Film and TV producers: Remember to TONO report!

If TONO is to be able to pay money to those who have written the music used in film and TV productions, the producers must inform about the type of music used.

– As a film composer, the TONO fee is one of my most important sources of income, says Ginge Anvik, who has written the music for, among others, The Troublesome Man, the Varg Veum films and Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder.

The quote appears on the cover of a new brochure TONO has created, which will be distributed to film and TV producers. The reason is that it is not always easy for TONO to obtain information about what kind of music is used in audiovisual productions.

– As a principle, one can say that without information about what kind of music is used, we have nothing to settle accounts on. We are completely dependent on producers reporting what music they have used in films and TV programs, says Head of Reporting at TONO, Elin Heer.

Awareness raising
TONO has to spend a lot of time and resources getting music reports in. Elin Heer does not believe that this is due to a reluctance to report.

– It's probably mostly about knowledge and awareness. It's important to report music usage quickly and correctly, because this is about important income for the composers who contribute their work to the productions, she says.

– To whom should the production companies report?

– For TV productions, you should send Music Cue Sheets to the broadcaster, who uses the information in their reporting to TONO, and you should send it to NCB. However, if you are making a cinema film, you should send Music Cue Sheets directly to TONO, and also to NCB. We have established a reporting form that can be used in all cases, and which is downloadable at tono.no, she concludes. The form can be found on this page..

Production companies should not pay TONO
A misunderstanding TONO sometimes encounters among producers is that they believe they have to pay TONO if they report. This is not true. TONO only works with performance rights, which means that it is those who actually show the productions to an audience who will pay TONO. In this context, it would be, for example, NRK, TV2, the cinemas and so on. However, this does not mean that producers do not have to pay for the music they use:

– If a producer wants to use protected music in their audiovisual production, they must clarify and pay for synchronization, but this has nothing to do with TONO. If they want to use already recorded music, they must have an agreement with the record company that owns the recording, as well as permission from those who have written and own the music. This permission is obtained via NCB, or possibly the music publisher, and in some cases the individual composer himself, based on the type of film in question, explains Heer. For questions about synchronization, you can generally contact NCB for information.

You can find more information about this topic on the Customer pages here at tono.no. Here is a direct link to the Broadcasting and Film page.

TONO has now created a brochure that summarizes the most important things. You can see it for yourself by clicking on the image below (pdf, opens in a new window)

Photo above: istockphoto.com, the image has been edited.