In just a few weeks, TONO has registered over 650 online corona concerts. Can the cultural industry's creative crisis measures become a lasting music market once the pandemic is over?
/ 20/05/2020 / Kristian DugstadSince March 12, Norway's concert halls have been empty. Intrusive infection control measures have had dramatic consequences, but the music has not stopped.
– The unfortunate circumstances we are in have led to a dramatic shift. Live concerts on the internet have completely taken off, says Inger Elise Mey, Department Director for Online Media at TONO.
TONO has licensed online streaming of concerts since 1996, but it has always been a marginal market. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned this on its head, to put it mildly.
In March, TONO introduced its own temporary corona tariff to ensure fair remuneration for songwriters and rights holders when their music is performed – including online.
– We have so far obtained an overview of more than 650 such events that have been streamed from small and large digital platforms in Norway over the course of four weeks. The reports are handled continuously by TONO, and as of today we have invoiced over 250 concerts and prepared these for further processing towards settlement.
Crises inspire development, and online concerts are a textbook example of creative problem-solving. A large proportion of the events have been free. The income has consisted of donations from the audience.
– The willingness to pay exceeded all expectations and some concerts have raised large sums. However, we are already seeing that it is tapering off. There is not nearly as much being donated now as in March, says Mey.
She is concerned that it is important not to undermine the value of music in these difficult times. TONO's corona tariff should ensure reasonable remuneration for rights holders, but for this to be possible, there must be a sustainable economy in the concerts.
– No one can live on handouts alone. Although donations have been a welcome contribution in a time of crisis, it is not sustainable to live on them in the long term.
Sustainability was precisely the main motivation for the initiators behind the concert platform.We are alive! On the website, which was launched a couple of months ago, concert revenue comes from ticket sales.
– With a cultural Norway that was down for counting, there was a big focus on creating free content for everyone who was at home in corona quarantine. We believed that cultural dissemination online was possible in a viable way, says Gard Mortensen, CEO of We are live!
The platform was launched with a bang, and on Maundy Thursday, April 9, Minister of Culture Abid Q. Raja opened the digital festival. A completely different place. During the Easter weekend, organized We are live! ten concerts with some of Norway's biggest artists. A total of 6400 tickets were sold for the festival.
– The feedback has been brilliant. Both from artists, audiences and national and international media. The concerts with artists such as Girl in red, Isaac, Aurora og Sigrid were produced in a way as cinematic dogma projects that looked like music videos. For these productions, which we call MADEBY, we use a large apparatus, directors and filmmakers. The MADEBY concerts are a new and different meeting between artist and audience on a new stage!
In this way, the concerts were not A completely different place just unique and different. To realize the idea, we had to We are live! engage a large number of professionals from the industry. All financed through ticket sales.
– During the festival, we hired and paid 300 laid-off people. We want to contribute to ensuring that the industry has good conditions, even in a crisis – including those who work behind the artist, says Mortensen.
Online concerts exploded in the wake of strict infection control measures, canceled events, and closed concert halls. It is therefore natural to wonder what will happen to the digital stages when we can meet again as live audiences.
“Artists are always looking for new ways to communicate their identity. With digital concerts, like our MADEBY productions, we can take their universe a step further. Such cinematic live experiences cannot be recreated in front of a traditional audience,” says Mortensen.
Plattformer som We are live! gives artists the opportunity to send completely new types of live experiences straight to the living rooms of their fans, in 4K with hi-fi sound. Festivals large and small can reach audiences that were previously impossible. Geographic distance, disability and event capacity do not apply on the internet.
– We have a stage that everyone can use, and where there will be content for everyone. Online concerts provide new opportunities, which is why we are confident that it will have a life even after corona.
Although digital concerts can never replace physical ones, it appears that the crisis situation has created a new market for music distribution that will persist – also in the future.
Then TONO's task is to ensure that those who have rights to the music being performed also receive their share of the profits.
– It is important for TONO to emphasize that it is now crucial that the finances of these live performances not only accrue to the musician and artist level, but also to the author level. It is also the case that in many cases musical works are performed that have been written either in whole or in part by others. We have already seen examples of this. These are also entitled to reasonable remuneration, says Inger Elise Mey at TONO.
Anyone who arranges live online music performances must have a TONO agreement. Here you can read the TONO guide for live streaming of music online..
TONO's temporary corona tariff for online concerts and other events that use music online is 10 percent of revenue. This tariff has been extended until June 30th.
– It is also worth clarifying that it is not the case that “a concert is a concert”. A physical concert will typically be based on ticket sales, where the audience buys a permit to enter a physical space to watch a live performance of music. The musical performance is limited to taking place within four walls. It is not distributed worldwide.
