Film & TV Composer Agreements: What to Know Before Scoring Your First Project

How Composer Deals Differ

Composer agreements for film and television are fundamentally different from recording or publishing deals. The producer (film/TV) hires you to create music specifically for their project, and the deal structure reflects this work-for-hire relationship.

The key tension: the production company wants to own everything outright, while you want to retain as much backend income as possible — particularly performance royalties, which can be substantial for TV composers.

Work-for-Hire: The Standard Structure

Most composer agreements are structured as work-for-hire. This means the production company owns the score recordings and, in many cases, the underlying compositions. The compositions are the critical negotiation point.

Score recordings: Almost always owned by the production company. This is standard and generally non-negotiable.

Score compositions: This is where you fight. The production company will push for full ownership. You should push to retain your writer's share of performance royalties at minimum.

The Money in Composing

Upfront Fee (Creative Fee)

Your payment for composing and recording the score. Ranges vary enormously:

Low-budget indie film: $5,000–$25,000

Mid-budget film: $50,000–$250,000

Studio film: $250,000–$2,000,000+

TV episode (cable/streaming): $5,000–$50,000 per episode

TV series package deal: $50,000–$500,000+ per season

Backend Performance Royalties

Every time your score airs on TV (domestic or international), your PRO (ASCAP/BMI/SESAC) collects performance royalties on your behalf. For a long-running TV series, this can dwarf the upfront fee over time.

Critical: You must retain your writer's share of performance royalties. This is the single most important term in a composer agreement. If the production company takes both the publisher's and writer's share, you lose the primary long-term income stream.

Soundtrack Album Royalties

If a soundtrack album is released, negotiate a royalty on sales (typically 10-15% of net receipts for the score portion).

Key Terms to Negotiate

Writer's share: Non-negotiable — retain 100% of the writer's share of performance royalties. Some production companies will try to take this. Walk away if they insist.

Publisher's share: The production company typically takes the publisher's share (50% of performance royalties). Some composers negotiate to retain a portion (25-50% of the publisher's share) for smaller projects where the fee is low.

Cue sheets: Require the production company to file accurate cue sheets with your PRO. Cue sheets are how your performance royalties get tracked. If they're not filed, you don't get paid.

Recording ownership: While the production company typically owns the score recordings, negotiate the right to re-record the score for a standalone album release after a holdback period (usually 12-18 months after the project's initial release).

Credit: Negotiate specific credit placement — "Music by [Name]" in the main titles is significantly more valuable than a credit buried in the end crawl.

Library music reuse: Ensure the production company can't reuse your score in other projects without additional compensation.

---

Have a composer agreement to review? Analyze it with SoundDeal →