TONO has not yet seen that the economic crisis measures granted by the government this spring have accrued to the authors and music publishers as a result of their loss of TONO remuneration. Funds must be earmarked for the authors, TONO writes in its contribution to the revised national budget.
/ 15/05/2020 / Kristian DugstadTONO today submitted its input to the revised national budget. It emphasizes that funds must be earmarked for the authors. Read the full input here:
TONO is a non-profit cooperative, founded in 1928, owned and managed by its members: Composers, lyricists and music publishers. TONO manages performance rights for musical works in Norway and collects remuneration for their public performance. TONO currently represents more than 34,000 Norwegian composers, lyricists and music publishers. In addition, TONO also represents foreign musical works through reciprocal representation agreements with similar companies in other countries, so that we in practice manage the world repertoire in Norway. As a non-profit enterprise, TONO's accounting result is distributed in its entirety to the rights holders of performed works. In 2019, TONO had a turnover of kr 771 millions.
The music value chain starts with TONO's members
TONO members write the music and lyrics that generate ticket revenue for concert organizers, advertising revenue for broadcasters, and increased sales for hairdressers, hotels, and pubs. Without the creators, artists, musicians, bands, choirs, and orchestras have no music to perform. Without them, no music on the radio, in streaming services, or in concert halls.
For this professional group, TONO royalties, the copyright performance income from the actual use of their music in the public domain, are one of their financial prerequisites for being able to practice their profession.
TONO has not yet seen that the economic crisis measures granted by the government this spring have accrued to the authors and music publishers as a result of their loss of TONO remuneration.
TONO and TONO's members were immediately hit hard by the measures taken to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Concerts were canceled. Hotels, restaurants and shops were closed. Booking fees were canceled. The losses are both immediate and long-term. Musicians, artists, bands, corps, choirs and orchestras lose immediately from canceled concert performances.
However, the creators and music publishers also lose in the long term, as the losses resulting from the shutdown in 2020 will only be fully realized in 2021. This is because the collective management system has a lag that means that losses will only become visible the following calendar year, for example, by TONO only settling accounts for concert performances in 2020 in September 2021.
Subject to an improved or deteriorated situation, TONO has, based on the revenues in the normal year 2019, thoroughly analyzed and calculated the loss of income in the period from March 11 to August 31.
TONO's expected loss in the period from March 2020 to the end of August 2020 is kr 107,305,512, which represents 22,74% of the revenue in the areas shown in attached Excel document.
It is the concert and background music areas in particular that will be hit hardest and most noticeably, with an expected decline of 50 percent and 36 percent, respectively.
It may sound theoretical, but it is painfully concrete. The invoices from TONO are calculated based on a percentage of ticket revenue. Cancelled major festivals mean losses of hundreds of thousands, in some cases up to a million kroner for the organizers.
Cancelled concerts don't just affect festival organizers and musicians. They also affect the creators.
Compensation for lost income as a result of cancelled concerts must therefore also accrue to those who create the music and who miss out on TONO remuneration.
Chapter 325 General cultural purposes Item 77 Compensation schemes for organizers in the cultural, voluntary and sports fields
Chapter 325 of the revised national budget proposal refers to two previous compensation schemes in the spring of 2020, as well as a strengthening of this which will correspond to a total of NOK 600 million for the cultural sector.
It is now absolutely crucial that parts of this are earmarked for authors and music publishers as compensation for lost TONO fees. TONO believes that this should constitute 10 percent of the amount now set aside as part of the compensation scheme for organizers in the cultural field, and the voluntary field to the extent that these have applied for and received money.
These funds should be allocated to TONO and paid out to TONO members according to known, planned activities.
We also emphasize that there is a need for further stimulus measures to remedy the difficult situation that authors and music publishers are currently in. Here we refer to input from NOPA, the Norwegian Composers' Association and the Music Publishers Association.
Sincerely,
Ingrid Kindem Cato Strøm
Chairman CEO
TONE TONE