Music editorial & spotting · Specialist

Source music

Also called: diegetic music

ELI5

Music presented as coming from a source within the story world.

“The treatment should explain how the source music supports the story.”

You may encounter “Source music” in sound, music & voice conversations or materials.

Why it matters: Explains dialogue, effects, atmosphere, music, voice and the technical work of making them intelligible.

Diegetic musicDiegetic music exists within the story world; source music is music tied to an apparent source in the scene. The terms often overlap.
Non-diegetic musicComputed from definition language and shared taxonomy. This indicates proximity, not synonymy.

Sources & evidence · 4

Supporting source families. This entry is an editorial synthesis rather than a quotation from one canonical glossary.