New agreements with concert organizers

In the fall of 2017, TONO is in contact with members of Norwegian Concert Organizers to enter into individual agreements that grant permission for the performance of the music TONO manages.

TONO is owned and managed by Norwegian composers, songwriters, lyricists and their music publishers. Through TONO, 30,000 Norwegian members and more than 2,5 million of their colleagues from other countries grant permission for the public performance of their music. They grant the permission exclusively via TONO in return for the organizers paying TONO fees. TONO then pays out the fees paid to the rights holders of the songs and works that we have received as performed.

Outdated agreement
TONO offers different licensing models to concert organizers, depending on the context and what best covers the use. This includes, among other things, licensing of individual concerts and agreements with associations that regulate the customer relationship between TONO and each individual organizer affiliated with the association. One of these association agreements TONO had with Norwegian Concert Organizers. With the goal of negotiating a new agreement, TONO felt compelled to terminate the agreement in 2016 on the grounds that it did not take into account the increasing professionalization of Norwegian Concert Organizers' membership. In practice, it was an extension of an older agreement entered into with Norwegian Concert Organizers' predecessor, the Norwegian Rock Association, which organized the grassroots of concert organizers. When the old agreement, which was heavily discounted by TONO, was used as the basis for larger concerts, individual organizers could pay a few hundred kroner in songwriter fees to TONO for concerts with ticket revenues of up to 50,000 kroner. TONO believes this is not reasonable considering the authors' contribution to this economy.

What does this mean in practice?
In the absence of a new and updated union agreement, members of Norwegian Concert Organizers must enter into individual agreements with TONO, and pay TONO remuneration to songwriters according to TONO's ordinary concert rates. In practice, this entails a remuneration of NOK 618 for concerts with ticket revenues of less than NOK 6180, and a percentage of up to 10 percent, depending on the size of the ticket revenues, for gross ticket revenues above this.

Exemplified:

1. A concert with 100 spectators who have paid 100 kroner per ticket yields kr 10,000 kroner in ticket revenue – and kr 1000 in songwriter fees – or 10 kroner per audience member.
2. Are 250 tickets sold? kr 200,- this gives gross ticket revenue of kr NOK 50,000. The TONO remuneration will then be kr 4344,- or 17,37 kroner per audience member.

These rates have also been the starting point for our negotiations with NKA, although we assumed a somewhat discounted price as a union agreement involves less use of time and resources for TONO in the form of manual work.

Good dialogue
It is TONO's responsibility to facilitate the legal use of protected music in Norway, and at the same time has a responsibility to ensure that composers, songwriters, lyricists and their music publishers are paid fairly and fairly when their music is used in the public domain, and also creates income for concert organizers, for example. The work that TONO is now doing to negotiate new and updated agreements is in line with this. We experience that the contact we have with NKA members this autumn is characterized by good and constructive dialogue. We meet understanding that the rights holders should have their share of the concert income that is created, but we also see that many experience that the transition to paying songwriter fees according to the ordinary TONO tariff involves a noticeable increase. TONO is working to reach agreements with concert organizers that both protect composers, songwriters, lyricists and their music publishers - and that contribute to good and constructive relationships with concert organizers.