How am I supposed to find the track lists for documentaries when they aren't on IMDB? I've heard a few pieces of music on BBC4 programmes but they aren't on the beeb's site or IMDB and it's making me ever so slightly frustrated.
If it's a commercial release, then Shazam is remarkably accurate. As >>21560 says, a lot of incidental music in TV is licensed from music libraries rather than commercial releases, because the licensing is much cheaper and easier. It's also fairly common for a soundtrack to be specifically recorded - a composer on a modern digital workstation can knock out half an hour of original music in two days. If a composer was involved, they should be mentioned in the end credits.
