A difficult year for TONO members.

When TONO presented TONO's annual report for 2019 in June 2020, it was with pride over a fantastic result, but the joy was naturally overshadowed by the crisis that TONO's members in particular, and cultural life in general, were in at the time. Unfortunately, we are still in the crisis, and 2021 will not be better than 2020, quite the opposite as we see it as of May 2021.

TONO's daily operations have been run from home offices since March 12, 2020. This continues to be the case. All settlements and scholarship awards to members have been made on time and as planned for a normal year.

The crisis year 2020 has primarily affected the concert sector, and that is where a large part of TONO's members have their most important field of work. A reopening for the cultural sector is still a long way off, and activity in our sector is lower than ever.

In the spring of 2020, we experienced creative initiatives such as streaming concerts, where TONO quickly established licensing solutions that inspired “TONO companies” around the world to do the same. The streaming concert phenomenon was indeed characterized in the beginning by provisional and literally “home-made” solutions. The economics of this were very far from what we know of economics from the normal situation. Over the past year, streaming concerts have found a more professional form, without us being able to say in any way that this lifts the concert economy out of a trough.

Throughout 2020, TONO has worked to establish schemes that could compensate for some of the losses our members are suffering. It has not been easy to get cultural authorities to understand the complicated author economy, which includes both authors and music publishers. The compensation and incentive schemes established by the authorities hit our members hard. The feeling of falling between the chairs was real.

Through direct dialogue with the Minister of Culture Abid Q. Raja and central relevant authorities, we established a basic understanding of how the creator economy works in the fall of 2020. TONO's loss calculations were based on what was concretized and formalized by the Ministry of Culture (KUD) at New Year's Eve through a state grant of NOK 30,5 million. These are funds that TONO will distribute as KUD instructs in its grant letter. Established settlement principles will be used as the basis, and settlements will be made to Norwegian members who work in Norway. Up to NOK 600,000 can be deducted for cost coverage. Cultural funds will not be deducted from the state grant.

It is clear that TONO's members have made good use of the shutdown. The number of works reported has increased by 17 percent in 2020, and the number of new members has increased more than ever.

TONO's overall annual result was far better than we feared midway through 2020. Budget targets were met.

It is worth mentioning that the works of Norwegian authors have a strong presence outside the country's borders. Revenue from abroad increased by 46 percent compared to 2019, to NOK 95,7 million.

At the same time, we managed to reduce costs by NOK 4,5 million. The cost percentage ended up at 13,8 percent, which is lower than budgeted.

Unfortunately, we believe that 2021 will be a more difficult year. We doubt that the high foreign revenues of 2020 will be repeated in 2021, as all sister societies report significant revenue losses. Nor can we expect, as the situation is today, that the concert market will open up fully this year.

TONO has argued to the Ministry of Culture that in 2021, compensation schemes must be prioritized over incentive schemes. The incentive schemes have shown limited value and accuracy. In addition, they have been complex, and have not in any way affected the economy of the originator. We believe that the Ministry has seen the limitations of the incentive schemes, and that they will prioritize compensation schemes.

TONO will continue to work to ensure that our members are covered for the losses they suffer as a result of the infection control measures.
We believe that the authorities' understanding of the originator economy is now well established. We hope this will make the work on compensation and incentive schemes less complicated this year.

Sincerely,

Cato Strom

Adm. Manager