Following the overwhelming success of our “Cue Sheet Essentials” webinar, we returned with a follow-up webinar that dug deeper into advanced cue sheet management and its critical role in effective music rights management. If you’ve been challenged by slow, complex cue sheet processes impacting your revenue and causing unnecessary stress, this is the webinar recording you need to watch.
Attendees joined us for “Level Up Your Cue Sheets: AR and Best Practices,” a free webinar where industry leaders Mark Vermaat of Orfium and Janine Kerr (former VP of Music at FanDuel, Fox Sports, and NBC) shared expert insights for robust cue sheet management and optimized music rights management.
In this recorded session, you’ll learn how to elevate your cue sheet processes, including how to:
- Optimize Your Cue Sheet Workflow: Discover how to implement advanced metadata strategies, a cornerstone of effective cue sheet management, and gain practical advice to streamline processes vital for music rights management.
- Maximize Revenue & Simplify Compliance with Enhanced Cue Sheet Management: Learn how to leverage Audio Recognition (AR) technology with expert tips. These real-world tested strategies and tips for cue sheet management can be applied immediately to improve cue sheet creation and ensure compliance with accuracy and speed.
- Gain Expert Insights on Cue Sheet Management: Viewers benefited from the in-depth knowledge shared by our seasoned professionals as they answered burning questions on all aspects of cue sheet management and its impact on overall music rights management, which you can read in full below.
Live Audience Questions with Answers From our Experts
- I’m working on an indie feature where the director wrote/recorded their own song and put it in the film (the characters in the scene sing along to it on the radio). The director doesn’t have a PRO or publisher—in this case, what should they put in the cue sheet since they don’t have a PRO or publishing information for their song?
The film producer should have an agreement with the director establishing a work-for-hire arrangement, even if it’s for no fee or a nominal amount. If there’s no Performing Rights Organization (PRO) involved, the agreement should include a performance buyout. With a buyout, the performance information isn’t required on the cue sheet. However, it can be included with a note like ‘PRO buyout’ for internal tracking, indicating no payment is needed. Alternatively, if the composer wants backend royalties, they need to quickly register with a PRO to register the song and follow the standard procedure. Please note that in most countries outside the US, a performance buyout is not possible.
- If there is no publisher info always required how do the publishers get paid? Writers often have different publishers from song to song.
Writers frequently have different publishers for various songs, particularly those composing specifically for film and television scores. A writer might work across multiple shows, each with different publishing arrangements. While the necessity of a publisher on cue sheets can vary, consistently including publisher information helps prevent errors. In the US, including the publisher is generally considered essential. This practice ensures accurate payouts, especially since societies often register works directly from the cue sheet. Without publisher details, it may become unclear who should receive royalties.
In scenarios outside the US, some societies rely on pre-existing registrations and might not directly use publisher information from the cue sheet. If a publisher hasn’t registered the work independently, the society might not make a payment, relying instead on matching composer name and title. Nevertheless, especially within the US, consistently providing publisher information is crucial because the cue sheet can be the primary source for a work’s registration in a society’s database.
- Does the cue sheet include the ISRC?
Typically, for US television work, ISRC codes aren’t included unless it’s a promo with an ISCI code. This differs from Europe, where cue sheets often include ISRC codes, even for production library music, due to reporting requirements for European neighboring rights societies. Their validation systems often mandate ISRC codes. The remit of the US neighboring rights society SoundExchange doesn’t include broadcast and streaming media which likely explains the absence of ISRC codes. However, US studios and broadcasters should recognize potential revenue outside the US and register their controlled music to collect those earnings.
- Is there an international unique ID for a cue sheet per production, like the ISRC?
There are two main identifiers for audiovisual programs, similar to ISRC for recordings or ISBN for books. One is ISAN (International Standard Audiovisual Number), primarily used in Europe for rights management. The other is EIDR (Entertainment Identifier Registry), more focused on the supply chain but also used by PROs in the US. Both ISAN and EIDR are crucial identifiers for AV content and have online resources for further information. While these identifiers are important, their adoption across the industry is not yet consistent, partly due to different application levels. Increased and widespread use of both ISAN and EIDR would be beneficial.
- Music duration vs. program duration is always an issue for PROs – can Soundmouse help with this?
Soundmouse has a setting to disallow the submission of cue sheets when the music duration exceeds the program duration. By default, this is allowed, but the setting can be adjusted to either completely prevent submission or issue a warning. If you need help configuring this, contact the client accounts team.
