Photo: © Sigmund Krøvel-Velle / Samfoto
Arrangements and adaptations of free works give a maximum of half the value given to original works in TONO's distribution plan. Within the folk music community, there is fear that TONO's distribution plan and practice threaten the future of traditional music. We would like to clarify some of the elements that have been discussed, from TONO's point of view.
/ 03/11/2023 / Willy MartinsenFolk musicians have recently criticized TONO's distribution plan, because arrangers of free works by default receive somewhere between 16,67 and 50 percent of the value of newly written original works in TONO's systems. This makes it more profitable to write new music and new lyrics than to arrange, adapt or translate older free works.
Folk musicians believe this is serious because it removes the financial incentive to keep traditional music alive on concert stages. They believe the distribution plan and TONO's work on evaluating arrangements of free traditional works testify to a lack of expertise in traditional music.
We have noted the criticism, both in Ballade, the open letter to the Ministry of Culture, and in meetings with representatives of the initiative. The matter will be discussed at TONO's board meeting later in November.
So what is the distribution plan? Together with the settlement rules, it is one of two fundamental elements that set rules for settlements in various areas.
Where the billing rules define the relationship between the use of music and billing, with rules for how concerts, radio and TV performances, music and film streaming services, cinema and so on are settled, the distribution plan determines, among other things, what percentages are standard for different roles in different types of works; such as composer, lyricist, music publisher, arranger, arranger and translator.
There are naturally no performer categories in TONO's distribution plan, as TONO only manages copyrights in musical works under Sections 2 and 3 of the Copyright Act, not the exclusive right of performing artists to control their performance of a work or traditional expression, which is protected under Section 16.
A term such as “creative practitioners”, which we have seen used in connection with the cases in Ballade, may therefore be confusing in the TONO context.
Regarding arrangements and arrangements of protected works, let's say "A Night Gone" by Jan Eggum, you must have Eggum's permission. It is entirely up to the copyright holder to decide whether you should be allowed and how much, or om, you will be allowed to get an organizer's share in TONO.
For free works, however, that is, works where it has been more than 70 years since the composer and lyricist died, you can arrange, adapt and translate as much as you want. If you want to register arrangements of free works in TONO, distribution keys in the distribution plan determine what you can get.
The open letter to the Ministry of Culture states that “several traditional musicians experience that TONO does not register the works they submit”. In Ballade, a folk musician says that he has experienced that TONO does not register arrangements and adaptations of free traditional works. In this case, it is because TONO has concluded in the musicological assessment that the arrangement does not satisfy the requirements in the distribution plan.
Events are approved “… when it contains elements of an innovative nature, but without significantly changing the form of the original work.” The distribution plan shows five points here that determine what not accepted as an arrangement:
a) Additions or changes to dynamics, phrasing, ornamentation, fingering, etc.
b) Simplifications, abbreviations or editorial changes
c) Transpositions or pure transcriptions
d) Instrumentations of a non-innovative nature
e) Other similar changes
The organizer's share constitutes 1/3 of the composer's share.
When an arrangement of a free work is registered in TONO, our music professional assessor may choose to register it as a processing. To be registered as a processing, the processing must be a « … alteration of the work that contains substantially newly composed material, but without the identity of the original work being lost».
The editor's share is set by TONO at half of the composer's share. This means that for a work without text, the value is 50 percent, for works w/ text, the proportion is 25 percent.
If you disagree with TONO's assessment of an event, you can appeal the decision to the Music and Lyrics Committee, which is a committee of five TONO members appointed by TONO's board.
Here are some examples of how shares in free, unpublished works are distributed according to TONO's distribution plan. See the full overview in TONO's distribution plan.
| Unpublished works (scripts) Carryover shares |
Free Composition | Organizer | Copywriter | Translator | Free Text |
| Organizer | 66,67 | 33,33 | |||
| Organizer/Free text | 33,33 | 16,67 | 50,00 | ||
| Processing | 50,00 | 50,00 | |||
| Editor/Free text | 25,00 | 25,00 | 50,00 | ||
| Translated text only | 50,00 | 16,67 | 33,33 | ||
| Organizer/Free text/Translator | 33,33 | 16,67 | 16,67 | 33,33 | |
| Editor/Free text/Translator | 25,00 | 25,00 | 16,67 | 33,33 |
Anne Hytta says in Ballade that "Money is collected, but it doesn't return to those who perform the music"We want to explain this.
An arrangement of a free instrumental work gives you as the arranger/arranger a standard share of 50 percent. When TONO collects remuneration for a concert performance of the work, the arranger thus receives 50 percent, while the remaining 50 percent goes to the settlement pool for concerts. Another example: If you have registered a event of a free work with both text and music, you have received the standard share of 16,67 percent. The remaining 83,33 percent then goes to TONO's concert settlement pool.
The reason for this is that the distribution plan has a different valuation of writing new music and new lyrics (which therefore gives 100%), and arranging or translating music and lyrics that have already been composed and written by others.
In Ballade, an introduction asks whether there could be a separate payment category for the adaptation of folk music. We also see that Aslak Brimi in FolkOrg says: "So composition can be given a higher weighting, but for the survival of traditional music, one should look at whether there could be a separate, somewhat higher percentage for those who adapt what is otherwise a free work."».
According to the Collective Management Act and TONO's statutes, TONO cannot introduce special rules for traditional music. Organizers of free traditional works must be treated equally with members who organize other types of free works. Ultimately, it is TONO's members at the annual meeting who adopt changes to the statutes or the distribution plan.
The input we have received from the folk musicians is being discussed in TONO's administration, and soon in TONO's board. We are discussing how we can become more transparent in the assessments of arrangements and adaptations. We are also looking into whether there are minor presentational steps we can take to make the distribution plan on tono.no somewhat more reader-friendly, and possibly make larger linguistic adjustments in the longer term.