Music for film

Music is the most direct route to an audience's emotions, and also the element of the sound track most likely to cause legal and financial trouble. This lesson looks at music from the sound department's point of view: the temp track and its pitfalls, working with a composer, spotting and editing music to picture, the rights needed to use existing recordings, cue sheets, and how music is prepared for the mix and deliverables. FILM-220 lesson 9 introduced music rights for picture editors, and FILM-420 covers copyright law in depth; here we focus on the workflow that connects music to the rest of the sound track.

What music does in a film

Music can establish time and place, reveal what a character feels but cannot say, build tension, provide continuity across a sequence of cuts, set the pace of an edit, and signal genre. It can also work against the picture: a gentle melody over violence can be more disturbing than a dramatic score. Diegetic music, also called source music, comes from within the story world, such as a radio, a band at a party or a character singing. Non-diegetic music, the score, exists only for the audience. Many films move between the two, as when a song on a car radio swells into the score.

Music competes with dialogue and effects. Its frequency range overlaps strongly with the human voice, so busy music under dialogue reduces intelligibility. Composers and mixers solve this with arrangements that leave space around dialogue, lower instrumentation in the vocal range, and careful levels. Deciding where not to use music is just as important as deciding where to use it.

Temp tracks

During editing, picture editors place temporary music, called temp, to help shape scenes and show the director and producers how the film will feel. Temp is usually drawn from other film scores and commercial recordings that the production cannot afford or has no right to use in the final film. Temp is valuable as a communication tool but dangerous in two ways. First, directors can become so attached to the temp that any new score sounds wrong, a problem known as temp love. Second, temp music sometimes survives into festival screenings or online cuts without clearance, creating legal exposure.

Good practice is to tell the composer what the temp is meant to do emotionally rather than asking for a copy, to replace temp with original or cleared music before any public screening, and to keep a list of every temp cue so none slips through to delivery.

Working with a composer

The composer writes original music, the score, for the film. On most productions the composer is hired during editing, attends the spotting session, and writes cues to timings provided by the music editor. A cue is a single piece of music with a start and end in the film, numbered by reel and order, such as 2M3 for the third music cue in reel 2. The composer delivers mock-ups, synthesized versions of each cue, for the director's approval, then records the final music with live musicians or produces it electronically.

Composer agreements cover fees, delivery schedules, whether the composer owns the copyright or the production does, and who pays for musicians and recording. A package deal, in which the composer receives a lump sum that includes recording costs, is common on independent films. The production usually needs, at minimum, the right to synchronize the music with the film and exploit it in all media worldwide, while the composer often keeps the writer's share of performance royalties collected by their performing rights organization.

Spotting and editing music to picture

The music spotting session identifies where each cue starts and ends, what it should do, and what happens at important moments within it, called hit points: a door opening, a cut to a new scene, a character's realization. The music editor prepares spotting notes with timecodes and works with the composer to make sure cues fit the picture exactly. When the composer writes to a click track, a metronome at a chosen tempo, the tempo determines how many frames each beat lasts, which lets the composer place hits precisely.

At 24 fps and 120 beats per minute, each beat lasts 12 frames. Composers sometimes choose tempos that give whole numbers of frames per beat, or use frame-based click tracks expressed as frames per beat, to make hits easier to land.

fps = 24
for bpm in [60, 90, 96, 100, 120, 144]:
    print(f'{bpm:4d} BPM: {60 * fps / bpm:5.2f} frames per beat')
start_tc_frames = 0
hit_frames = 24 * 37 + 6          # a hit 37 seconds and 6 frames into the cue
best = []
for bpm10 in range(800, 1400):     # 80.0 to 139.9 BPM in steps of 0.1
    bpm = bpm10 / 10
    beats = (hit_frames - start_tc_frames) / (60 * fps / bpm)
    best.append((abs(beats - round(beats)), bpm, round(beats)))
best.sort()
for err, bpm, n in best[:3]:
    print(f'{bpm:.1f} BPM puts the hit on beat {n} (error {err * 60 * fps / bpm:.2f} frames)')

