TONO, the Norwegian management organization for composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers, achieved the strongest result in the organization's history in 2012. The result means that 370,5 MNOK can be paid out to rights holders at home and abroad. Streaming services are the biggest driver of TONO's growth.
/ 30/07/2013 / codexTONO's total gross revenues in 2012 were 445.1 million NOK, an increase of 6 percent from the previous year's revenue figure of 421.8 million NOK. - 2012 showed healthy growth in revenues compared to the previous year. This is pleasing because it means that the rights holders' music is an attractive and valued commodity, and not least that the work we do means that a professional group with few rights and an unstable employment situation actually gets paid fairly. Particularly exciting is the growth in the online field, which gave a revenue increase of 130 percent compared to the previous year, says TONO's CEO, Cato Strøm. TONO's revenues in the online field have increased from 22 million NOK to 50 million NOK from 2011 to 2012. In addition to the performance revenues from TONO, the rights holders also receive revenues from the mechanical share of streaming etc. from the Nordic Copyright Bureau, of which TONO is one of the owners. In practice, this means that composers' total income to the rights holders from the online sector via TONO/NCB will end up at around 70 million NOK. - The market for digital sales of music is far larger than the market for sales of physical copies. Norway is the country in the world experiencing the greatest increase in the use of streaming services. It is the agreements with Spotify and WiMP in particular that provide the largest income, but we are also seeing good growth for newer services such as Beat and Altibox. TONO's online income has doubled annually since 2009, and it would surprise us greatly if online income did not continue to grow in the years to come, says Strøm. As a non-profit company, with no goal of generating a profit, TONO passes on income to the rights holders after operating costs, taxes and fees have been deducted. In 2012, TONO had a cost percentage of 14,54. The result is that just over 85 percent of the income for 2012 is transferred to the rights holders.
Willy Martinsen, information manager at TONO, mobile 909 65 254. email: