How Do You Fill Out a Music Cue Sheet? Every Field, With a Worked Example

A cue sheet is the list that tells performing rights organizations what music a film, show or ad contains. SOCAN, Canada's performing rights organization, says that without one, "these performances would remain unidentified and unpaid." Our guide to cue sheets for songwriters explains why that matters to the people who wrote the music.

This guide is for whoever is holding the blank form: a producer, an editor or a filmmaker working alone. It walks through the fields in order, using SOCAN's industry-standard template, the RapidCue system that ASCAP and BMI offer together, and a public broadcaster's own instructions. It is general information, not legal advice, and forms change, so check the one your organization asks for.

Gather the data first

Most of the work is collecting facts, not typing. Your license paperwork is the best place to look, and a split sheet from the writers beats a guess at the shares. For gaps, the GBH instructions point to the ASCAP and BMI repertoire searches for missing affiliations. For every piece of music, you need:

• The title, spelled as it appears on the license.
• How long the music plays in your program, not the length of the song. Soundstripe's guide calls this the actual use time.
• Each writer and each publisher, with the society they belong to (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SOCAN, PRS and others), an IPI number if you have one, and their share.
• Where the music came from: written for the program, taken from an existing release, or pulled from a production music library.
• Whether it is in the public domain.

Part one: the program

The top of the sheet says what the music appeared in. For a series, add the episode title and number, which SOCAN's template treats as optional. RapidCue's batch guide also asks for the run time and total music time, plus an air date, a production number or an episode number to identify the program. SOCAN's template marks these as mandatory:

• The production title.
• The type and category of production, such as a series, and the sheet's classification, such as original.
• The year of production, the running time and the country of production.
• Who is providing the sheet, who prepared it and the date it was submitted or revised.

Part two: one line for every cue

Every piece of music gets its own row, called a cue. SOCAN's template marks the title, usage, duration, source, and each party's role and name as mandatory. In plain words:

• Title. Use the name on the license, spelled the same way everywhere.
• Usage. How the audience meets the music. The codes are explained below.
• Time in and time out. Where the music starts and stops in the picture. SOCAN's template has columns for both, though only the duration is mandatory.
• Duration. Hours, minutes and seconds, written as HHMMSS in both SOCAN's and RapidCue's formats. Add up your cues and check the total against the program's running time.
• Source. SOCAN asks whether the music was specially commissioned or pre-existing. For library music, RapidCue's batch format has fields for the library name and track number.
• Public domain. RapidCue asks yes or no and, if yes, whether that holds worldwide or only in the U.S. It warns when such a cue lists no arranger, which fits our point in public-domain songs that an old song can be public domain while a newer arrangement is not.
• Writers and publishers. Each interested party gets a role (composer, author, publisher and others), a name, a society, an IPI number if known, and a share.
• Optional extras. ISWC and ISRC codes and the performer's name, if you have them.

Usage codes in plain words

The usage code says how the audience meets the music. RapidCue's list of valid values is longer, adding logo, bumper and segment themes. SOCAN's sample uses plain words such as opening theme, background and closing theme. Use the words your form offers, and for an unclear case, such as a song playing from a radio in the scene, ask the society before you guess. Soundstripe's guide lists six common codes:

• BI, background instrumental: underscore, or instrumental music from a source the audience cannot see.
• BV, background vocal: music with lyrics under the action, or from a source the audience cannot see.
• VI, visual instrumental: an instrumental performance shown on camera.
• VV, visual vocal: a vocal performance shown on camera.
• MT, main theme, and ET, end theme: the opening and closing title themes.

How shares work, and why forms differ

Shares say who owns what part of a cue, and the convention changes from form to form, which is where many sheets go wrong. Read the instructions inside your form (SOCAN's template has tool tips and a Standards & Rules tab) and take the numbers from the writers' split sheet. Three examples:

• SOCAN's sample sheet gives a writer 50 percent and that writer's publisher 50 percent of one cue, so the whole cue adds to 100 percent.
• RapidCue's batch checks expect all the shares on a cue to total 100 percent, give or take 0.06, and warn when they do not.
• One public broadcaster's instructions for the RapidCue web tool say each cue should total 200 percent, with the writers at 100 and the publishers at 100.

A worked example

Here is an invented 12-minute documentary with five cues, using SOCAN's convention, where each cue adds to 100 percent. The music totals exactly six minutes, well inside the running time.

• Cue 1, opening theme: specially commissioned, 0:35. One writer at 50 percent and that writer's publishing company at 50 percent.
• Cue 2, a licensed song under a market scene: background vocal, pre-existing, 1:45 even though the song runs longer. Two writers and their publishers, with shares copied from the license paperwork.
• Cue 3, a street singer filmed on camera: visual vocal, 0:50, with time in and time out noted.
• Cue 4, a traditional carol sung by a choir under a scene: background vocal, marked public domain, with the arranger listed, 0:40.
• Cue 5, the end-credits song: closing theme, pre-existing, 2:10.

Mistakes that hold a sheet up

GBH's instructions and RapidCue's own validation rules show where sheets get stuck:

• A cue missing its writers or publishers. GBH says every cue needs at least one composer and one publisher, public domain aside.
• A header with no cues, a title that still begins with "[Copy Of]" after you duplicated an old sheet, or cue times that add up to more than the program's length. All three are on GBH's list of common errors.
• A cue with no duration, no title or an invalid usage. RapidCue's batch checks reject the sheet.
• Shares that do not add up the way your form expects.
• Filing late or not at all. Promise Legal's guide says PROs generally "can't reach back and pay royalties on placements that were never registered in time."

Who files it, and when

SOCAN says a sheet completed by the producer "is considered the authoritative source," though sheets can also come from broadcasters, distributors, other societies and members. It adds that the quality, consistency and timeliness of the sheets it receives have declined in recent years, and it wants them "as soon as productions have aired." In the U.S., MusicRow reported in 2016 that a standard template lets a production submit once, through RapidCue, for both BMI and ASCAP.

Deadlines vary. One music company asks its customers to submit within 30 days of airing. Ask your society and your broadcaster which dates apply, and put the date on your delivery list.

Make the duty explicit. Promise Legal says filing "is typically the production company's responsibility" and advises writing that into the contract, and the Arts Law Centre of Australia says rights holders will want the producer to promise to lodge cue sheets. If you are the producer, agree, and name who does it.

Ads count too. SOCAN's FAQ says a cue sheet covers a feature film, a TV episode, "even a television commercial." If a holiday spot will air on TV, plan its sheet while the edit is fresh.

Where Starchild fits

Every Starchild license comes with a certificate naming the writers, with their PRO and IPI details, and starchild.music/verify checks it. That gives you a reliable source for the writer columns on your sheet. For a film, series or ad, the sync licensing page is the place to start, and the film and TV page is where to browse. Adaptive sync licensing for film, TV, games and ads launches in fall 2026.

Sources

• SOCAN: FAQ, Industry-standard cue sheet
• SOCAN: Sample cue sheet (the template, filled in)
• RapidCue: Batch Reference Guide, version 1.4.8 (January 2024)
• MusicRow: BMI, ASCAP Reveal Standardized Cue Sheet Template (2016)
• GBH: RapidCue Music Cue Sheet Process
• Soundstripe: What Is a Cue Sheet?
• Promise Legal: Sync Licensing Basics, What the TV-and-Film Deal Actually Says
• Arts Law Centre of Australia: Music Synchronisation Licence Fact Sheet