(May 3, 2013) The three management organizations TONO, Koda (Denmark) and Teosto (Finland) have formed the Polaris Nordic Alliance. The purpose is to cut costs and further develop and strengthen the quality of their operations.
/ 06/05/2013 / codexThe future role of Polaris Nordic is to develop and run a common "back end" system for music reporting and distribution of collected royalties to its respective members and rights holders. The first two systems, Polaris REP and Polaris DIS, are under development and are expected to be implemented by all three organizations towards the end of 2013. TONO, Koda and Teosto are among the world's most efficient management organizations, and the goal is to further reduce costs in the three organizations by working together in the same system.
Polaris Nordic is a virtual organization that draws on resources from all three organizations and external resources, but the vision is to expand the collaboration to other management organizations as well. – Collaboration on the processing side is absolutely necessary for us in the coming years. Our authors and music publishers expect us to continuously work to distribute as much as possible. In a world where digitalization has led to reduced revenue for many, we see cost reductions as a way to differentiate ourselves. We strongly believe that rights holders will judge our organizations based on how efficient we are and how much we can provide to them. Polaris Nordic will be a tool to achieve this, says Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO. – For many years, the Nordic management organizations have worked closely together in an informal network. It is now time to take the collaboration to the next level. By using the same back-end systems, we can standardize our processes and structures, and in this way create even greater value for our licensees, says KODA's CEO Anders Lassen. In addition to developing a common back-end system, Polaris Nordic will negotiate agreements for all three organizations, for example within IT investments and services such as plant databases, etc.
– In a world of increased competition for rights, it is crucial that we can prove to rights holders that we are frugal, and have the ability to come together to provide benefits to our members and rights holders, says Teosto CEO Katri Sipilä. Cato Strøm, CEO of TONO, mob. 922 16 319, e-mail Willy Martinsen, Head of Communications TONO, mob. 909 65 254, e-mail: