The Cue Sheet Palooza Hackathon will explore ways music creators and stakeholders can get paid their screen-based performance rights royalties faster and more precisely. We’re investigating the challenges they face throughout the Performing Rights royalty pipeline, and kickstarting innovations that will expedite a more accurate payment of performance rights royalties.

Please sign up on our Eventbrite page here: https://bit.ly/3HYFYij

• • • What the heck is a Cue Sheet, you ask? • • •

A Cue Sheet is a document that itemizes music used in a television or film production by title, composer, publisher, duration, and type of music usage (e.g., background, feature, and theme). The cue sheet is normally prepared by the producer of the television or film production.

So —  we’re inviting software developers to rethink and redefine how all the relevant data is collected and processed. Hackers, creators, designers, and coders will collaborate and compete using AI, XR, blockchain, data analytics, and other state-of-the-art technologies — with guidance from our group of industry mentors — to build a prototype for a simpler,  more effective platform around cue sheets and artist payments.

Our goal is to free up a music creator's time to make music — and not spend hours on administrative work in order to get paid.  After the marathon 24-hour session, a panel of industry judges will choose the winning teams, who will be awarded cash and sponsor prizes. The Cue Sheet Palooza Hackathon is set for Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10, 2022 in-person in Toronto, Canada at Startwell, 786 King Street West, Toronto Ontario M5V1N6.

Many thanks to the Canadian Film Centre for their assistance!

OUR CHALLENGES

Challenges 

1. How can we automate the cue sheet creation process and funnel the purest possible data into the PRO? The cue sheet creation process is one that contains many manual steps.  In particular, there are two specific things that are particularly time consuming.  First, looking up and verifying the music metadata that confirms the stakeholder’s information.  Second, is conforming the timings on the cue sheet to reflect that resulted from the music edits made in the picture.  Once received, this data is often manually re-entered, which naturally invites mistakes which ends up delaying payment to music creators and stakeholders.  Hackers will look at different ways to automate these tasks and funnel this data directly into the PRO.

2. How do we improve transparency in the data submission process? One common complaint within the cue sheet submission process is that inaccurate stakeholder information is unknowingly submitted to the PRO.  With numerous music stakeholders attached to one cue sheet, the process to get “sign-off” is so arduous that it is often ignored.   We’d like hackers to look at innovative ways that stakeholders can collaborate with one another to verify their data, sign off on it, and also see what progress has been made on a cue sheet and if it’s been received by the PRO.

MENTORS

• Mathew Sherman, Technologist/media and entertainment industry professional at BellMedia

• Toby Sheriff, Composer/software developer

• Catherine Moore, University of Toronto Music + Digital Media Professor

• Ryan Maule, VP, Strategy and Operations at MDIIO.com

• Tobi Akinwumi, Manager - Product Management, Member Digital Products at SOCAN

• Brian Pickett, Composer / Producer / Partner, Voodoo Highway

• Dan Burger, Team Lead, Business Applications Support & Development, SOCAN

• Galen Hogg, Songwriter, UX Designer, Game Designer, NFT artist, Web 3 Enthusiast

• Fiona Ham, Head of Operations, MusicTeam

SCHEDULE

Saturday April 9

10:00-12:00 Hacker Check-in

11:30-12:15: Lunch and Learn Panel with Composer/Hackathon Organizer Darren Fung and Award-Winning Composer Amid Bhatia.

12:30 Welcome Remarks, Introductions, Sponsor API Presentations, Team Meet

1:15 Hacking Begins (Mentors and Sponsor Dev Advocates Available)

6:30PM Dinner

7:30PM Hacking Overnight

Sunday April 10

7:30AM Breakfast

8:00-10:30 Continue Hacking

10:30-Noon Presentation Pitch Practice (Teams work with Mentors to refine project pitches/presentations)

12:15-1:00 Lunch

1:30-3:00 Hacker Presentations

3:00-3:30 Judges Deliberate

3:45 Winner Announced and Closing Ceremonies 

Do you have an API or SDK that the teams could use to build their projects? f you are interested in being an API Partner or sponsor, please email HackathonVentures@gmail.com with the subject line Cue Sheet Hackathon.

$CAD11,750 in prizes

• Relevance and Impact to Industry
  How is the project relevant to the theme and cue sheet improvement as a whole?
• Innovation
  Is this project novel, something that hasn't been attempted before, or takes an older idea to a new level?
• User Experience
  Is this project user-friendly for the intended audience? Does it meet its attempted goal easily for the end user?
• Technical Excellence
  How effectively are the most applicable technologies used to build the project?