Klassekampen has today published a reader's article from TONO in which we, among other things, point out some misunderstandings about what TONO is – and what TONO believes is necessary in the area of digital value creation. The article is a response to the newspaper's coverage of TONO and the Digituvalget on April 25.
/ 07/05/2013 / codex
On April 25, Klassekampen will discuss the Digitutvalget's report "Obstacles to digital value creation". We are generally pleased about measures from government agencies that are intended to strengthen digital value creation. This is something TONO itself has been very involved in, including by facilitating digital music services for almost twenty years. "We want the music out", says the Digitutvalget's leader in Klassekampen. So does TONO. As a cooperative owned and controlled by composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers, there is nothing we would rather have than for our repertoire to be used - but in a way that gives today's and the next generation of music creators room to create new music. The Digitutvalget has mainly found obstacles to digital value creation in the music sector among the music creators themselves, especially in the way they manage and license their rights. Rights organizations are referred to as "complicating intermediaries" between music creators and distributors. But that is not the case. Our organization is a cooperative owned and managed by its members, and thus it is the rights holders themselves who offer mass clearance of their musical works through TONO. Distributors gain access to enormous amounts of music, but in a way that ensures the music creators' ownership of their works and decent financial compensation for their use. Our experience is that distributors have every respect for the way music creators choose to license their music – through their national rights organizations. Music creators want to create music that finds its way to the audience. But in order to continue to fill music services with new music, they must be ensured good frameworks, protection of their rights and fair compensation for the use of their music. This requires that licensing is done as close as possible to the rights holder themselves, in their various national rights organizations. In its treatment of intangible rights, the Digital Commission has chosen not to point out obstacles to digital value creation for this industry. We hope that the Ministry of Innovation and Innovation will keep this in mind in its further work to facilitate digital value creation.