AI in music:
We share Anders Odden's concern in Ballade about how artificial intelligence can affect the music economy.
/ 23/01/2026 / Willy MartinsenAnders Odden is making a fool of himself when he blames TONO for allowing businesses to avoid paying royalties by streaming music outside our management. We nevertheless share his concern about how artificial intelligence could affect the rights economy.
First: TONO does not define copyright. It is regulated in the Copyright Act and international conventions.
Copyright protects human creativity, and only humans can own intellectual property. Not animals, not machines. People who create musical works have copyright protection, and by joining TONO you choose to manage your rights collectively.
Music without copyright is not managed by TONO. It includes works where the protection period has expired, and it includes machine-generated AI music without human creative effort. It is not a policy that TONO has developed, it is the Copyright Act. There is also royalty-free music outside of TONO's management, and which is offered to broadcasters and stores.
Businesses that choose music that TONO does not manage (or that do not play music at all) result in a loss of income for TONO, and thus also less income for its members.
That is why we are actively working to highlight the value of TONO's repertoire, including through large, targeted advertising and information campaigns aimed at the trade and service industries. We have made significant efforts here over the past four years, including campaigns with landing pages such as debt og debt.
Our message is that TONO's repertoire has, and creates, value, also for businesses.
By using the right music, in the right way, businesses can increase sales. There is research that shows this. Music that people like and have a pre-existing relationship with makes them stay longer in the store or pub, and they buy more.
TONO does not require hairdressers, cafes and shops to record everything that is played on the radio, streaming services, vinyl (there are not many, but they do exist!), CD or other ways of playing music. However, it is important to be aware that the use of professional background music providers who report actual usage to TONO is slowly but surely increasing.
Artificial intelligence can be a great tool for human creativity. However, we share Odden's concern that the technology could have the potential to harm the rights economy and the breadth of the music scene.
Without political regulation, it will lead to competition from machine-generated AI music without human creative input and lost revenue for our members. This is shown not least by this report from CISAC.
The report, from late 2024, estimates that artificial intelligence could cut music creators' income by 24 percent by 2028.
Both we at TONO and all collective management organizations around the world take this challenge very seriously. We are working with the Norwegian authorities and the EU. We believe that much can be solved through better regulation that takes care of human creators.
For us, this is both about securing income for creators, but it is also a value choice. What is and should music be? Is human creativity important for society?
TONO has had good experience over almost 100 years that challenges with new technology must be accompanied by new legislation. That is why Norwegian and EU politicians must dare to take a stand, create clearer and stricter regulation of AI services and ensure collective licensing of artificial intelligence throughout the value chain.
The story was published here on tono.no on February 5, but the publication date was set to January 23, which was the day the post was published in Ballade.