Got my first royalty check for tv/film cues! But. . . .

[shanegrla]

So I finally earned a whopping $15 from a couple tv cues that were used a few months ago. Yay! Only problem is, my royalty sheet (BMI) doesn't tell me which cues were used! It tells me the the names of the shows and the names of the episodes, but doesn't tell the names of the cues. So I can't even brag about them because I still don't know yet which of my cues have been used!

I tried looking up the shows/episodes online, but these are relatively small-time shows (one of them I've never even heard of on the Travel Channel), so I couldn't find my cues that way either. I doubt my library will be able to shed any light either because they're one of those retitling shops that do a blanket license so they won't have much personalized individual info for me.

Anybody ever have this problem too, and what do you do about it?

[marcblack30]

Cool Shane, congrats!
I'm with ASCAP, so this will probably not be too helpful for you. ASCAP lets you go one step further, you can click (ASCAP Program code) and view the Cue Sheet Record where you can see every song that was used in the episode. I would think that BMI would have this as well. You may have to wait for a BMI member to reply.

Best,
Marc

[shanegrla]

Marc,
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, as far as I know BMI doesn't have anything like that. I download my royalty sheet and it's a pdf, so it's not like it's interactive with links or anything you can click. But you're right, maybe another veteran BMI member can chime in on this one.

Shane

[matto]

Shane,

The work title should be listed under "title" on the same line as the work number/length/use/percentage etc. Normally it's is the second line (the one which is not in bold type) of each entry. The first line (in bold type) has the show title on the left and the episode title under "title".

If instead of the work title there is a generic title like "(name of show) cue", then log into your online account at BMI.com, find that same title (i.e. "(name of show) cue") in your online works catalog, and click on "view background titles rolled up in this cue". It should tell you the name of the song (you must be logged in for this, it's not visible in the works catalog the general public can access).

This type of "generic retitling" happens usually when the name of the cue is misspelled on the cue sheet and therefore the computer cannot associate it with an existing title in your catalog.

Of course this is assuming the library didn't give the cue some (re-)title which you were not informed of. In that case you'd have to find out from the library...

[shanegrla]

Thanks Matto. Per your advice, I checked the Works Catalog section in my account and found them there. It was a little strange because I wasn't expecting them to put the title of the shows in the title of my cues.

But whatever, as long as I'm getting paid.