TONO's members form the basis of the entire concert economy, but are excluded from both the compensation and incentive schemes of the Ministry of Culture. TONO now requests further dialogue with the Ministry and the Arts Council to find a solution to Norwegian authors' and music publishers' loss of TONO income.
/ 16/11/2020 / Kristian DugstadFollowing a meeting with the Ministry in week 46, TONO is now requesting further dialogue to find a solution to Norwegian authors' and music publishers' loss of TONO income, which for 2020 is estimated at a total of NOK 43 million. Read the letter from TONO to the Ministry of Culture here.
Thank you for our meeting on Friday, November 6, 2020, where the content of the stimulus regulations and the stimulus schemes were discussed. We are pleased with the dialogue that the Ministry of Culture invited us to.
We now wish to follow up on this, and summarize in writing the facts regarding the difficult situation our members – the composers, lyricists and music publishers – have been in since mid-March 2020. We emphasize that the situation is equally acute and serious: Even though TONO's members form the basis for the entire concert economy, they have not been included in either the compensation scheme or the stimulus scheme.
Being a composer is different from being a performer
The cooperative TONO represents and is owned by composers, songwriters and music publishers. These have copyrights and/or publishing rights in musical works, and constitute a separate link, a separate area, within the concert economy. Being a composer and songwriter is something different from being an artist, musician and performer. Put bluntly: Where the orchestra, band or artist gets paid to perform, the composer, songwriter and music publisher get paid for their musical works being performed. TONO is the authors' and music publishers' own tool for exercising their copyright towards those who wish to use their music publicly. TONO is governed by the authors themselves, and is run efficiently and non-profit. This means that almost 9 out of 10 kroner that comes to TONO is paid out to the copyright holders.
TONO's members are excluded from both the compensation and incentive scheme.
TONO has on several occasions since March 2020, when the authorities' infection control measures were introduced, pointed out the dramatic economic consequences of the lockdown for our members. Neither the compensation scheme nor the stimulus schemes affect our members, even though they have suffered major losses of TONO income. The compensation scheme clarified that the rights holders (this includes TONO's members) were not part of the scheme. And although the Ministry of Culture refers to the allocation of 130 million kroner to strengthen rights holders under the stimulus scheme, only 17 million of these funds have been allocated to the music field. Only 8 of the 17 million are directed at the authors through the strengthening of the scheme for commissioned works and production support in the Norwegian Arts Council. These 8 million will also cover more areas than the authors (composers and lyricists), since the scheme also includes production support.
The scheme also does not cover the broad range of rights holders that TONO represents. This is due to industry-specific differences between musical genres that are difficult to change solely through dialogue with the Norwegian Arts Council, as we were encouraged to do in the meeting. In addition, music publishers are prevented from applying for these funds.
TONO members lose 43 million in TONO revenue in 2020 alone
The loss estimates TONO has calculated for its members show that Norwegian composers and copyright holders will lose approx. kr 43,2 million from the transmission areas affected by the authorities' infection control measures.
Including the rights TONO manages for foreign rights holders, TONO's total revenue loss in 2020 is approx. kr NOK 80 million. We have not yet had a basis for making estimates for 2021 in a responsible manner, but as the situation is now, it is reasonable to assume that the losses could be similar in 2021.
The need for Norwegian composers and rights holders in musical works to participate in compensation and incentive schemes is obvious: For those who create music, the TONO settlement is a central part of their income. The TONO settlement is a direct result of how much the author's music has been used, and can in many ways be seen as the authors' salary payment.
The licensees' income comes from several sources of income, which in addition to the TONO settlement are associated with large direct losses as a result of Covid-19. These are income streams that are outside TONO's management, but it supports an important point: the composition of these other incomes of the different licensees is very different, but one income stream is common to all, and there is remuneration collected through TONO. TONO's call is therefore now to focus on compensating and stimulating through cash flows that affect everyone.
Transparency shows that funds have been allocated on very different grounds
TONO has reviewed some of the applications that the Arts Council has processed, in order to clarify whether the applicants have applied for coverage of remuneration to TONO. Based on the applications themselves, it is not easy to determine what costs the applicants have requested to pay TONO for the permission to perform music. It may seem that some applicants have calculated the remuneration to TONO based on how many tickets would normally be sold, and not the limit of 200 spectators. Others have settled on the 200 limit. For the authors, this makes a big financial difference, as the TONO remuneration – and thus the payments to the authors – is based on the number of spectators and ticket revenues.
As far as TONO has been able to clarify, it was not until November 5 that the Arts Council issued a statement stating that applicants should only assume that compensation to TONO would be limited to 200 tickets sold. This is despite the fact that applicants are otherwise covered for costs as if the event had taken place under what could be called "normal circumstances."
To be sure that we are building on correct facts, TONO has contacted various applicants to gain knowledge about what they have applied for and what they have received. Here we have uncovered different practices both among the applicants and at the Arts Council. This is of course very unfortunate, and could lead to unfair discrimination.
Since applications where names are provided are made public, and since this has been widely discussed in the media, we choose to show a couple of named examples here:
Example 1. Kurt Nilsen's Christmas tour
Manager Jan Fredrik Karlsen informs TONO that he has applied for compensation to be paid to TONO for 200 tickets sold per concert. To illustrate, it can be mentioned that Kurt Nilsen can fill Oslo Spektrum with, for example, approximately 6,000 tickets sold. He has done this before. This means that the composers and lyricists that TONO works for in this case lose compensation for the sale of approximately 5,800 tickets. Based on a ticket price of kr 550, the authors will miss out on a remuneration of approx. kr 65,000 for this one concert.
Example 2. Taran's Christmas concert tour "Silent Night, Holy Night"
Tor Arne Ranghus, Taran's owner and producer, states that he has applied for compensation to TONO equivalent to what he has paid for the tour to TONO on average over the past 3 years. Here, support has been applied for based on a normal situation – for example, a sold-out concert with 500 tickets with kr 390 per ticket, which in return for TONO amounts to approx. kr 4,500 more than a concert with a maximum of 200 people. Where does this money go?
These two examples illustrate how wrong this has become. There are several examples of how applicants have applied for and been awarded funds on very different grounds. This is obviously due to a confusion that we are afraid still exists, and which TONO wants to clarify in cooperation with both the Ministry of Culture and the Arts Council.
TONO will therefore request dialogue meetings so that we can be precise about what we define as the originator economy, where and in which areas the losses occur, and how this situation can be remedied.
Sincerely,
Jørgen Karlstrøm Cato Strøm
Chairman CEO
TONE TONE