Build a music cue sheet for your film

What a music cue sheet is for

A music cue sheet is a log of every piece of music in a film or episode. For each piece, called a cue, it records the title, who wrote it, who publishes it, when it starts and stops, how long it plays and how it is used on screen. It is not a creative document. It is a payment document.

When a film is broadcast on television, shown on many streaming services or screened in cinemas in many countries, the music in it is being publicly performed. The writers and publishers of that music are owed performance royalties. Performing rights organizations, often shortened to PROs, collect those royalties and pass them on. They cannot pay anyone for music they do not know about, and the cue sheet is how they find out what music a film contains, for how long and in what way.

Examples of performing rights organizations include ASCAP and BMI in the United States, SOCAN in Canada and PRS for Music in the United Kingdom. Each composer and songwriter usually belongs to one organization, and the cue sheet shows which.

Who makes it and who receives it

The producer is responsible for the cue sheet. In practice it is often prepared by the music supervisor, the post-production supervisor or the composer's team, but the production company owns the task and signs off on it.

Several parties then receive it:

• Distributors, broadcasters and streaming services usually list the cue sheet as a delivery item. A distribution deal can be held up until it arrives.
• Performing rights organizations use it to match broadcasts and performances to the writers and publishers who should be paid. Depending on the organization and territory, the producer, the broadcaster or the composer's publisher may file it.
• The composer and their publisher need a copy so they can confirm their cues are registered correctly.

Each organization publishes its own cue sheet guidance and accepted formats, and those change from time to time. Before you file, check the current requirements of the organizations your writers belong to, and ask your distributor which format they want in their delivery schedule.

What goes on the sheet

A complete cue sheet has two parts: information about the production, and one entry per cue.

Production information

• Title of the film or episode, plus the series title and episode number for television.
• Total running time.
• Production company and contact details.
• Year of production and, where relevant, the original airdate or release date.

One entry per cue

• Cue number, in the order the cues appear.
• Cue title, exactly as registered with the rights organization.
• Writers, meaning the composers and songwriters, each with their rights organization and their share.
• Publishers, each with their rights organization and their share.
• Timing, as in and out timecodes, a duration, or both.
• Usage, the code for how the music is heard.

The builder above handles the parts that cause most errors: timing, duration, usage codes and missing information. Writer and publisher fields take free text, so you can include each person's organization and share in the form the sheet needs, such as "Name (ASCAP) 50%".

What a finished entry looks like

Here is an illustrative entry for a single cue, laid out the way many cue sheets present it. The names are placeholders.

Organizations differ on how shares are written. Some forms show writer shares adding up to 100% and publisher shares adding up to 100% separately; others show every party's share of the whole. Follow the format your distributor or the relevant organization asks for, and make sure the shares match the registrations the writers and publishers have filed.

Usage codes, explained

The usage code tells the rights organization how the audience experiences the music. These are the codes the builder uses:

The difference between background and visual is whether the audience sees the source of the music being performed. A song on a car radio that nobody is singing is usually background; the same song with a character singing along on camera is usually visual vocal. When in doubt, describe what is on screen and let the organization or your music supervisor advise.

Each rights organization weights usage types under its own rules, so the code you choose affects what the writers are paid. That is why a correct code matters as much as a correct name.

A full worked example

The builder loads an illustrative four-cue feature by default. Here is the arithmetic it does, step by step, with the same numbers it shows.

The film runs 90 minutes, which is 5,400 seconds.

Cue 1, Main Title (MT): in at 00:00:30, out at 00:01:45. 105 seconds minus 30 seconds is 75 seconds, shown as 1:15.

Cue 2, Kitchen Argument (BI): in at 00:12:10, out at 00:13:40. In seconds that is 730 to 820, so the cue runs 90 seconds, shown as 1:30.

Cue 3, Car Radio Song (VV): in at 00:25:00, out at 00:25:50. 1,500 to 1,550 seconds is 50 seconds, shown as 0:50.

Cue 4, End Credits (ET): in at 01:27:00, out at 01:30:00. 5,220 to 5,400 seconds is 180 seconds, shown as 3:00.

Total music: 75 plus 90 plus 50 plus 180 is 395 seconds, which is 6:35.

Share of runtime: 395 divided by 5,400 is about 0.073, so music plays for 7.3% of the film.

By usage type: 1:15 of main title, 1:30 of background instrumental, 0:50 of visual vocal and 3:00 of end title.

All four cues have a title, a writer and a publisher, none overlap, and the last one ends exactly at the end of the film. The verdict is a pass.

A real feature usually has many more cues than this. The builder takes up to six at a time, which suits most short films and also lets you check a reel or a section of a longer film before you assemble the full sheet.

What the checker catches

The builder sorts every problem into one of two groups. Problems stop the sheet from being filed and make the verdict fail. Checks may be fine, but you should confirm each one, and they make the verdict a warning.

