The Ultimate Cue Sheet Guide for Music Clearance & Licensors

How To Fill Out and Submit Proper Cue Sheet Templates with PROs

Who should submit a cue sheet?

The Licensee. The licensee is the user of the music (i.e., production companies, websites, ad agencies, podcast companies,

corporations, game producers, app producers, etc. who have obtained a license to use the composition in their production).

 

Who should not submit a cue sheet?

The Licensor should not submit cue sheets. The Licensor is the approval party who either owns or administers the music copyright(s),

(i.e., self-published composer(s) and/or the composer(s)’ publisher(s) of the licensed composition).

 

Why should the licensee and not the licensor submit a cue sheet?

The Licensee is the entity that has obtained a license to use the composition. As a result, the licensee is best able to accurately report how the music was used.

See Cue Sheet Corner for an example of proper cue sheet requirement.   

 

Should the licensor also submit a cue sheet in the event it is not submitted by the licensee?

No. If two of the same cue sheets are received by a performing rights organization, the performing rights organization must manually

sift through the duplicate. See details under each PRO heading below.

 

What if a Licensee needs to revise a cue sheet after mission?

If a revised cue sheet is required, it is very important to mark the cue sheet as “REVISED”. Mark revisions carefully, so they are visible.

 

What if I am behind schedule on delivering cue sheets for my production (i.e., film, show, podcast, website, advertisement)?

For best practices, please inform the performing rights organization(s) that they will be receiving the cue sheet(s). The performing rights organizations have distribution cycles.  They can be overwhelmed if a large production is submitted in a later quarter, for funds may not have been set aside.  Receiving cue sheets out of sequence can overload the PRO systems.

 

Music Duration: The duration of music on the cue sheet cannot exceed the duration of the visual content (i.e., In a 10-minute production, all cues cannot exceed ten minutes  when added together and/or if music is used in a three-minute scene, the cue(s) should not exceed three minutes).

 

Read more about Cue Sheet Submission Methods by U.S. PROs here!