A cue sheet is the document that lists every piece of music used in a TV episode, film, trailer or ad, and it is how your performing rights organization (PRO) knows your song played so it can pay you performance royalties. Each line gives the song title, writers, publishers, PRO affiliations, ownership shares, how the music was used, and exactly how long it ran. The production company files it, not you.
The cue sheet does not change your sync fee, which is set in the license and paid up front. It controls the backend: the performance royalties that arrive months later through ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR or your PRO overseas. If no cue sheet is filed, or yours has the wrong splits, that money can be late, short, or never paid.
One cue sheet covers one episode or one film. Every piece of music in it is a "cue," and each cue carries the same core fields:
| Field | What it says | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Song or cue title, as registered | A mismatch with your PRO registration is the most common reason a cue does not match |
| Writers and shares | Each writer, their PRO and their percentage | This is where your split sheet pays off |
| Publishers and shares | Each publisher, PRO and percentage | Self-published writers need their own publisher entity listed |
| Usage code | How the music was used (see below) | Affects how the cue is weighted |
| Duration | Actual time on screen, to the second | Longer cues earn more |
| Time in and out | Where in the program the cue starts and ends | Lets the PRO verify the use |
Rates differ by PRO, territory and type of use, so treat the code as one factor among several and look at your own statements to see what a given cue actually paid.
The production company is responsible, usually through the post-production supervisor or music supervisor, who has the final list of what aired. Filing normally happens after the program is locked or delivered, and it can lag by weeks. PRO payment then follows on the PRO's own schedule, often six months or more after the air date, and longer for international performances. Treat any date as a typical range, not a promise, and check your PRO's published payment calendar.
If you are signed to a publisher or sync library, they usually handle cue sheet follow-up for you, and your agreement says how those royalties are shared. See exclusive vs non-exclusive sync library deals for the clauses to read. For the full picture of fees versus backend, read how sync placements pay. This is general information, not legal advice, and PRO rules vary by country.
Most cue sheet errors begin before the placement: a different version of the title in the pitch, a co-writer left off, or a one-stop song with unclear one-stop ownership. Pitching clean, correctly named files with the right information attached prevents all of them.
Pitchkit does not file cue sheets. It handles the step before: paste a brief, and it ranks your own catalog by tempo, key, energy, mood, genre and lyrics, then copies the best fits, with clean artist and title filenames, into a pitch folder. It runs on your Mac and your files are never uploaded.
Related reading: how to read a sync brief, what it means when a song is on hold, and how to answer a sync brief in under an hour.
The production company, usually through its post-production team or music supervisor, is responsible for creating and filing it with the performing rights organizations. Songwriters and publishers do not control the timing, but you can ask the music supervisor to confirm it was filed and to send you a copy of the cue sheet entry for your song.
You are paid the sync fee either way, because that comes from the license. Without a cue sheet, though, your PRO may have no record of the use, so performance royalties can be delayed or missed. Check your PRO statements, and if a placement has aired with no royalty, contact the PRO and the production with the air date and episode details.
They are usage codes. BI is background instrumental, BV is background vocal, VI is visual instrumental (the performance is on screen), and VV is visual vocal. T usually marks a theme. Background uses typically earn the same performance royalty rate as visual uses on most US broadcast, but the code and the duration both affect how the cue is weighted.
No. A license grants permission to use the song and sets the fee. A split sheet records who wrote the song and in what percentages. A cue sheet reports where and how long the song played, and it pulls the writer and publisher shares from your split information so the PROs can pay the right people.
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