New joint Nordic agreement with YouTube

The new joint Nordic agreement replaces the previous separate agreements between the various Nordic collective management companies and YouTube. Whereas the previous agreements only regulated the companies' own repertoires in their home markets, the new agreement covers a much larger repertoire in a much larger area, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia.

– It is absolutely crucial that the use of music on user-generated platforms takes place in orderly ways, and is regulated according to established copyright rules. Services that make protected music available and have income from them must have consent from the authors and share the income with the creators. We are pleased to have agreed with Google on a new agreement for YouTube after a long period of negotiations, says CEO of TONO, Cato Strøm, who is also chairman of the board of directors of the company Polaris Hub AB. 

The agreement with YouTube is the latest in a series of new joint Nordic agreements for TONO, Koda, Teosto and Stef. This includes services such as Facebook, SoundCloud, Apple Music and Spotify. Since 2019, the companies have entered into joint agreements with digital music channels through Polaris Hub, a joint venture owned by TONO, Koda and Teosto.

- Through our Nordic negotiation cooperation, we are in a stronger position, and not least, it provides clear advantages that we directly license our repertoire to online services without going through other countries' management companies. We gain more control over the use of our members' music on the Internet, and ensure efficient operations, lower costs and faster payments to our members when their music is used on the Internet, says Cato Strøm. 

About TONO:
TONO was founded in 1928 and is a non-profit cooperative owned and managed by authors (composers and lyricists) and music publishers, and on their behalf manages the economic copyrights in the music they have created. TONO grants permission for the use of protected music, for example on radio, TV, the internet, concerts and cinemas for a fee, and transfers its financial results each year to the rights holders in music that has been played publicly. TONO has 34,000 members, but also works for approximately three million authors and music publishers from around the world. TONO's social role is twofold, on the one hand collecting and simplifying the licensing of protected music and on the other hand providing music creators with an economic basis for creating new musical works. TONO's turnover in 2019 was kr 771 millions.

For more information:
Willy Martinsen, communications manager at TONO, willy.martinsen (a) tono.no, mob. 909 65 254.
Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO, cato.strom (a) tono.no, mob. 922 16,319