LAST PAYMENT OF THE YEAR FROM TONO
On Monday, December 8, TONO will pay out NOK 199,981,191 to music creators worldwide. NOK 111,2 million of this will go to TONO members, while NOK 86,3 million will go to music creators and music publishers worldwide. Music streaming is the largest payout area for TONO members.
/ 08/12/2025 / Kristian DugstadThis year's December payment is NOK 30 million higher than in December 2024, when TONO paid out NOK 169,9 million. The majority of this increase goes to TONO's members, making this the largest December payout for Norwegian music creators ever.
The increase is mainly due to an extraordinary additional settlement in the online area and a long-awaited solution to tax issues in Germany, which have led to major delays in payments. This means that we can now pay out amounts that ideally would have been paid out in earlier settlements this year.
A total of 30,988 TONO members will receive payments in December. Based on their social security numbers, we can see that among these there are 5,976 women and 24,492 men.
Online is by far the largest area in this payout, with a total amount of NOK 71,3 million. This is a significant increase from December 2024, when the same area accounted for NOK 49,9 million.
The reason is that TONO has received a large additional transfer from NMP, the company that has until now handled data and revenues from streaming services and social media. When the collaboration is now terminated, all funds belonging to TONO members, which have been withheld due to a lack of reporting, must be paid out.
The money is now being paid as an additional settlement, and is distributed primarily based on historical reports from Spotify, Apple, Youtube and TikTok. This is specified under the period overview for music streaming in this letter.
From 2026, TONO will switch to a new online licensing through the company ICE Core, which currently handles this area for several of our large sister societies. This will give us the same conditions as British PRS, German GEMA, BMI in the US and Swedish STIM. The news was announced on September 18th..
The premiere bonus, which was previously included in the December payments, will be discontinued as part of implementation of new settlement model TONO's new settlement modelThe scheme was financed through provisions from other settlement areas, and was thus not in accordance with the Collective Management Act.
The last premiere performance payment was made in December 2024, and applied to performances in 2023.
This December payment is the last full settlement to be made in TONO's current settlement system. From 2026, we will transition to a new technical solution from Irish technology company Spanish Point, which will ultimately provide more automated processes, greater efficiency and lower costs.
TONO and Spanish Point have worked closely together for several years on the development and implementation of the new system, which will be used for the first time in the March 2026 settlement. It is important to ensure quality in such a comprehensive and critical change, and there will always be some risk of delays. Should circumstances arise that affect the schedule, TONO members will be informed in good time.
Willy Martinsen, Communications Director at TONO,
willy.martinsen@tono.no, mob. +47 909 65 254