A greeting to TONO's members and customers from CEO, Karl Vestli.
/ 08/11/2022 / Kristian DugstadDear members and customers of TONO,
I took up the position as CEO of TONO on 1 October after Cato Strøm, who retired after 33 years in the position. For me, who has experience from the media industry and now in recent years from the Directorate for e-Health, it has been new and exciting to come to the cultural industry and the rights industry. It may sound like a big leap, but there are many common features. All businesses exist for someone and must deliver in line with expectations. An organization must be led and developed. At the same time, both the media, the health sector and the rights industry are in the midst of their own rapid technological development. Both TONO's board, I and the rest of TONO's administration know that good use of technology is an important key to TONO remaining an important collective management company in the future.
Read more: Karl Vestli has taken up the position of CEO of TONO
On Friday before the weekend, I signed an agreement with the Irish company Spanish Point Technologies on behalf of TONO. After a process that lasted several years, in which eight different suppliers were thoroughly evaluated together with our sister societies Koda in Denmark and Teosto in Finland, we are now embarking on a technological journey that we are looking forward to, and that both members and customers will notice well.
With Spanish Point as a partner, TONO will get the best systems in our industry. Our employees will be able to work smarter and more efficiently, we will be able to strengthen the quality of metadata in works and we will further develop self-service solutions for both members and customers that I feel confident they will greatly appreciate - to name a few. The agreement means that several large IT projects will be initiated in TONO. These will run over several years, but we expect customers and members to start feeling the effects during 2023.
Read the press release about the Spanish Point agreement here..
The EU Directive on Collective Management has recently become Norwegian law. A judgment in Belgium against our sister society SABAM in the concert area also forms case law for the entire EU and EEA area. Remuneration should be reasonable for both parties, both the customers and the collective management societies, i.e. the composers, lyricists and music publishers. We will therefore use the most accurate calculation methods possible within what is administratively and economically justifiable.
The collective management companies, including TONO, have a practice where concert organizers are offered a license, where they pay for access to our entire repertoire. As with Spotify and Netflix, the price has not been affected by how much or how little one uses, or whether one also consumes content outside the services – or TONO's repertoire in our context.
TONO has always, and will always, operate our business in accordance with the applicable legal framework conditions at any given time. Therefore, we are now changing our practice in this area and establishing an arrangement with effect from 7 November that, according to the definition of the legislation, will provide a fairer and more reasonable remuneration for both parties, but which will require somewhat more reporting from concert organizers within clear deadlines before and after the concert. Read more about this in our press release on the matter here.
In conclusion, I would like to say that there is a lot of activity in TONO's administration this late autumn. We are not least getting ready to both license this year's Christmas concerts, and for the year's fourth quarterly settlement to members, which will be paid in week 49.
Have a good November onward - to both members and customers.