Black Box Monies Explained

Last month I spoke at a Final Cut User Group meeting in South Florida. As I was explaining how the proper filing of cue sheets helps our musicians earn a living, one knowledgeable attendee remarked, "Because if we DON'T submit those cue sheets, the money goes to Celine Dion."

And he's absolutely right (actually her songwriters, but the point still stands). He's referring to what is called Black Box Monies. This is when ASCAP can't make heads or tails of exactly what production music songs were played when, so they simply pay any leftover royalties to their top-performing songwriters and publishers.

Every year, TV networks pay hundreds of millions of dollars in license fees to ASCAP for the right to "perform" music written by ASCAP composers. When you, dear customer, use our stock music in your on-air spot and properly fill out a cue sheet, our ASCAP composers can qualify for their tiny slice of those fees.

And most of all, you play an important role in the extinction of that "Titanic" theme song.

-Mike Bielenberg

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