End Ghostwriting Now - No Composer Should Ever Be Invisible
- Feb 4
- 2 min read
Last year Sheridan Tongue started a campaign to end the toxic practice of ghostwriting in soundtracks – where composers create original music for productions but receive no credit for their work. Alongside 11 top UK composers and The Ivors Academy, we want to crush this exploitation in our industry, here’s why we believe it has to end…
Composers Anna Phoebe, Nick Foster, Tom Nettleship, Sofia degli Alessandri, Daisy Coole, Aisling Brouwer, Sam Thompson and Sheridan Tongue from the End Ghostwriting working group speak out about Ghostwriting.
The Ivors has taken the lead by changing its rules so composers using ghostwriters are no longer eligible to enter its Ivor Novello Awards, now we are calling on all Film and TV Awards to do the same. To pledge your support, sign our petition HERE.
If you’re interested in how the End Ghostwriting campaign began, this is the original document I presented to The Ivors Academy back in its early stages.
by Sheridan Tongue
The official End Ghostwriting launch campaign by The Ivors Academy.
by The Ivors Academy
If you have not signed the pledge to end Ghostwriting then please sign. You do not have to be an Ivors Academy member to sign.
by The Ivors Academy
From 2026, entrants will also be asked to confirm that cue sheets list all composers who wrote a cue from scratch or made a significant new creative contribution. Entries that do not include all qualifying writers will be ineligible for consideration.
Implemented for the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards
Curious about how other composers collaborate, I reached out to a number of my peers to ask how they bring additional composers onto projects, what challenges they’ve encountered, and how they manage cue sheets and credits in the process.
by Sheridan Tongue
Guidelines from The Ivors Academy which outline best practices on collaborating with other composers.
by The Ivors Academy
‘It’s exploitation no one talks about’: media composers call for an end to ghostwriting.
Aisling Brouwer and Sheridan Tongue, along with Ivors Academy CEO Roberto Neri, tell us about the need to ‘create a new standard’.
by PRS for Music
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