TONO's input for new artist announcement

TONO was established in 1928 and is a cooperative and collective management organization for copyright holders of musical works, i.e. composers, lyricists, songwriters and music publishers. We have 41,000 members, and in addition represent millions of composers, lyricists and music publishers from other countries in the Norwegian territory.

The government writes in the artist report that they want to contribute to giving artists good opportunities to work as artists nationally and internationally, and to receive reasonable payment for their artistic work. That is good. We believe that the artist report is mainly a good document, but would still like to point out four or five key areas that need special attention in order for the government's ambitions to be achieved.

Low Norwegian shares in streaming services

Norwegian composers, lyricists, songwriters, performers and artists compete on streaming services with the entire world repertoire – both 100 years of recorded music history and the more than 120,000 new tracks that, according to the renowned analysis company Luminate, are released on streaming services every day. Norwegians listen to little Norwegian-written music. Our own figures show that on average, 1 in 10 Norwegian authors are among the music Norwegians listen to. This is not due to quality. We believe that it is drowning in the crowd, and we believe it is due to fragmentation and internationalization within the media area.

The AMT Directive and its amending Directive require broadcasters to offer a certain percentage of European content. Although the content requirement has no transfer value to music streaming services, where all offer the world repertoire, we nevertheless support the government in the directive making it possible to set requirements for profiling of European content. We believe that the requirement for increased profiling of Norwegian music will be important in order to give Norwegian music creators better competitive conditions in the face of world repertoire. We encourage the government to take an active role in the work of influencing the EU in this area.

Strengthening and preserving copyright in the digital sphere 

The Digital Markets Directive and the Online and Retransmission Directive are to be implemented into Norwegian copyright law. And it is precisely the copyright law that is central when the government is to develop artist policy for the future. The copyright holders are the weak party in the encounter with music users in the digital area, whether they are called Spotify, TikTok – or Open AI. They are all technology companies where much of the value in what they offer is copyrighted music and song lyrics, whether the works are offered in an unchanged form in a streaming service or indirectly in ChatGPT and the like by the technology being trained on the same works and song lyrics.

When the Copyright Act is to be amended, the exceptions in Articles 3 and 4 of the Digital Markets Directive in connection with text and data mining, which restrict the author's exclusive right, must be limited. Generative AI in a commercial context must not be covered by the exceptions. All use of copyrighted content must be regulated by copyright in connection with artificial intelligence. Rights holders must be able to reserve themselves against AI training, a collective licensing requirement is needed, services must be required to be transparent about what they have trained the services on – and, fundamentally, the government must take a position on the right to fair remuneration – also in the face of artificial intelligence.

Private copying scheme

When the Copyright Act was amended in 2018, the private copying scheme through Norwaco was expanded to include not only music and film rights holders, but also rights holders in literature and visual arts. Now the allocations must be increased so that music and film rights holders do not lose out when more rights holders are covered by the scheme.

Reasonable remuneration and requirements in grant letters to public institutions 

The government writes in the artist's report that it expects that "… public enterprises take the lead and ensure reasonable payment and working conditions for both employed and commissioned artists. The Ministry of Culture and Equality will request in grant letters that state-funded art and cultural institutions report on the use and remuneration of self-employed artists."

This must include the composers, who are fundamental suppliers to any concert performance. We also ask that all businesses that are mainly financed through state subsidies be subject to stricter requirements for the performance of newer music, created by living composers. Such a cultural policy would extend all the way to living and future creators of new musical works. According to our observations, the percentage of newer, protected music that is performed is far lower than what one should expect from institutions such as the Oslo Philharmonic and similar ones.

Potential for more export of Norwegian-written music

The Film Fund, which is managed by the Norwegian Film Institute, includes grant schemes for, among other things, co-productions with other countries. The incentive scheme for films and series also contributes to building bridges between the Norwegian and foreign film industries. There is scope for establishing new schemes in the music sector as well to stimulate increased exports of Norwegian composers, lyricists, songwriters – and their works. Our Swedish sister society STIM has annual foreign revenues of over a billion. Ours are around 80 million. Bridges to abroad are being built at grassroots level in the creative community, and despite Music Norway's excellent work, we believe that there is a large untapped potential in that there is a lack of an overall strategy and focus on exporting Norwegian music creators and works. We are talking about rights in musical works that are used abroad and that provide income back to Norway. Because we mean export in the purest sense of the word. No one should want a talent flight to the USA. TONO is happy to contribute expertise to such a scenario, in the same way that we always make our expertise available to the ministries and the government.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide our input.