser and promo campaigns for streaming series — powerful hybrid-orchestral trailer cues, braam blasts, riser builds, pounding taiko-and-sub-bass percussion and soaring choir, plus the now-ubiquitous slowed, minor-key "trailerized cover" of a familiar song. Structured as a relentless build to a final impact, these cues prioritize maximum emotional wallop in ninety seconds, layering orchestral grandeur over electronic weight and sound design to sell a show's scale, stakes and mood before a frame of dialogue is heard.
History
Trailer music grew into its own industry from the early 2000s, when production houses and artist-composers began releasing "epic music" built expressly for previews — e.s. Posthumus's "Unstoppable," then the genre-defining catalogs of Two Steps from Hell (founded 2006 by Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix) and Audiomachine, whose tracks scored thousands of campaigns. As Netflix, HBO and their rivals turned series teasers into event marketing, this hybrid-orchestral trailer sound — along with dramatic slowed-down cover versions from producers like Tommee Profitt and dedicated cover acts — became the default language of the streaming trailer cue.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Jon Burlingame reporting on trailer music
- Billboard features on epic-trailer-music companies
- Variety coverage of streaming marketing