Problems

• No title. Rights organizations match cues by title, so an untitled cue cannot be paid.
• No composer or songwriter. Without a writer, there is nobody to pay.
• Unreadable timing. The in or out time could not be read as a timecode or a number of seconds.
• Zero-length or reversed cue. The out time is the same as, or earlier than, the in time. This is nearly always a typing mistake.

Checks

• Overlapping cues. Two cues play at the same moment. This is often correct: a song on a radio can play under the score, and both are real uses. It is also a common sign of a typing mistake, so the checker lists every overlap for you to confirm.
• A cue that runs past the end of the film. Either the timecode or the runtime you entered is wrong.
• No publisher. Some writers do not have a publisher. Performance royalties are usually divided into a writer's share and a publisher's share, and an unpublished writer may need to register in a particular way to collect the publisher's share, depending on the organization's rules. Note on the sheet that there is no publisher, rather than leaving the field blank.

A second worked example with problems

The second example on this page is an illustrative 12-minute short. Its opening cue runs from 00:00:05 to 00:01:00, which is 55 seconds. The second cue, a party track, starts at 00:00:50 and its out is entered as +40, meaning 40 seconds long, so it ends at 00:01:30.

• Overlap: the opening cue ends at 60 seconds and the party track starts at 50, so they overlap by 10 seconds. That is a check.
• Missing writer: the party track has no composer. That is a problem, so the verdict fails.
• Totals: 55 plus 40 is 95 seconds of music, or 1:35, which is about 13.2% of a 720-second film.

Fixing it means adding the songwriters of the party track and confirming whether the two cues really do overlap. If the party track starts when the opening music ends, change its in time to 00:01:00.

Reading the builder's result

The output is arranged so you can fix problems in order.

• The verdict says whether the sheet is ready, has things to check, or has problems that stop it being filed. Its first line names the most urgent issue.
• The figures give the number of cues, the total music time, music as a share of the runtime, and how many problems and checks were found.
• The cue sheet table lists every cue you entered with its in, out, duration and usage code. Missing values are marked so you can see the gaps at a glance.
• The usage breakdown adds up the minutes and seconds of music for each usage type.
• The timeline draws each cue across the length of the film, which makes overlaps and long silences easy to spot.
• The fix list sets out every problem first and every check after it.
• The checklist covers the steps the builder cannot verify for you, such as matching each writer's registration.

Blank cues are ignored, so you can leave unused rows empty. A cue counts as entered as soon as any of its title, writer, publisher or timing fields has something in it, which is why a half-filled row produces a problem rather than vanishing silently.

Entering timecodes

The builder accepts timing in several forms so you can paste from your editing software:

• HH:MM:SS, such as 01:27:00.
• MM:SS, such as 4:30.
• Plain seconds, such as 90.
• HH:MM:SS:FF, where the last number is frames. The builder reads frames at 24 per second and rounds durations to whole seconds, which is how cue sheets usually list them.
• A length for the out time, written with a plus sign, such as +75 for a cue that runs 75 seconds.

If your project runs at 23.976 or 29.97 frames per second, the frame number only shifts a duration by a fraction of a second. For a cue sheet, whole seconds are what matter. If your film uses a timecode that starts at 01:00:00:00, as many broadcast masters do, subtract that hour from every cue or enter the runtime to match, so the checker can compare cues against the end of the film.

Spotting every cue

Building the sheet starts with a spotting pass: watching the locked cut and writing down every moment music starts and stops. Cues are easy to miss.

• Short stings and transitions count, even if they last a few seconds.
• Source music, music that comes from something in the scene such as a radio, a phone or a street musician, counts.
• Music heard under dialogue counts even if it is barely audible.
• Repeated uses of the same piece are listed as separate cues each time the music starts again.
• Main and end titles get their own entries, even if they reuse a theme heard earlier.

Do the spotting after picture lock and the final mix. Every re-cut can move cues, and every mix change can make a cue audible or remove it.

When to build it in the post-production schedule

The cue sheet is one of the last documents made on a film, but it is easier if you prepare for it from the start.

1. During the edit, keep a running music log. Each time temporary or final music goes into the timeline, note the title and where it came from. That log becomes the first draft of the cue sheet.
2. At music licensing, collect the exact title, writers, publishers and shares for each licensed song as part of the licence paperwork. Ask the composer for the registered titles of score cues at the same time.
3. After picture lock and the final mix, do the spotting pass and enter the final timings. Run the builder to catch missing details and overlaps.
4. Before delivery, check the finished sheet against the licences and the on-screen music credits so all three agree.

Leaving everything to the final week is how cues get missed. The music log costs a few minutes a day during the edit and saves a full day of detective work at the end.

