TONO payments of the future: Faster, easier and more direct

Money in and money out – TONO's primary task is to ensure that everyone who uses music pays for it, so that those who have rights in the music get paid. The payments are calculated based on a model that defines how the settlements should be calculated for rights holders who have had their musical works performed publicly.

Extensive work has been underway at TONO for several years to modernize this model, a work that is now approaching its final phase.

– When I started at TONO, we received reports from cinemas, concerts and NRK. Today there are hundreds of radio and TV channels, and we get reports in areas we never got before, such as background music in stores and at fitness centers. We need an objective and dynamic model that can be changed in line with changes in the market, says Christian Onshus, head of TONO's digital development project, Mjølnir.

Legal requirements for transparency

In addition to taking into account technological developments and changes in user patterns, the new model must comply with a number of new laws and international requirements.

This includes EU directives and the law on collective management, requirements that the umbrella organization for the world's collective management societies CISAC imposes on all its member organizations worldwide, to name a few.

– Everything in the new model should be explainable and defensible, it should be transparent and possible to understand. Both because we want it, but also because it is required of us, says Kai Robøle, deputy chairman of TONO's board and chairman of the distribution committee.

Onshus and Robøle talk about the process and visions for the new settlement model in TONO's podcast, The Music Makers.

Faster and easier to understand

It is important for TONO, as part of the work on the new settlement model, that there will be more frequent settlements and a shorter path from payment to payout. It is also an important goal that the settlements will be easier to understand for you as a member.

– Today we settle quarterly, but some areas only come once a year. We are focusing on the concert area also being settled quarterly, and in the long term we have a goal of monthly settlements, says Onshus.

The development of the new billing model goes hand in hand with the development of technological solutions in TONO. New features in the member portal My TONO will be launched continuously as they are completed.

Listen to the podcast conversation here.