In 2018, TONO had the highest revenue and the lowest cost percentage in the company's history. There was growth in all business areas, but the area with the greatest percentage growth was revenue from abroad. “The revenue growth is naturally pleasing, and not least we are satisfied that we have to go back to 2013 to find a year with lower costs,” says TONO CEO, Cato Strøm.
/ 06/05/2019 / Willy MartinsenOverall, TONO had gross revenue of NOK 707,3 million in 2018, an increase of 7 percent from 2017's gross revenue of NOK 661,3 million. After the statutory deduction of two percent to the Norwegian Composers' Fund, losses and administrative costs, TONO was able to add NOK 616,3 million to the distribution sums, an increase of 9,1 percent from 2017. The costs ended up at NOK 79,8 million, which amounted to 11,3 percent of gross revenue.
– We do not take growth for granted. We are happy to manage such an attractive repertoire, and 2018 was a demanding year, characterized not only by the daily licensing work, but also by heavy negotiations, the fight for copyright and rounds in the judiciary to secure income for music creators. We are very satisfied with gross revenue of over 700 million kroner and administrative costs of 11,3 percent, says Cato Strøm.
Strøm says that TONO's ever-growing gross revenues contrast with the reality for many of TONO's members:
Despite the encouraging gross figures, we must remind you that the music economy has a few winners with good incomes, while many have small incomes. In 2018, TONO settled money for 176,000 individuals. Far more than half of the money we pay out goes to rights holders abroad because the Norwegian share is unfortunately still low in, for example, radio and online services. This naturally has consequences for TONO's Norwegian members, says Strøm.
The market areas that are increasing the most are the digital area, the concert area and international revenues. The digital area grew by 13,6 percent to NOK 149,9 million, particularly driven by growth in video on demand services such as Netflix etc. Next came the concert area, where TONO increased its revenues by 10,86 percent from 2017 to 2018, ending at NOK 87,7 million. The largest revenue area is still broadcasting. NOK 194,8 million of TONO's revenues came from radio and TV.
The Norwegian music export success continues. TONO's foreign income increased by just under 16 percent from 2017 to 2018 and ended at NOK 79,3 million. A total of 12,484 TONO members had payments from abroad in 2018.
One of the most successful is Anders Frøen, who has been a songwriter and producer on songs that have collectively been streamed several billion times, including Alan Walker's "Faded" and Zedd and Alessia Cara's "Stay." Despite his great international success, Frøen still operates primarily from Norway:
– For us songwriters and producers who are not on stage, the income comes from radio play, sync and royalties from Spotify and other streaming services. Then we are dependent on systems that collect the income from both Norway and the rest of the world. There is a lot of work and many hours behind it, so it is good that we have TONO as our supporter and partner so that we get something in return for all our work, says Frøen.
The five largest foreign markets for Norwegian songwriters in 2018 were:
Sweden: NOK 12.5 million
Germany: NOK 12,4 million
Denmark: 11 million kroner
England: 9,7 million kroner
USA: 6,8 million kroner
TONO has had an average annual growth of NOK 47 million over the past five years. In the same five years, TONO's revenue has increased by more than 50 percent, from NOK 469 million in 2013 to NOK 707 million in 2018. Since the turn of the millennium, TONO has had real growth of NOK 449 million, adjusted for inflation.
Figure: Overview of TONO's revenues in 2018
TONO's annual report will be published on tono.no in week 19/20.
For more information:
Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO, cato.strom@tono.no, mobile 922 16,319
Willy Martinsen, communications manager at TONO, willy.martinsen@tono.no, mobile 909 65 254
For inquiries regarding Anders Frøen, contact manager Yonas Aregai: yonas@mer.as, 40 63 35 95
About TONO:
TONO is a non-profit cooperative, founded in 1928, owned and managed by its members: composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers. TONO manages performance rights for musical works in Norway and collects remuneration for their public performance. TONO currently represents more than 32,000 Norwegian composers, lyricists and music publishers. Through reciprocal representation agreements with similar companies in other countries, TONO manages the rights of more than 2,5 million authors in the Norwegian territory. As a non-profit enterprise, TONO's results are transferred to the rights holders of performed works. TONO thus facilitates the use of music in society, while at the same time providing authors with a basis for constantly creating new musical works. For more information, visit www.tono.no.