Cue sheets: how production music on TV actually gets paid (and where the money gets lost)

Your library tells you a track of yours went into an episode of a cable series. Forty seconds under a scene in a kitchen. You note the air date and wait for the performance royalty. Two distributions later, nothing.

The broadcast was licensed. The music was licensed. What decides whether you get paid is a spreadsheet that a production company was supposed to fill in after the edit locked, and that you most likely never saw. If that cue sheet was never sent, was sent late, or lists your track under the wrong title, the performance is invisible to your society.

SOCAN’s FAQ puts it in one line: without the cue sheet, “these performances would remain unidentified and unpaid.”

Who files it, and why it is usually not you

The US, UK and Canadian societies I checked all name the production side as the source. Korea’s KOMCA leans on broadcasters. They differ on whether you, the writer, can step in.

ASCAP is the strictest, and it spells the rule out:

“Substantiated” has a concrete meaning on the same page: forward ASCAP the email from the production company or network that contains the cue sheet, and ASCAP will review it. Another answer adds that if a cue sheet does not come directly from the production company, the company must be on copy, or a contact email must be provided.

SOCAN went the other way, and says why. Its FAQ admits that the quality, consistency and timeliness of producer cue sheets “has decreased over recent years”, and that submitting one “is often not prioritized by those we depend on to submit them.”

Read those two answers together and the arrangement is plain. The cue sheet is written by a company that often has little reason to prioritise it, and is needed by a writer who, at ASCAP, usually is not allowed to send it. So for a production music writer, the work is not filing. It is checking.

What a cue sheet records, and which fields move money

ASCAP and BMI both offer the same downloadable template, and both societies developed the RapidCue submission format with their major cue sheet suppliers. Its one-page guide marks these as mandatory and defines the usage codes.

And the codes, quoted from that guide:

Common practice, unverified: most library placements in a TV episode are underscore. If so, most library cues should show BI or BV. That is my reading of the definitions, not a rule from any society.

Why the code and the duration are worth checking line by line: ASCAP’s royalty formula starts with a “use weight”, described as “the factor, or value, attached to each type of performance (theme, background, promotional, etc.)”, and then multiplies by licensee weight, a “Follow the Dollar” factor and, on television, a time-of-day weight, before premium credits are added. ASCAP does not publish the weights on that page, so I cannot tell you how much a BI is worth against a VV. PRS is more open on its side: TV royalties “depend on the broadcaster and how long your music is used for”, and the per-minute rate doubles from 16:00 to 17:59 and 23:00 to 23:59 and triples from 18:00 to 22:59. Where payment follows duration, a cue logged at 0:04 instead of 0:40 counts as four seconds.

One more detail that trips up library writers searching for their own music at ASCAP. When underscore written for a show is not separately registered, ASCAP “rolls up” the cues into works titled after the project, such as “X-Files Cues”. Library tracks are different: ASCAP says music “not written specifically for the audio-visual project” that “will also exist outside of the project” should be registered, which describes a library catalogue. If a cue sheet lists your library track under a show-specific title, that is worth asking about.

Where the money gets lost

Each of these comes from society documentation, except where I say otherwise. None of it is an estimate of how often it happens.

• No cue sheet at all. ASCAP’s answer for a composer who finds this: contact the production company and ask them to produce it and submit it, and send them the template if they need one.
• Filed after the deadline. ASCAP publishes quarterly cut-offs. For the March and April 2027 distributions the cue sheet must arrive by 1 January 2027; for June and July 2027, by 2 April 2027. A late or incomplete sheet “may take longer to process.”
• Your track under another name. ASCAP’s own checklist asks whether your music is “listed on a cue sheet under a different name”, meaning the roll-up rule above. A title typed differently from the registration looks like the same problem to me, though no society page I checked names it. Library retitling adds its own version of this, covered in exclusive vs non-exclusive libraries.
• A publisher who is not a member. If the production company holds publishing in the cue and has no ASCAP publishing company, ASCAP says it is “in their best interest to establish” one, and then alert ASCAP to update works already on cue sheets.
• The wrong day, at PRS. PRS samples some stations. “If your work was used by a sample-based station on a non-sample day, we won’t be able to process your claim.”

Common practice, unverified: in production music, the library itself often supplies cue sheet data to the production, or the production pulls titles and splits from the library’s licence paperwork. I have not found a society document that describes this, so treat it as the usual route rather than a rule.

The claim windows, as of 26 October 2026

Read against today’s date, ASCAP’s rule means a performance on or after 1 October 2024 (a rerun is a performance too) is still inside the window for composers, and the earliest of those closes on 31 January 2027. Applying the same rule one year back, anything performed before that missed its composer deadline on 31 January 2026.

PRS asks you to wait for the scheduled distribution before claiming. ASCAP says it generally pays 6 to 9 months after a performance, and that an aired programme can take 3 to 5 months to show in Member Access. KOMCA’s FAQ gives the same 6-to-9-month range for terrestrial broadcast. A cue sheet that is not visible after two months is normal. One that is still not visible after nine is worth a message.

How to check your placements

1. Keep your own placement log Show, episode, first air date, network, and the library's licence or usage report for each track You need this to ask about anything. PRS: "The more information you can give us, the quicker and easier it will be to investigate your claim."
2. Look in your society portal ASCAP lists cue sheets under the Works menu in Member Access. BMI's Online Services has a Cue Sheets feature. PRS lets you search cue sheets used in broadcast or film ASCAP also emails you about new cue sheets if you turn on Email Work Update notifications in your profile
3. Check each line, not just the show Your title as registered, your name and IPI, your society, the publisher (the library), the usage code, the duration A cue that shows up with 0:04 or the wrong society is the same as a cue that is missing, only harder to spot
4. Ask the production company first ASCAP's own answer for a missing cue sheet is to contact the production company The library is often the faster route to them. Common practice, unverified
5. Then raise it with the society, inside the window ASCAP: Member Access, "Performance Claims". PRS: a case, after the target distribution. SOCAN: you may submit a complete cue sheet yourself Give programme, work title, station and performance dates, the details ASCAP asks for

If you are writing for picture directly rather than through a library, ASCAP notes that many composers put a deal point in their contracts making the production company responsible for submitting cue sheets. That clause does not file anything by itself, but it gives you something to point to.

YouTube works differently: there, a Content ID claim decides who is paid, as the cover song piece explains.

Checklist for every placement

• Air date, network and episode written down the week you hear about it
• Track registered with your society under the exact title the library uses
• Cue sheet visible in your portal within 9 months of air
• Usage code makes sense for how it was used (BI or BV for underscore)
• Duration on the sheet matches the edit, not a rounded or truncated figure
• Publisher line correct (for library music, usually the library), with the right society
• Missing or wrong? Production company first, then the society
• ASCAP composers: late-cue-sheet claims for anything performed since 1 October 2024 sent before 31 January 2027
• PRS members: non-live claims inside three years

The cue sheet is the only thing connecting that forty seconds in the kitchen scene to your statement. Nobody else in the chain is as likely to check it on your behalf.