Cue Sheets…what are they?
Have you ever been asked to provide or fill in a cue sheet?
A Cue Sheet is an account of all compositions and songs used in a film or television production. They are used by Performing Rights Organisations (PROs) to track the usage of music so composers and songwriters can receive their royalty payments.
Filmmakers will also need to provide a cue sheet for distribution purposes.
Who needs to fill in and submit a cue sheet?
In short, the production company and composer.
For larger productions, the production company/networks submit the cue sheet to the Performing Right Organizations. However, for smaller productions, or where a composer has composed the majority of the music, the composer quite often becomes responsible for filling out and submitting the cue sheet to their PRO. The production company will submit a copy of the cue sheet to the distribution company/network.
The composer should also obtain the final copy of the cue sheet from the Production Company, regardless of the amount of music they have composed for the production. When registering their works with their PRO, they should also enquire whether a cue sheet has been submitted to them.
How to fill in a Cue Sheet
Cue sheets need to include ALL the music that is used in a production. This includes:
The original score
Any licensed tracks by other artists
Any production music
These categories are to be indicated in the column ‘Work Origin’, within the cue sheet.
The Usage of music also needs to be indicated:
Theme – Music used for the opening and/or closing credits. It is NOT usually music considered a “theme” for a character or situation such as a cue being titled “Happy Theme”.
Background – This is ALL music that is not heard by the characters in the production. This includes the composed score and any licensed music.
Featured – This is any music that the characters in the production can hear. It may be a radio playing in a scene or even a character performing a song/piece.
Some PROs ask for just lump sum calculations rather than listing every individual cue, which you’ll see below in our example cue sheet. However, it is recommended that you have a version of a cue sheet with each cue listed, for your own record keeping purposes.
Indicating a tracks Vocal/Instrumental specifications.
The following selections include:
Vocal
Instrumental
Mixed
Unspecified
Writer and Publisher Shares:
This indicates the ownership of music, where royalties will be divided accordingly between writer/s and the publisher (if applicable). Normally the publisher, will receive 50% of the shares.
EXAMPLE cue sheet:
NB: This is just an example only purely for educational purposes. The information listed is NOT an upcoming release for Netflix! Please also note the writer and publisher shares are not a factual depiction of actual contractual agreements held with the artist, record label and music publisher.
Here is a fictional example of a cue sheet for ‘The Presentiment’, an upcoming Netflix feature film.
The composed score is spread out throughout the film, but in this example we are choosing to calculate the lump sum, in accordance with PRO’s who ask for this (such as APRA AMCOS in Aus/NZ).
Click HERE to view enlargement
Here are some things to note:
Co-composed cues are listed separately.
Songs/cues with different usages (theme, background and featured), are also listed separately.
The cues are listed as they would be if they were registered online.
Additional Steps
Registering your works online with your chosen PRO is also essential. Information that is usually needed for registering your works can normally be sourced from the cue sheet filled out.
Each PRO will provide a guide according to their online database system.
So What Next?
Submitting cue sheets and registering your music with your PRO will ensure you can be accurately paid your royalties.
Royalties are paid monthly by some PROs or quarterly by others. For a quick summary on how royalties work, check out our tiktok video here.
Instructions for downloading THE FREE cue sheet:
We have available a FREE cue sheet for your own use!
Fill in your name and email address in the form below*.
Click the ‘click here to download free cue sheet’ button below.
The download will commence automatically and you’ll receive a FREE excel spreadsheet for edit and use for your own future projects! Enjoy!
Tip: We recommend you download the file on a computer. So fill in the form on a computer, rather than on a phone!
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