Originally published in November 1995, Filmtracks.com was officially launched in October 1996, serving the movie soundtrack industry with its first library of original online reviews. More than sixteen years and hundreds of millions of page views later, Filmtracks remains the most visible elder statesman of the soundtrack genre on the web. It is solely owned and operated by veteran writer and webmaster Christian Clemmensen (view his bio below) from the American states of Montana, Washington, and Wyoming.

Filmtracks has always existed at a crossroads between the movie and music industries, with soundtracks attracting both movie-goers and music enthusiasts alike. There are two different but consistent crowds of visitors at the site: first, the 3,000 to 5,000 hardcore soundtrack collectors, and second, the tens of thousands of casual movie and music fans each day who come to the site seeking album or artist information, opinions on movies, lyrics, sheet music, and more. Based on internal surveys, these viewers tend to be between the ages of 18 and 32, 60% male, liberal-leaning, and habitual movie-goers.

As a content site, Filmtracks features about two million words of unique review material. Extensive information about each album covered at the site prompts significant user participation, with hundreds of thousands of forum comments and millions of votes submitted throughout the site. The reviews and attached comment areas receive almost all of the traffic from the casual movie-going fans, while the home page, primary "Scoreboard" forum, and internal search engine receive consistent viewership from the hardcore soundtrack collectors. The site's objective is to continue providing content that bridges the gap between both types of viewership.

Within the soundtrack genre, Filmtracks' traffic is substantially greater than that of younger sites offering similar content. The initial burst of interest in the site was fueled by hundreds of links to individual reviews from the Yahoo! Directory in the 1990's, as well as recognition from Entertainment Weekly, CNN, and Variety Magazine, among others, within the first five years. Since then, Filmtracks has continued to build upon its core followers due to its industry-defying longevity. When the economic downturn of the late 2000's caused the site to rely upon visitor donations to survive for a few years, its base readership remained strong and enthusiastic about its continued legacy.

Any longtime reader of Filmtracks can testify that the site's sense of humor is one of its main attractions. Because of the constant flow of mainstream movie-going traffic into Filmtracks, as well as lenient rules of participation in its forums, there is an affable and accepting personality that defines its confines as substantially as its intentionally and distinctively retro designs. As with any large site, bizarre human behavior is inevitable, and such depravity is embraced to the degree that it does not interfere with the site's operations. The prior incarnation of this page (still available here) was one example of this humor, though it has been replaced due to the unfortunate fact that too many visitors did not realize that its text and pictures were little more than a parody of websites and writers that take themselves too seriously.

Please enjoy your stay at Filmtracks and, if you appreciate the site's goal of supporting soundtracks in an era when they are declining in mainstream popularity, you are encouraged to donate (see details here) to ensure continued coverage of great, obscure music in the genre. For those promoting music in the field, please consult with the instructions regarding promotional materials on the left side of this page, and, as always, contact the site at any time. Due to the huge quantity of e-mail that comes in to the site daily, it may take a few days to receive a response. Many thanks to these promoters and all soundtrack enthusiasts for their continuing involvement in this fantastic niche genre of music!

Christian Clemmensen, 2013 (View larger version)

All reviews at Filmtracks are written by Christian Clemmensen, the site's founder and sole owner. Born in 1975 in the San Francisco Bay Area and now a resident of Rock Springs, Wyoming, Christian obtained a B.A. in Organizational Communication (with a minor in English) from the University of Montana, Missoula in 1998 and an M.A. in Speech Communication (with an emphasis in Technical Communication) from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2000. His musical background includes a decade of formal piano training and performance, as well as another decade of study in motion picture scores.

While maintaining Filmtracks as a part-time occupation, Christian has also served as a webmaster, graphic designer, programmer, and system administrator for large organizations in the public and private sectors. From 2003 to 2012, he was the lead specialist for all of these services in a group of General Motors auto dealers in Montana and Idaho. In 2013, he joined the marketing department of Western Wyoming Community College as its webmaster and also contributed as an adjunct instructor of public speaking courses, his experience with the latter dating back to his teaching at the University of Washington in the late 1990's.

Christian developed his technology skills in his hometown of Mountain View, California during the "dark ages" of the Internet and applied these skills at employers in both Seattle and Missoula, Montana shortly thereafter. An enthusiast of wickedly crafted rhetoric and poignant public performance, he also enjoys writing, professional baseball, laughing at odd human behavior, digital arts, American political skulduggery, extreme Lego creations (10,000 brick minimum), and debating theories about the nature of the universe with his wife, Stella, and sons, Caelen and Sjoren.

If you are a friend, current or past associate, or longtime Filmtracks reader, don't hesitate to send Christian an e-mail or an invitation request at LinkedIn.