TONO's CEO Cato Strøm summarizes the first half of 2018 – and wishes TONO's members a really good summer.
/ 29/06/2018 / Willy MartinsenAs "all of Norway" stands on the threshold of a joint holiday, we at TONO know that many of our members will spend the month of July creating new music, and for many the word "festival summer" means something completely different than it does for the Norwegian concert audience. TONO's member service will of course be staffed throughout the summer, so if you need to get in touch with us, there are people here to help you.
We are in the midst of one of the most important copyright battles in Europe in decades. On June 20, a clear majority of members of the European Parliament's legal affairs committee "JURI" voted in favor of the proposed wording of Article 13 of the new copyright directive that the EU is working on.
Article 13 states that user-generated platforms such as Facebook and YouTube shall be held responsible for the artistic and creative content uploaded, shared and consumed on their services. Given that 52 percent of Facebook's revenue comes from artistic and creative content (Roland Berger Report 2015) without the revenue being shared with those who created it, the decisions now being made in the EU could have a major impact on TONO members and their colleagues around the world in the digital economy in the years to come.
Despite the positive result in the JURI committee, there is still a long way to go before the jubilation can hopefully be unleashed. The opposition from the tech industry is powerful after the vote last week. They have mobilized with massive force against the members of the EU Parliament in the run-up to the next vote. This will take place in the EU Parliament in early July, before work on the directive continues throughout the autumn. Through GESAC, the European collecting societies' lobby organization in Brussels, we have done, and are still doing, a lot to ensure that EU Parliament politicians understand that Article 13 is about justice for music creators and other rights holders in the digital economy.
The first half of 2018 has also been marked by an important battle in the area of copyright in Norway. In May, the Storting passed a new copyright law. TONO is generally very satisfied with the result. We hope and believe that the new copyright law will contribute to strengthening the position of copyright holders. More about this here: https://www.tono.no/andsverklov-vedtatt-stortinget/
There will be more battles in the fall as well. In October, the Supreme Court will decide whether RiksTV should have independent responsibility for making musical works available. TONO has won the case in both the District Court and the Court of Appeal, and we look forward to receiving final clarification on the issue that has been pending in the legal system for many years.
But if the battles are many and hard, there is also much to be happy about. In the spring of 2017, TONO awarded a total of NOK 12 million in scholarships, divided into approximately NOK 10,8 million under the ordinary TONO scholarship and approximately NOK 1,2 million for Young Talents. From the many feedbacks we receive, we know that the scholarship schemes are greatly appreciated, and we are pleased about the projects that arise as a result of the scholarships.
We are also pleased that in May we were able to publish a good result for 2017. The result for distribution to licensees was a whopping NOK 568 million, an increase of 27 percent from 2016. It is particularly pleasing to see that foreign revenues are increasing sharply, and that the trend seems to continue for 2018. Over the past three years, foreign revenues have doubled, while the number of TONO members receiving foreign settlement has increased by 65 percent. Visit this page for a graphical summary: https://www.tono.no/kort-og-godt-om-tono-2017/
In conclusion, I would like to mention that on November 27th, 90 years have passed since TONO was established in 1928. In this context, we have created an anniversary magazine that you can read at tono.no. I dare to suggest that this magazine could be good summer reading. You can find it by clicking on this image:
Cato Strom
Adm.dir
TONO
Photo at top: istock.com/domoyega