A live film or game score performance needs more than a well-prepared orchestra and a finished set of parts. Before tickets go on sale, composers, producers, presenters, and rights holders should confirm who created the music, what version will be performed, which permissions apply, and how every contributor will be identified. This checklist helps you track those details for a concert, tour date, recording, program update, or full-film presentation.
Overview
Credits and rights are related, but they are not the same thing. A credit tells audiences and industry partners who contributed to the music. A right or permission determines whether the music may be performed, adapted, synchronized, recorded, streamed, or otherwise used in a particular context.
The first step is to define the event precisely. A concert suite made from an original score may require a different clearance process from a screening with live accompaniment. A game music program may include original themes, licensed songs, adaptations, and newly arranged material. A tribute program may use a composer’s work without presenting itself as an official production, which makes accurate wording and permission checks especially important.
Use this article as a working document rather than a substitute for legal advice. Agreements, ownership structures, collective-management arrangements, and local requirements vary. When a performance involves multiple territories, commercial recording, synchronization with picture, or disputed ownership, obtain advice from the relevant rights holders or a qualified music-rights professional.
What to track
1. Identify the work and performance format
Record the title of the film, series, game, or original work; the event title; the venue and territory; the performance date; and the presenting organization. Then specify the format:
- Original score concert: music is performed from the approved score or a defined concert edition.
- Arranged soundtrack program: themes or cues are adapted, combined, shortened, reorchestrated, or otherwise changed.
- Full-film performance: the audience views picture while musicians perform the score live.
- Concert suite: selected movements or cues are presented without the complete film or game.
- Tribute program: music is presented in an interpretive or commemorative setting and must be described accurately to avoid implying an official affiliation.
Keep the event format visible in the worksheet. It affects the questions you ask about picture, arrangements, branding, recordings, and publicity.
2. Build a complete credit list
Start with the principal composer or composers, but do not stop there. Verify the appropriate names and roles for orchestrators, arrangers, additional composers, music editors, lyricists, songwriters, conductors, soloists, performing ensembles, and any featured artists. Production credits may also include the original music supervisor or music producer when the program or agreement calls for those acknowledgments.
Do not assume that a job title has one universal meaning. An orchestrator, arranger, adapter, and additional composer may have distinct contractual or customary credits. Use the agreed credit language where it exists, and ask the responsible producer or rights holder before shortening a role for a poster or ticket page.
3. Confirm the music and permission status
For each cue or movement, track the title, approximate duration, source version, composer, publisher or rights contact, and permission status. Mark whether the item is original score material, a pre-existing song, a library track, a public-domain work, an adaptation, or newly commissioned material. Avoid treating public-domain status of one element as clearance for every arrangement or recording of that element.
Confirm the scope of permission in writing. Useful fields include live performance, arrangement, synchronization with picture, promotional excerpts, broadcast, livestream, audio recording, video recording, archive access, and territory. A permission for one use should not automatically be recorded as permission for all uses.
4. Track cue and program information
Prepare a cue list that matches the conductor’s score, program order, and any picture edit. Include cue titles, alternate titles, source scenes or levels where relevant, timings, repeats, cuts, transitions, and medleys. For a full-film performance, note the picture version and runtime. For a game program, identify whether the music comes from a game release, trailer, expansion, promotional video, or later concert arrangement.
This documentation supports accurate programs and reporting. For a broader workflow, see the Cue Sheet Basics for Composers and the Music Spotting Session Checklist.
5. Verify audience-facing credits
Review the program book, website, ticket page, press release, social posts, screen titles, and venue listings as one credit system. Check spelling, diacritics, name order, role descriptions, publisher information where required, and whether a credit is presented as original, arranged, adapted, or performed. The same approved language should appear across channels unless a format limitation has been agreed.
| Program type | Key credit questions | Rights questions to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Original score concert | Who composed, orchestrated, arranged, conducted, and performs the work? | Is the concert edition authorized, and are recording or streaming rights included? |
| Arranged soundtrack | Who made the arrangement or adaptation, and how should the original creators be credited? | Does permission cover the new arrangement, title, and territory? |
| Full-film performance | Are the composer and performers credited alongside the film and production information? | Are picture synchronization, screening, live performance, and promotional uses separately cleared? |
| Concert suite | Are selected cues identified accurately, including medleys and cuts? | Are excerpts, edits, and any newly commissioned transitions authorized? |
| Tribute program | Does the wording distinguish tribute from official production or endorsement? | Are names, trademarks, recordings, arrangements, and promotional materials used appropriately? |
Cadence and checkpoints
Set checkpoints at the start of planning, before public announcement, before the first rehearsal, before opening night, and after any program change. At each checkpoint, assign an owner and a due date rather than leaving a rights question as an informal note.
- Planning: define the format, territory, dates, repertoire, and responsible decision-maker.
- Clearance: collect agreements, permissions, publisher contacts, arrangement approvals, and any required reporting instructions.
- Publicity review: compare all public copy with the approved title, credit, affiliation, and usage language.
- Rehearsal review: confirm that the music performed matches the cleared version, including cuts, substitutions, and encore material.
- Post-event closeout: preserve final programs, set lists, cue data, recording details, and submissions or reports required by the relevant parties.
Repeat the review for every tour date when the territory, presenter, venue, repertoire, or recording plan changes. A template can save time, but it should never carry forward old permissions without checking their scope.
How to interpret changes
Most changes fall into one of three categories. A creative change alters the music, such as a new medley, shortened cue, replacement track, or revised orchestration. A production change alters how the music is presented, such as adding picture, livestreaming, recording, or changing venues. A business change alters the parties or territory, such as a new presenter, distributor, publisher contact, or international date.
Each category should trigger a targeted review. Creative changes call for an updated cue list and arrangement-credit check. Production changes call for a fresh review of synchronization, recording, promotional, and audience-access permissions. Business changes call for confirmation that the correct entity is approving the use and receiving any required information.
Watch for warning signs: a credit that differs between the poster and program, a cue title that does not match the score, a request to post rehearsal audio, an unplanned encore, a new video element, or language that implies official endorsement. These issues are easier to resolve before publication or performance than after an audience-facing error.
When to revisit
Revisit this checklist before every performance run, tour date, recording session, livestream, and major program update. For an ongoing concert series, conduct a light monthly review of upcoming dates and a fuller quarterly review of the rights and credit worksheet. Also restart the review whenever the repertoire, arrangement, picture edit, presenter, venue, territory, publicity plan, or distribution method changes.
For the final practical pass, create one shared folder containing the approved credit sheet, cue list, agreements, arrangement notes, program copy, and final set list. Name each version with a date and event identifier. Ask one person to approve credits and another to confirm the operational checklist. Keep an unresolved-items list with an owner and deadline, and do not mark an item complete based only on a verbal assumption.
Once the event closes, save the final program and performance record. That archive becomes the starting point for the next presentation and gives composers, producers, venues, and fans a clearer account of how the score was created and performed. For related preparation, review the Orchestral Score Preparation Checklist and the Composer Collaboration Agreement Checklist.
