The corona crisis is leading to reduced income for TONO in 2020, and will hit TONO payments to Norwegian music creators and music publishers with full force during 2021. Today's quarterly settlement, however – the third ordinary TONO settlement in 2020 – is lifted by a very good concert market in 2019, and is the highest for TONO members ever: a whopping NOK 115,5 million.
/ 01/10/2020 / Willy MartinsenOf TONO's four annual ordinary settlements, the autumn settlement is traditionally the largest. This is where the company settles the vast majority of TONO revenues from concert performances.
– For the vast majority of TONO members, concert income is absolutely crucial, whether you are on stage yourself or are just a composer, songwriter and lyricist, as many of the members actually are. Of the 190,1 million we settle in total today, we send 69,8 million kroner abroad, but a full 115,5 million kroner goes to TONO members. This is a record high, and of this money, almost 70 million kroner includes concert settlements, says TONO CEO, Cato Strøm.
TONO has also been hit hard by the corona crisis: Cancelled and postponed concerts have so far meant a loss of income of tens of millions of kroner for the cooperative TONO SA, which is owned and managed by Norwegian composers, lyricists and music publishers. The situation is no less serious because TONO has so far not been covered by any of the Ministry of Culture's compensation schemes. This will affect TONO's members in the concert settlement in the fall of 2021.
– For Norwegian composers, lyricists, songwriters and their music publishers, TONO revenues are among their most important sources of income. Today's concert settlement mainly stems from concerts in 2019, and it was a record year. In a difficult time for TONO members, it is at least nice to be able to pay out a record-high autumn settlement, says Cato Strøm.
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Within radio area is being settled for broadcasts from the first quarter of 2020 from 15 NRK channels, 9 Bauer Media channels and 9 channels under P4. The situation with Covid-19 unfortunately affects payments and settlements from local radio stations. Broadcasts from this area for the first quarter will be settled in December. From the radio area, TONO is settling a total of kr NOK 14,4 million, of which NOK 4,8 million goes to TONO members.
From the use of music in ordinary Television broadcasting TONO settles for the first quarter of 2020 from 5 NRK channels, 7 TV2 channels and TV Norge. Of the 14,8 million kroner settled in this area, just over 2 million kroner goes to TONO members.
Inside concert area It is settled from traditional concerts, events and church services for performances throughout 2019, and it is also settled for mega concerts, theater and revue, which are areas that TONO settles every quarter. In this area, just over 101 million kroner is settled, of which almost 70 million kroner goes to TONO's members.
From the use of music in Streaming services TONO is billing from six different services this time. These are Spotify for February to May 2020, YouTube for the first quarter of 2020, iTunes for the fourth quarter of 2019, Apple Music for the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, Beat.no for the fourth quarter of 2019 and Beatport for the first quarter of 2020.
From the area Video on demand TONO settles Netflix for the fourth quarter of 2019, Viaplay for the second half of 2019, Altibox for the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, Google Play VOD for the fourth quarter of 2019, SF Anytime for the third quarter of 2019 and Blockbuster for all of 2019.
In total for the online area, TONO settles more than 34 million, of which approximately 15,6 million kroner goes to TONO's members. It is important to be aware that these funds originate from consumption in online services in primarily the Nordic market. Streaming revenues for large parts of the world are settled as part of foreign revenues.
In addition, TONO settles music in store services Play Network, Mind Moving Music and Royal Streaming, for 2019. In addition, routine post-clearance settlements are also made for previous periods (maximum 3 years back) in the broadcasting area, concert area, cinema, etc., and corrections are made.
TONO also settles for use of TONO's repertoire in abroad, which this time amounts to approximately 24,5 million.
About TONO:
TONO was founded in 1928 and is a non-profit cooperative owned and managed by authors (composers and lyricists) and music publishers, and on their behalf manages the economic copyrights in the music they have created. TONO grants permission for the use of protected music, for example on radio, TV, the internet, concerts and cinemas for a fee, and transfers its financial results each year to the rights holders in music that has been played publicly. TONO has 34,000 members, but also works for approximately three million authors and music publishers from around the world. TONO's social role is twofold, on the one hand collecting and simplifying the licensing of protected music and on the other hand providing music creators with an economic basis for creating new musical works. In 2019, TONO generated a turnover of kr 771 millions.
For more information:
Willy Martinsen, communications manager at TONO, willy.martinsen (a) tono.no, mob. 909 65 254.
Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO, cato.strom (a) tono.no, mob. 922 16,319