Photo: Kristian Dugstad
A TONO for the future
Two new elected officials are at the helm of Norway's largest music company. TONO's new chairman Ole Henrik Antonsen and deputy chairman Mia Hallesby are determined and ambitious on behalf of the organization.
/ 26/06/2024 / Kristian Dugstad– A lot of talented people are going to come in here. It should be a house that is accessible, especially for the members! It's like a blank canvas that will be filled with songwriting and the music industry, says Ole Henrik Antonsen.
The new chairman of TONO is located on the fifth floor of Kongens Gate 12, together with deputy chairman Mia Hallesby.
The building that will house TONO, the group associations and a number of other industry players bears the hallmark of waiting for new residents. The echo echoes through the walls of the modestly furnished room as the two talk about their plans for the future.
– We are really looking forward to moving in and having our own arena to meet the members. When we are so close together, we get new opportunities to create good relationships, professionalize and create added value, Hallesby follows up.
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Antonsen and Hallesby were elected to their new roles at TONO's annual meeting on June 11. The new chairman joined the TONO board in 2020 and the vice chairman became a board member last year.
Both also lead their respective interest organizations, NOPA and Musikkforlaggerne. Together with the Norwegian Composers' Association, they constitute TONO's three group associations, which have permanent seats on the board and various committees. From 2025, all three will have a new home at Kongens Gate 12.
But who are these two who have been trusted to lead the billion-dollar company TONO?
The short answer is that, like all TONO representatives, they are a voting member. TONO is owned and controlled by the people who make the music and their music publishers.
But to be specific, here is a rough simplification of two professional lives:
Ole Henrik Antonsen has a background as a musician and songwriter. He worked for many years as a producer and songwriter for other artists. At the same time, he wrote articles for the magazine Musikkpraksis. As a result of his politically charged columns, he was recruited to the association NOPA, which works for the working conditions of popular composers. He has been a board member there since 2018, chairman from 2020.
Mia Hallesby used her experience from the film and TV industry to start GILT, one of the first Norwegian music publishers to focus on film composers. Today, she is the publishing director of the country's largest music publisher, Norwegian music publisher, which is a merger of just under 30 different publishers and their catalogs, including GILT. She has been a representative of the Norwegian Music Publishers Association since 2018, and became chairwoman a year ago.
An apartment building in Kvadraturen is a very tangible and concrete symbol that TONO is a forward-looking, growing organization that invests and makes efforts.
Kongens gate 12, however, is just one of several important projects that are in their most important hour under Antonsen and Hallesby's watch.
– We are going to build a modern TONO. A huge amount of work has already been done with digital development, which members and customers have not yet seen the full effect of. They will notice this over the next few years, says Antonsen.
TONO's members have the entire planet as their market. Good digital tools and an outgoing and forward-thinking organization are essential for success.
– The world, and especially the music market, is developing rapidly. TONO will become even better at investing in and following up on emerging markets outside our home markets in Europe and the USA, asserts Hallesby.
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An important piece of the TONO puzzle, which must be in place before other initiatives can take place, is the new model for distributing money.
The model is built on the main principles of equal treatment and direct distribution, in line with international requirements and Norwegian law. These principles were to be adopted by TONO's annual meeting on June 11 this year.
You can read a summary of the annual meeting resolutions here.
– I think we must conclude that we in the old board were not successful with the communication ahead of the annual meeting, which unfortunately ended with the principles not receiving the necessary majority. That is therefore the new board's highest priority in the coming weeks. It is critically important to introduce a new distribution model that is in line with legal requirements, says Antonsen.
On June 17, the board published a statement emphasizing the importance and outlining a timetable that will culminate in an annual meeting resolution at an extraordinary annual meeting just over the summer.
You can read the statement here..
Although the renovation is unlikely to be completed, TONO will move into Kongens Gate 12 by the turn of the year. Several other organizations will follow suit.
The renovation will continue through 2025, and in the long term this will TONO House contain both a music studio, songwriting room, event facilities and social zones that can be used by members.
Belonging, cooperation and unity are key words in the vision for the house.
– I think the music industry has a lot to gain from working together more closely. Individually, we are small, and we will be much stronger if we find common ground and pull in the same direction, says Hallesby.
Different parts of the music industry have different areas of expertise. Getting physically closer to each other can result in knowledge transfer and benefit all parties.
– Even though TONO manages a lot of money, the music industry is strictly speaking very small. We need to focus on professionalizing ourselves. The environment we are going to create in Kongens Gate can hopefully be a driving force for that, concludes the newly elected chairman.
