We know that copyright can be difficult. Over 60 employees at TONO work with music rights every day. We don't expect you, alone, to have full control. – But the choices you make when managing your intellectual property can have consequences for you. That's why TONO's Member Service is here to help you, says Member Manager Jan Espen Storo.
/ 15/03/2019 / Kristian DugstadWe know that copyright can be difficult. Over 60 employees at TONO work with music rights every day. We don't expect you, alone, to have full control. – But the choices you make when managing your intellectual property can have consequences for you. That's why TONO's Member Service is here to help you, says Member Manager Jan Espen Storo.
As a songwriter, composer and lyricist, you have a number of moral and economic rights. TONO's job is to ensure that authors get paid when their music is used or performed. To get paid, you must be a TONO member, report concerts and register your music.
– We at Member Services are here to ensure that all TONO members are well taken care of. We always do what we can to answer questions and solve problems, says Jan Espen Storo, Member Manager at TONO.
Many of your needs as a member are covered in the online service. My TONO. Here you can see all the music you are the copyright holder of, and register new works as soon as they are written. You report concerts you have held, and see your settlement. You can also apply for a TONO grant.
– In Mitt TONO you can do a lot yourself. Sometimes it can still be nice to talk to a real person. If you have questions you can't find answers to, or need advice about music and rights, you can always contact us.
In addition to Member Manager Jan Espen Storo, Member Services consists of six employees. Every day, they answer email and telephone inquiries from members, in addition to having a number of other tasks. Rose Marie Dobrowitz has worked at TONO for 19 years, and in Member Services for 12.
– We accept all types of questions regarding TONO membership. These can include settlements, registration of works and much more. We enter into agreements with new members, both authors and music publishers. We can also often answer questions about other parts of the music industry, she says.
Some of the choices you make as an author are more permanent than others, and can have potentially major consequences. Registering a new work is an action that must be taken seriously.
Imagine that you have written a song that your band is going to play. When you register it in TONO, you still share the rights equally between all members. Ten years later, the band has disbanded, but a company wants to use your song in a commercial. You say yes, the drummer says no, and thus there is no sync agreement.
Read more about what a sync agreement is here..
– Always think carefully about who should have the rights in the work you register, and how these should be distributed. This should be based on who created the music, not who is in the band. If you are unsure about what is correct, call Member Service rather than taking a chance, says Storo.
It is important to register rights correctly the first time. TONO can only make changes to registered works with the consent of all rights holders.
You can read more about how to distribute percentages in a work. here..
As of spring 2019, TONO has more than 32,500 members. Over the past 10 years, around 1500 new members have been added each year.
– Recruitment has been a core issue for us in recent years. As a TONO member, you as a music writer receive income that you would otherwise have missed out on, and the more members we have in TONO, the stronger we are as an organization, emphasizes Storo.
Member Services works actively to build relationships with members and the music industry. TONO will increase knowledge about copyright and create greater awareness of rights among those who write music.
The department gives lectures at educational institutions, and plays an active role in TONO's participation in events such as by:Larm, Trondheim Calling and songwriting camps.
TONO also has reciprocal agreements with approximately 80 other management companies in other countries, which together cover well over 100 different countries and territories.
–If these companies are notified that your music has been used, they send us a bill for this, which we then pay out to you.
Both TONO membership and TONO's member service are completely free. This is not necessarily the case with management companies in other countries. There are other good reasons to keep your TONO membership even if you move abroad.
– I can promise that we at Member Service go to great lengths to be a resource for both authors and music publishers – regardless of whether the member resides in Norway or abroad.