Score and songs need different information

Most films mix two kinds of music, and each brings its own paperwork.

Original score is written for the film by a composer. The composer agreement usually sets who owns the music and who publishes it. Score cues are typically titled by the composer, often with descriptive names or cue numbers. Ask the composer for the titles they have registered, because those are the titles the rights organization will look for.

Licensed songs already exist and were written by someone else. The details on the cue sheet must match the song's existing registration, which is why they should come straight from the licence and the publisher rather than from a streaming service or a lyrics website. A song with several writers and publishers can take longer to document than all of the score put together.

Music recorded on set, such as a character humming or playing a tune, still needs a cue entry if it is a recognizable piece of music, and it may also need a licence. Raise it with your music supervisor or lawyer as soon as it is shot, not at delivery.

Where the money comes from

Performance royalties arise when music is publicly performed. For films that typically means television broadcast, many streaming services and, in many countries, cinema screenings. Each organization has its own rules for what it collects and how it calculates payment, including how it weights usage types and durations. In the United States, cinemas generally do not pay performance royalties for the music in the films they show, while in many other countries cinema screenings do generate them through the local organization. Ask the relevant organization how its rules apply to your release.

This is why the cue sheet matters even for a small film. A short that is later licensed to a broadcaster can generate royalties for its composer for years, but only if the cue sheet exists and is accurate.

Festival-only films still benefit

A short that only plays festivals may never generate meaningful performance royalties. Make the cue sheet anyway. Festival films are sometimes picked up later by a broadcaster, a streaming service or an online platform, and the buyer will ask for the sheet as part of delivery. For a short, building it while the edit is fresh can take about an hour. Reconstructing it two years later, after the editor has moved on and the session files are archived, can take days and still miss cues.

Cue sheet, licence and credits are three different things

It is easy to confuse the documents around film music.

• The licence gives the production permission to use a piece of music. A recorded song usually needs two: a synchronization licence for the composition from the publisher, and a master use licence for the recording from the label or owner. Original score is usually covered by the composer agreement.
• The cue sheet reports what music was used, for how long and how, so royalties can be paid.
• The on-screen credits name the music in the end credits, usually in wording the licence requires.

You need all three for every licensed song. Composer agreements commonly let the composer keep the writer's share of performance royalties even when the production owns the score, which is one more reason the composer will want to see the cue sheet. This page explains how these documents usually work and is not legal advice; have an entertainment lawyer review music licences and composer agreements.

Library music, trailers and episodes

Production music libraries. If you use tracks from a production music library, the library supplies the title, writers, publisher and often a catalogue code for each track. Copy those details exactly. Library tracks are frequently registered under titles that look like codes or short descriptions, and a cue listed under a description you invented will not be matched.

Trailers and other versions. A trailer is a separate piece of work with its own music, and it usually needs its own cue sheet if it will be broadcast. The same is true of a television cut, an airline version or any re-edit that changes the music. Keep each cue sheet tied to a named version of the film.

Series. Each episode of a series gets its own cue sheet, even when the theme and much of the score repeat. The main title theme appears on every episode's sheet, with its timing in that episode.

Questions you cannot answer. If you do not know a writer's organization or share, ask the composer, the publisher or the music supervisor rather than guessing. An entry that is honestly marked as unknown is easier to correct than one that is confidently wrong.

A checklist before you file

• Every cue spotted from the locked, mixed film.
• Every cue titled exactly as registered.
• Every writer and publisher named, with rights organization and share.
• Timing checked, with no zero-length cues and every overlap confirmed.
• Usage codes chosen from what is on screen, not from what the music sounds like.
• Licensed songs matched to the titles and writers in each licence.
• Sheet delivered to the distributor or broadcaster, and to anyone else your agreements require.

Mistakes that cost writers money

Leaving out short cues. A five-second sting played in every episode adds up.

Guessing titles. A cue listed under a working title may never be matched to its registration.

Getting the usage wrong. Marking a visual vocal as background changes how the organization treats the cue.

Never updating the sheet. If the film is re-cut for a new release, the cue sheet must be re-cut too.

Treating it as optional. Distributors and broadcasters often withhold acceptance of delivery until it arrives.

Sources and rules this page relies on

• ASCAP, cue sheet guidance for film and television. Published by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
• BMI, cue sheet guidance for film and television. Published by Broadcast Music, Inc.
• SOCAN, cue sheet guidance. Published by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.
• PRS for Music, guidance on cue sheets for audiovisual productions. Published by PRS for Music in the United Kingdom.
• Distributor and broadcaster delivery schedules. These set whether a cue sheet is required and in what format.
• SMPTE ST 12, the timecode standard published by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. The basis for the HH:MM:SS:FF timing format.
• Usage codes, share splits and payment rules vary by organization and change over time. Confirm the current rules with the organizations your writers belong to before you file.