Collaborative ‘Harmonized’ Music Cue Sheet Initiative Expands to Include Recording Metadata

Photo Credit: Ashley King

A cross-sector project to ‘harmonize’ cue sheets for the use of music in audiovisual productions has been upgraded to include recording metadata for the first time.This work started in 2020 as a way to bring metadata into the standard cue sheet, making it easier for all parties to identify musical works, sound recordings, and to process payments to creators and rights holders.

The new Global Cue Sheet Standard 2.0 was developed for the use of all parties who create and use cue sheets for music in AV productions. It provides the relevant metadata elements to help identify musical works and sound recordings, ensuring correct distribution of rights income generated.

The project has been implemented in collaboration between CISAC—representing author societies worldwide—music publishers, film & TV studios, and producers through the Society Publisher Forum. The IFPI also contributed, representing the international recording industry.

The Society Publisher Forum (SPF) is a joint initiative of CISAC, ICMP, and IMPA and is supported by the AIMP and IMPF. Societies, publishers, producers, film and TV studios, and video-on-demand platforms have been involved to ensure optimum implementation of the project globally.This extended collaboration to include recording metadata elements means that the cue sheets standard will support not only authors’ rights collections but neighboring rights as well.

The Global Cue Sheet Standard 2.0 describes the relevant metadata elements of the production in which the works and recordings have been featured. It also includes the context and duration of the music usage, incorporating many existing internationally recognized identifiers. It is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

What are some of the main benefits of the harmonized music cue sheet?Improved efficiently when processing cue sheets and amending the details of a musical work and sound recordingA more streamlined musical work and sound recording registration processPayment records can be linked to musical works and sound recordings documentation, so that publishers and labels can efficiently track royalty paymentsGreater consistency between the publishers’ registrations and the societies’ payments for exploitation of film and TV productionsThe Global Cue Sheet Standard 2.0 document replaces the previous version: Cue Sheet Standards and Rules (CISAVX17-1197). It consists of a comprehensive list of Cue Sheet Data Elements which have been extracted from various formats like AVR, RapidCue, Soundmouse, and society formats from ASCAP, BMI, GEMA, KODA, PRS, and SOCAN. The new standard sample cue sheet is available for download on the CISAC website.