  60 BPM: 24.00 frames per beat
  90 BPM: 16.00 frames per beat
  96 BPM: 15.00 frames per beat
 100 BPM: 14.40 frames per beat
 120 BPM: 12.00 frames per beat
 144 BPM: 10.00 frames per beat
90.2 BPM puts the hit on beat 56 (error 0.01 frames)
104.7 BPM puts the hit on beat 65 (error 0.02 frames)
135.3 BPM puts the hit on beat 84 (error 0.01 frames)

Music editors also edit existing music to fit scenes: shortening or lengthening cues by cutting on beats and phrases, creating endings that land on picture, and transitioning smoothly between cues. A skilled music edit is undetectable, preserving musical phrasing while serving the picture. Music editors also build the temp track, prepare playback for scenes where actors sing or dance to music on set, and manage the music in the final mix.

Music rights: what you need to use existing music

Using an existing song in a film usually requires two separate licenses, because a recorded song involves two copyrights. The composition, meaning the melody and lyrics, is owned by the songwriter or their music publisher. The sound recording, the master, is owned by the record label or the artist. A synchronization license from the publisher allows the composition to be used in timed relation with the picture. A master use license from the label allows the specific recording to be used. If the production records its own version of a song, called a cover, it still needs a synchronization license for the composition but not a master use license.

Sync and master fees are negotiated and depend on the song's popularity, the length of the use, whether it is background or featured, the media and territories, the term, and the film's budget. Festival licenses, which cover only festival screenings for a limited time, are cheaper and common for independent films, but if the film is later sold, the producer must upgrade to full licenses, and the price may be much higher. Many independent producers instead use production music libraries or commission original music to avoid this risk.

Performing rights organizations and cue sheets

When a film is broadcast, streamed or shown in public, the composers and publishers of its music may be entitled to public performance royalties, collected by performing rights organizations (PROs). PROs need to know exactly which music appears in the film, for how long, and how it is used. The production provides this information on a music cue sheet: a document listing every cue with its title, composers, publishers, PRO affiliations, timing, duration and type of use, such as background instrumental, background vocal, visual vocal or main title.

In the United States, public performance rights in musical works are licensed mainly by ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR. Cinemas in the United States do not pay performance royalties for film music, a result of court decisions in the 1940s, but broadcast, cable and many streaming uses do generate performance royalties for composers and publishers. Sound recordings earn digital performance royalties through SoundExchange for certain non-interactive digital uses. Producers should prepare accurate cue sheets and supply them to distributors, broadcasters and the composers' PROs (organizations and roles checked October 2026).

Cue sheets are a common source of errors: missing cues, wrong durations, uncredited co-writers or incorrect usage types. Errors cost composers money and can delay delivery. The music editor or music supervisor usually prepares the cue sheet from the final mix, measuring each cue's duration in the locked cut.

Music in the mix and deliverables

In the final mix, music is balanced against dialogue and effects, and music stems are delivered separately so that distributors can create versions. Composers often deliver their score as stems too, such as strings, brass, percussion, synths and choir, so the mixer can shape the music around dialogue without asking for new mixes. The music stem in the final deliverables contains all score and source music. The music and effects version keeps music, unless a song contains English lyrics that a distributor wants to replace, in which case special instrumental versions may be required.

Licensing terms follow the music into the deliverables. If a song is licensed only for certain territories or a limited term, the distributor needs to know so it can be removed or replaced in other versions. Music clearance documents, licenses, cue sheets and composer agreements form part of the delivery package and are checked by the distributor's legal team and errors and omissions insurers.

US producers delivering to distributors, networks and streamers must usually provide music cue sheets, licenses and composer agreements, which are reviewed for errors and omissions insurance (see FILM-410).