Support for Internationalisation
We collect royalties around the world and contribute to the international success of Finnish music.
Composer-producer Tido
Member of Teosto since 2015
As our member, you will be paid royalties also when your music is played abroad. We have a wide international network, and we will provide services and advise you as you build your international career.
Royalty distributions from all over the world
We take care of selling the rights related to the performance and reproduction of your music and collecting royalties almost everywhere in the world.
- Performing rights are administered by foreign copyright organisations: we have around 80 reciprocal representation agreements that cover over 100 countries.
- Reproduction rights are administered under Nordic Copyright Bureau NCB’s reciprocal representation and cooperation agreements.
- Licensing related to international online services is handled by our joint venture Polaris Hub and practical matters associated with their reporting and distribution are taken care of by Network of Music Partners NMP.
Based on the agreements, our foreign partners collect royalties in their countries also for the music of Teosto members and distribute the royalties to us. We pay royalties to you in Teosto’s distributions.
We are here to help and support you
Through Teosto, you are also part of the global music community as a music author. With the help of our networks, we ensure that your rights are protected wherever your music is played.
We provide all our members with an international author identity (an IPI number), and ISWC codes for their works, so that the works can be identified anywhere in the world.
With our easy-to-use web service, you can take care of all the most important matters related to your music and royalties 24/7. In the web service, you can easily submit work notifications related to the registration of new works and performance notifications for live performances abroad. In the service, you can also track your distributions: you can see the sources of the royalties collected for an individual piece of music and submit complaints for missing distributions, if necessary. On weekdays, you can also contact personal customer service by telephone and electronically.
We negotiate and conclude agreements on your behalf with media platforms and international online platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and TikTok. For these negotiations, we have established the joint Nordic organisation Polaris Music Hub, which has the negotiating power of several countries.
We offer service and support throughout your career in Finnish, Swedish and English. Together with our member organisations the Finnish Music Creators’ Association and the Society of Finnish Composers, we share information about different markets and the more precise logic of royalty collection. Our member organisations also offer advice on matters related to agreements, for example.
We offer contacts through our international network. We contribute to the funding of Music Finland, an organisation that focuses on exporting Finnish music and offers music professionals internationalisation training, export trips and showcase performances at both Finnish and international music events.
You can apply for grants and support from our member organisations the Finnish Music Creators’ Association and the Society of Finnish Composers. Different forms of internationalisation support are also offered by Music Finland and the Finnish Music Foundation, funded by Teosto. The Finnish Music Foundation MES also has an Instrument Bank, where you can borrow or lease various valuable instruments.
An entirely new support organisation, the Teosto Cultural Foundation, will start its operations at the end of 2024. Its operations will focus on areas such as supporting the diversity and internationality of music.
Key markets for Finnish music
Brief introductions of countries where Finnish music is played the most.
General
- Population: 84 million
- A major music country where people listen to a lot of music in a wide variety of genres
- Heavy and classical music have a significant position
- Strong event and concert culture, live performances emphasised in distributions
Copyright organisation GEMA
- GEMA operates in Germany and represents and licenses both performing and mechanisation rights
- Collects royalties for the public performance of music/the transmission of music to the audience
- Live
- On radio and TV and in cinemas
- In audio and AV media (digital and physical recordings)
- In national online services
- Licenses international online services through ICE Hub
- Also collects royalties for the reproduction of music
- Collection of royalties is comprehensive and similar to Teosto
Relationship between Teosto and GEMA
- Teosto signed its first reciprocal representation agreement with the predecessor of GEMA (GDT) in 1928
- The agreement with GEMA entered into force in 1945
- Distributes royalties to Teosto eight times a year, Teosto pays its members within six months of receiving the royalties from GEMA
General
- Population: 10.5 million
- Home of the streaming service pioneer Spotify
- A significant music export country, pop music plays a special role
- Finnish music is played mainly on radio and TV, a lot of Finnish-Swedish music
Copyright organisation Stim
- Stim operates in Sweden and only represents and licenses performing rights
- Collects royalties for the public performance of music/the transmission of music to the audience
- Live
- As background music
- On radio and TV and in cinemas
- In national online services
- Licenses international online services through ICE Hub
- Licenses reproduction rights (mechanisation) through NCB
- Collection of royalties is comprehensive and similar to Teosto
Relationship between Teosto and Stim
- The reciprocal representation agreement between Teosto and Stimi entered into force in 1964
- Good dialogue and a lot of cooperation
- Distributes royalties to Teosto eight times a year, Teosto pays its members within six months of receiving the royalties from Stim
General
- Population: 67 million
- A major music country with extensive, strong music culture
- A significant music exporter worldwide
- Pop music with lyrics in English features prominently in Finnish music played in the UK
Copyright organisation PRS
- One of the world’s largest copyright organisations
- PRS only represents and licenses performing rights
- Collects royalties for the public performance of music/the transmission of music to the audience
- Live
- On radio and TV and in cinemas
- As background music
- Licensing of background music through PPL PRS Ltd (cf. Gramex’s and Teosto’s joint venture GT Music Licences Ltd)
- In national online services, podcasts, downloads and ringtones
- Licenses international online services through ICE Hub
- Licenses reproduction rights (mechanisation) through MCPS
