The soundtrack album was released digitally in July 2019, consisting of vocal tracks with artists such as Willie Nelson, Rhiannon Giddens, and Josh Homme.

The score album was released in August 2019, mostly consisting of Jackson's original work and collaborations with artists such as Colin Stetson, Senyawa, and Arca.

An additional extended play, The Housebuilding EP, was released in February 2021, consisting of original songs by David Ferguson and Matt Sweeney.

In particular, critics felt that the minimalist approach of the score's composition matched the gameplay, genre, and time, and the vocal tracks were praised for their impactfulness.

[1] Discussions about the game's music began early in development, as the team felt that it helped to create atmosphere and tone.

This change is initiated in the game's engine by an artificial intelligence system internally named the "Gunfight Conductor", which alters and creates additional sounds for variation.

[3] He also acquired a 1920s Gibson Mandobass used on Bullitt (1968) that recreated an "ominous" bell sound, ukuleles from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and a nylon guitar used on Unforgiven (1992).

[8] Jackson estimated that he changed the music about four times throughout development, from extreme experimentation to classic Western sounds, ultimately blending to make "something different".

The music team found reference points in Willie Nelson's album Teatro (1998) and the soundtrack for the 1971 film The Hired Hand.

[8] While researching for the game's score, Jackson found that Ennio Morricone's work—particularly on Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy (1964–1966)—was already a departure from typical Western music of the time, instead featuring sounds popular at the time such as "psychedelic guitars, lots of noises", so Jackson felt that he could also take such creative liberties with Red Dead Redemption 2.

[7] Guitarist Matt Sweeney was first approached to work on the game while intoxicated at Max Fish Bar in New York in around 2016 or 2017 by Rockstar's music supervisor Tony Mesones.

[12] Pavlovich and Mesones visited Sweeney and Ferguson at the Butcher Shoppe Recording Studio in Nashville to show them videos of the game and discuss the characters.

Ferguson provided Rockstar with traditional instruments; one of his colleagues, Leroy Troy, possesses a "percussion rig with bells and whistles" that was used for one of the songs, "A Quiet Time".

Sweeney noted that several musicians turned down offers to work on the soundtrack, due to their unfamiliarity with the industry and technology.

[13] Pavlovich engaged Daniel Lanois to produce all of the game's original vocal tracks, wanting a consistent "through-line" to complement Jackson's score.

[14] "That's the Way It Is" was written with the theme of acceptance and surrender, which Lanois felt resonated with protagonist Arthur Morgan's stillness towards the game's conclusion as he is questioning life.

Produced by Daniel Lanois, the soundtrack includes songs from D'Angelo, Willie Nelson, Rhiannon Giddens, and Josh Homme.

[21] In the context of the game, Dave Thier of Forbes praised the tracks for having as powerful an impact as in Red Dead Redemption.

[33] Michael Walters of TheGamer praised the progression of the soundtrack's track listing, finding it representative of the game's narrative experience; he named "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten" the strongest track, lauding the growing tension and eventual clash of the horn and strings, comparing them to the characters Dutch van der Linde and Angelo Bronte, respectively.

[34] In the context of the game, Jackson's musical score was described as "top notch" by IGN's Luke Reilly, who described it as "an evocative mix of jangling Ennio Morricone-esque guitar and more soulful pieces";[35] Push Square's Banas wrote that it adds "a sense of tension and action that you can only get from a western".

[38] VG247's Kirk McKeand praised the blending of music during exploration and its intensity in combat, and lauded the sparing use of vocal tracks to highlight important narrative moments.

[46] "Letter from Bluewater Man" is a blues song performed by Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, who wrote and produced the track with Carl Lois.

[47] The song was created for Blood Money, an update for Red Dead Online released on July 13, 2021;[48] in the game, Ingram plays "Bluewater" John,[49] a guitar player based on Robert Johnson.

[51][49] Andrea Domanick of KCRW found that the song "stands on its own", praising its "sparse arrangement, lilting guitar, and soul-punch vocals".

[49] Upon hearing the song used in the game's trailer, Sam Roche of Guitar World wrote that Ingram delivers "his instantly recognizable soulful vocals over a series of silky blue fingerstyle lines".

[60] Jackson led an hour-long live performance of the game's soundtrack at the Red Bull Music Festival in Los Angeles on February 23, 2019.