What has happened to isolated scores on DVD?

[georgep]

Any suggestions as to which releases should have (had) them? The groundbreaking Matrix DVD had a nice balance of Don Davis score and commentary, and at that point I thought, "Yes! NOW we'll start to hear isolated scores regularly on DVDs!"

Yet, with few exceptions (Superman, Doctor Zhivago, Planet of the Apes, Randy Newman's scores to the Pixar films), isolated scores are a horribly underutilized DVD extra. It's particularly disappointing to me that James Horner's scores for Krull andThe Wrath of Khan are not showcased as they are heard in the movie, as they both have several minutes of memorable cues that have never been released on CD.

Thank goodness Danny Elfman's scores are usually isolated on DVD release, but IMHO not including an isolated score/composer commentary is an unconscionable missed opportunity on so many DVDs. I understand there are legal clearance issues to consider, but does that justify all the following DVD releases WITHOUT isolated score/commentary?

John Barry's music for Dances With Wolves: Director's Edition, Somewhere in Time, The Black Hole, The Lion in Winter, Body Heat among many others

John Williams' music for ALL the "Indiana Jones" and the first two "Star Wars" films, as well as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan and most others

Jerry Goldsmith's music in Papillon, Star Trek: TMP, the original Planet of the Apes and Hoosiers, just to name a few

Max Steiner's music for Gone With the Wind and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, to name two

Miklos Rozsa's complete scores as heard in the films Ben Hur, King of Kings, and Time After Time, among others

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I don't think Paramount or Disney have released even one DVD with an isolated score. Would it be that difficult to include the feature in more DVDs?

[Bjørn N]

The reason I have heard from time to time, is that it would effectively kill the chances of selling separate soundtrack CD's - I guess that is valid, but it is still unfortunate.

[wahlers]

It's funny that you mention Disney, because I still have my Tron LaserDisc box set because it had an isolated score track that didn't make it to the DVD...