Idar Torskangerpoll.
Music publisher Odd Steenberg and composer Idar Torskangerpoll:
Music publisher and band musician Odd Steenberg regrets that TONO and NMR do not have a framework agreement from January 1, 2024. “If you ask me, TONO's offer is not too high, it's actually too low,” he says. Band composer Idar Torskangerpoll (pictured above) thinks it's a shame that the bands get much more work without a framework agreement.
/ 28/09/2023 / Willy MartinsenOdd Steenberg (70) has not only been a band musician his entire life. He has also been a music publisher for Norwegian and foreign composers since the 1970s.
There is hardly a choir or band in this country that has not used sheet music from Norsk Noteservice. The sheet music sales and TONO income from concerts when the sheet music is performed are important income for the publisher and the composers they work for. The fact that 4500 NMR members, i.e. choirs, bands, big bands and orchestras, etc., are not covered by a framework agreement with TONO from 1 January 2024 concerns him greatly:
– My call to NMR is that they accept the TONO agreement. I know that many choirs and bands actually organize many more concerts than the 2,5 concerts a year that the framework agreement takes into account. There is nothing unreasonable about it, it is actually very kind, he says.
The Norwegian Music Council believes that TONO is demanding too much money and has not accepted TONO's offer. However, TONO believes that it is absolutely necessary to increase the payment to the composers in order for the remuneration to be considered reasonable. At the same time, the Act on Collective Management requires that TONO treat organizers equally. A heavily discounted agreement such as the one that expires at the New Year could therefore not be continued in order for TONO to stand on secure, legal ground.
The new agreement TONO wanted to enter into with NMR meant that the TONO fee per choir, corps, big band and orchestra was adjusted upwards from just over a thousand kroner a year to around 1400 kroner. Without a framework agreement from January 1, everyone must become individual concert organizer customers of TONO, and pay full fee.
Idar Torskangerpoll (53) has a master's degree in composition. For many years he has composed and arranged chamber music, symphonies, music for bands – and for choirs. In addition to his own compositions, he has made choir arrangements of everything from "Living next door to Alice" to "Just a Gigolo" to the Flåklypa music.
– It is important to remember that TONO works for people like me. The vast majority of TONO members are small, there are few "big fish" in TONO. Many of us have, and must have, many different types of income. I give courses, arrange music, I have income from sheet music sales, and I receive TONO payments from band concerts, as long as the performances are reported to TONO, he says.
Torskangerpoll has a burning heart for the voluntary music scene. He thinks it's a shame that there won't be a framework agreement from January 1, 2024.
– I don't think choirs and bands understand how easy it is for them. At TONO they get one permit to play copyrighted music. With a framework agreement they don't even have to apply for concerts because the permit is given with the framework agreement. Now they get a lot more work because they have to apply for a permit for each concert, and I think that's a shame. It may also not have been visible to many that the TONO payment has been covered by the membership fee with their association, he says.
Both Steenberg and Torskangerpoll hope that the bands will become more aware of their reporting responsibilities when they have to enter into individual agreements for single concerts with TONO:
– Every year new people come into office who probably don't understand how important the TONO report is for the composers' salaries, and are therefore not aware of their reporting responsibilities. I hope that will improve when they have to start applying for concert permits from TONO, says Steenberg.
Torskangerpoll agrees:
– If my works or arrangements have been played at concerts, but are not reported to TONO, then the income I should have had is distributed to others based on the reports TONO actually receives. More reports make the settlements more precise, he says.
TONO is launching a brand new digital service in parallel with the end of the framework agreement, at the beginning of January. Here, the 4500 choirs, corps, big bands and orchestras that have previously been covered by NMR's framework agreement with TONO will be able to easily apply for concert permits and report the works performed at the concerts they hold.
Read press release about TONO and NMR here..
Read questions and answers about what the change means for NMR members. here..