- Is there an association that has the final say over what is required on a cue sheet such as with the publisher information example, and why is there no standard regulation for this?
Human errors can happen when entering track titles, like inputting “60 second theme” instead of the actual title. You can register alternative titles (AKAs) with Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) if necessary. For example, a track named “The Theme Song Title” could also have “60 Second Theme” registered as an AKA.
Different PROs worldwide have varying requirements for cue sheets. These requirements often depend on a few factors:
- Who uses the cue sheet: Requirements may differ based on whether the cue sheet is used only by performance rights organizations (like ASCAP and BMI) or also by neighboring rights societies (like PPL and GVL).
- Royalty distribution: PROs often distribute royalties differently depending on how the music is used (e.g., background, visual). To ensure correct distribution, the PRO needs this usage data included on the cue sheet.
- Media company specifics: Certain media companies might also have their own unique requirements, leading to further differences in cue sheets.
- How will the audio recognition react to live music in the background such as from a scene or theater performance?
As a parallel example, in live sports, background music played in the stadium that is not intended as a feature should not be recognized. Solutions such as Soundmouse often have a function to filter out crowd noise to prevent its detection. The audio originating from the production studio (truck) is what is relevant for cue sheets, whereas ambient background noise is not. It’s advisable for editors/producers/cameras to avoid focusing on instances like a crowd chanting a song, as this could be interpreted as featuring the music, potentially leading to clearance and payment obligations. Claims for unlicensed use can be costly, so avoiding such situations is important.
- As a composer, how does switching from one US PRO to another US PRO affect cue sheets that have been previously submitted? Do the cue sheets need to be updated with the new PRO info or does the PRO listed on the cue sheet pass royalties on to the composer’s new PRO?
When a composer switches their PRO affiliation in the US, previously submitted cue sheets are generally not updated with the new PRO information. By the time a cue sheet is submitted, the musical work will likely have already been registered. The PROs manage royalty distribution by maintaining a “chain of title” for the work, allowing them to track and direct payments even if the composer subsequently changes PROs.
However, it’s crucial for the composer to take proactive steps:
- Notify your current PRO that you are moving.
- Contact your new PRO to confirm you are set up in their system.
- It’s always advisable to establish a connection with someone at your new PRO. They often have resources and networking opportunities, especially for newer composers. For established composers with a significant catalog, the new PRO will likely be aware of the incoming works, but direct communication remains beneficial.
The PROs will claim royalties for the songs they control. Once the switch is made, the new PRO will handle this for future earnings.
- If my company has composers on staff, where the company will own both writers and publishers share of the work created by the company composers, do we need to credit the composers on the cue sheets?
Typically, composers are a mandatory field for reporting, so the cue sheet will not be accepted by the PRO unless the composer name is included. Please note that most PROs don’t allow for this model, so be mindful that many composers are not in a position to transfer the copyright to a company if they are members of PROs.
- Is there an international unique ID for a production that is captured on the cue sheet so that if you sync globally to a program, that same ID would be submitted by the broadcaster to the European CMO?
This could be ISAN or EIDR (see previous question). In theory, this would be the ideal solution. In practice, we are still a long way off.
- How do you detect visual music?
The best-case scenario is that the song is known about and permission to use it (called clearance) is sorted out before any filming happens. This means the right teams already have all the information they need.
If that doesn’t happen, here are other ways to find out: Problems can be caught when someone is reviewing the list of all the music used (this list is called a cue sheet). Another way is by watching the actual video clip (some services, like Soundmouse, even provide this footage). If anything looks out of place or unclear, someone will need to investigate further.
To avoid issues later on, producers should really talk to the music department before they start filming. Getting official permission to use music should always happen before the cameras roll.
Live events can create unique problems. For instance, if someone unexpectedly starts singing a song, the permission to use that song will need to be obtained after the event has already been broadcast. In such cases, it can help to send a clip to the copyright owners showing how the music was used. This shows it wasn’t a planned use and can make it easier to get the rights sorted out after the event, even though getting permission beforehand is always the better approach. It’s not the best way to do things, but sometimes unexpected uses happen.
Thankfully, having the actual video footage makes this whole process much easier. In the past, someone had to manually watch live events, carefully timing and noting down every single piece of music used. This was an incredibly time-consuming job, especially for long broadcasts.