Information on music used in films
Whenever your music is used in a film, we are notified of this fact via a so-called cue sheet. A cue sheet is a list of every music work used in a given film. Of course, you still need to report your works to us if you haven’t already.
Cue sheet
Cue sheets are reported by means of this form, which also contains more detailed guidelines. The form can be used by composers and by film producers alike. It is the responsibility of the film producer to ensure that the cue sheet is completed and submitted to Koda. Sometimes, however, the main composer fills in the form.
It can be useful to combine the individual cues that form part of a film’s score/background music into one single work, named after the title of the film as it appears on the cue sheet. Doing so will make things simpler for Koda and you. Works that may already have or take on a life of their own outside the film, for example by being released on CD, are registered as an independent work on the cue sheet. This also applies to works with lyrics.
Send your completed cue sheet to [email protected]
Register your works
It is important that you register all your individual works to us; the easiest way to do this is via My Koda. You must also register the total underlægning/score/soundtrack of the film (using the title of the film as the title of the work) as a work in itself.
We will register the information from the cue sheet in our system as quickly as possible, and monthly data extractions will make the information available to most of our affiliates. This helps ensure that you will receive distributions from abroad if the film containing your music is also screened outside of Denmark.
If you would like to see the cue sheet for a film to which you have provided music (for example to see the duration registered for your work), please contact Koda’s member services at [email protected]
Performances and sales abroad of films featuring Danish music
Ideally, copyright management societies outside of Denmark should know about all relevant film screenings in their own territory and obtain the cue-sheet information required for them to carry out proper and correct distributions. In practice, however, this is not always the case. One of the problems is that films are often given local titles in the various countries in connection with performances and sales – without any reference to the Danish original title.
In response, Koda / NCB now collaborate on obtaining greater knowledge about performances and sales abroad of films containing Danish music. The objective is to ensure that copyright management societies abroad receive relevant information on film sales and performances in their territory. We also wish to ensure that we can keep track of the utilisation of individual films. We collect the information on performances and sales from various sources, including the Internet, DR Sales, TV2, and other copyright management societies, and we are also working to establish contact with various stakeholders within Danish film.
If you, as a publisher, have entered into an agreement with a film composer and receive information about sales or film performances abroad, we would like to hear from you. This may include information on:
Public performances
- Country
- Information regarding the individual performance/screening (TV channel, festival and similar)
- Local title
- Date/licence period
Mechanical sales
- Country
- Information regarding the individual performance/screening (TV channel, festival and similar)
- Local title
- Date/licence period
Performances in the Nordic countries are usually settled without any problems, so we do not need information on these. Finally, the performances should ideally have taken place within the last 3 years; if you go back any longer, you will find that the complaints deadline of many societies has been exceeded.
In addition to this investigative work, we have also sought to identify composers who are significantly focused on composing music for films. As an additional service to such composer, we send them an annual overview containing information about the performances / sales of their films we know about. Having such an overview might also be relevant for publishers that have entered into a publishing agreement with a film composer. If this is the case for you, please feel free to contact our International department at [email protected]
You can see when distributions are made in our distribution schedule
