TONO has applied to the Ministry of Culture for state support to cover our members' losses as a result of the authorities' infection control measures. In the end, KUD granted kr 30,5 million. The government support is provided under special conditions that TONO must meet before the money can be paid to its members.
/ 02/07/2021 / Willy MartinsenA long process of documentation, formal application for state support and separate work within TONO to develop a settlement model for the payment of the money is now entering its final phase. TONO is now working towards the payment of the funds in September.
Covid-19 brought concert activity in Norway to a dramatic halt in March last year. The consequences for the music scene were dramatic, but neither the government's compensation schemes nor the stimulus scheme covered the loss of fee income. In November, Minister of Culture Abid Q. Raja stated that the government had heard from TONO, among others, and in February, Raja announced that TONO and Gramo would receive up to NOK 40 million to partially cover their members' loss of fee income due to Covid-19.
The Ministry of Culture asked TONO to prepare thorough documentation of the extent of the losses, and to apply for state support for the actual losses. TONO was subsequently granted 30,5 million kroner in compensation with an instruction, among other things, to settle the funds according to established principles to Norwegian TONO members.
– TONO does not have models for settling music that has not been performed, we rather have models for the opposite. It is a major task with a significant degree of complexity to decide how the money should be settled, and a separate working group in TONO has been working on this for several months. Various models have been developed and assessed, but we are now practically ready with a model that will mean that we can manage to settle the money in a way that we believe will be good. We are working towards this being done in September, says TONO CEO, Cato Strøm.
TONO's administration and board will complete the work on the model in the future, and make a final formal decision during August. This will allow the settlement to be carried out in September, October at the latest. TONO will explain the parameters that are the basis for the settlement at the same time as the settlement.