- Collection of royalties is comprehensive and similar to Teosto
Relationship between Teosto and PRS
- Teosto signed its first reciprocal representation agreement with PRS in 1957
- The current agreement with PRS entered into force in 2022
- Good dialogue and a lot of interaction
- Distributes royalties to Teosto four times a year, Teosto pays its members within six months of receiving the royalties from PRS
General
- Population: 67 million
- Strong government support to the cultural sector, both in budgets and through regulation
- French music has a significant position
- Finnish films and TV series are very successful
Copyright organisation SACEM
- One of the world’s largest copyright organisations
- SACEM only represents and licenses performing rights
- Collects royalties for the public performance of music/the transmission of music to the audience
- Live
- On radio and TV and in cinemas
- As background music
- In national online services, podcasts, downloads and ringtones
- In international online services
- Licenses reproduction (mechanisation) through SRDM
- Collection of royalties is comprehensive and similar to Teosto
Relationship between Teosto and SACEM
- Teosto signed its first reciprocal representation agreement with SACEM in 1932. It is Teosto’s oldest reciprocal representation agreement in force
- Distributes royalties to Teosto four times a year, Teosto pays its members within six months of receiving the royalties from SACEM
General
- Population: 332 million
- United States is the largest music market in the world, and collects the most royalties
- The United States has a strong domestic market, but it’s also a significant exporter of music
- There is a lot of competition and many profit-seeking actors in the copyright field
- US copyright law is different from that in Europe e.g. regarding the timespan of copyright protection and moral rights
Copyright societies ASCAP and BMI
- ASCAP and BMI are the largest copyright organizations in the United States
- They are also among the largest copyright organizations in the world
- They represent and license performing rights only
- Both collect royalties from the same sources as European organisations, with the exception of cinemas, which are not licensed at all in the United States
- ASCAP is a non-profit association and BMI is now a for-profit company
Teosto’s relations with US copyright organisations
- Teosto signed a reciprocity agreement with ASCAP already in 1952 and with BMI in 1953
- In addition, Teosto has a reciprocity agreement with SESAC
- Teosto members’ mechanisation royalties are collected from the United States through NCB, which has agreements with local operators
How to receive royalties from abroad
We take care of many matters on your behalf. However, there are some things you need to remember to do to receive royalties.
- Always submit work notifications as soon as possible after the completion of each work and at the latest before the work is published.
- Submitting a work notification is especially important when your music is published in streaming services. For example, Spotify attempts to identify songs that are published and streamed in the service as early as 14 days after they are published. If the work notification is missing, the payment of royalties to you will be postponed by almost a year.
- Submit performance notifications for your performances abroad. In some countries, the local promoter or event organiser may ask you to submit a performance notification to the local organisation, but you should also submit a notification to Teosto. This allows us to make sure that you receive the royalties you are entitled to.
- For performances in the USA, you need to submit both a performance notification and a separate application to the American organisation ASCAP, which takes care of the collection of royalties for live gigs and concerts.
- Submit a claim if your music is played on a foreign radio or TV channel, in a film shown in a cinema or in an online service, or if your music is published as a recording abroad.
- We send performance notifications submitted for live performances abroad as well as claims submitted to us to foreign copyright organisations in batches four times a year. This helps us ensure that foreign organisations collect our members’ royalties from their territory and forward them to us in Finland.
Membership in a foreign copyright organisation
If your music’s main market is outside Finland, you may also want to become a member of a copyright organisation in another country. This is possible under Teosto’s membership agreement. You can remove some countries or geographical areas from Teosto’s administration and assign the collection of royalties in these countries to another country’s organisation in order to receive royalties from that area faster. In other words, you can be a member in both Teosto and a foreign copyright organisation at the same time.
However, different organisations have their own licensing practices, distribution schedules and expense percentages, which may differ from those of Teosto. Different organisations may also have different restrictive regulations and schedules regarding the termination of a customer relationship or a membership. It is a good idea to learn more about these in advance.
We recommend you to first consider whether it is worthwhile for you to remove rights from Teosto as Teosto takes care of collecting royalties almost everywhere in the world. Our royalty collection is particularly efficient, fast and affordable in European countries.
- Teosto does not charge processing fees for royalties from other Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland).
- For royalties from other European countries, we charge a processing fee of only 3.5%.
- We collect royalties from the Nordic countries and other European countries faster and more affordably than a non-European organisation does.
How to start building an international career
- Be prepared to work hard and make efforts to develop your knowledge and professional competence.
- Learn more about your international audience and think about what you are good at and what sets you apart from others.
- Make contacts and network. Do not hesitate to ask help from more experienced people.
- Before approaching new people who you would like to work with, learn more about them: what kind of music do they make and how could your skills benefit them?
- Create a good CV and collect samples of your work on a platform to which you can easily share the link.
- Invest time and effort in your profiles and other social media visibility – Instagram is especially important.
- If you get invited to join sessions, be a trustworthy, hard-working and, above all, pleasant person to work with.
- Think about whether you could advance your career with the help of a publisher or a manager and get in touch with these people.
Want to know more?
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