Administering Your Rights

When music rights are automatically self-administered, there is no need to submit a separate notification to Teosto regarding the removal of rights. However, you should always submit a work notification, as in some situations Teosto will also take care of certain rights and royalties for music within the scope of automatic self-administration.

• Game music = music that is played “inside” a game as a part of it.
• Intensive use of music* = for example team songs, theme music, etc.
• Grand rights = the performance of original music composed specifically for a work performed on stage (such as opera or ballet) in its original (stage) context
• Stage music compliant with publishers’ criteria = so-called small rights works (music not specially written for performances) combined from existing works originally composed for a purpose other than for the stage performance in question. PLEASE NOTE! Publishers’ criteria apply only to published music

When it comes to automatic self-administration, you (or your publisher)

• negotiate the conditions and remuneration for the use of your music
• invoice the royalties when your music is used
• take care of debt collection, if necessary

More information about stage music:

*The use of music is intensive when, for example, an event, phenomenon, item or work of art is so essentially built on using a certain musical work/works that the work or its author (a person) is associated with the event, phenomenon, item or work of where the music is used. The intensive use of music includes, for example, sports team songs and theme music for companies, products or services.

In some cases, the granting of music synchronisation rights is, as a rule, self-administered, but music performing and reproduction rights are still administered by Teosto or Teosto/NCB. In other words, we collect royalties for the performance and reproduction of your music even if you (or your publisher) have agreed on the incorporation of the music in AV or stage content.

In the context of synchronisation, automatically self-administered music use cases for both existing and commissioned music include

• use of music in feature-length films, short films and documentaries in cinema distribution
• use of music in TV drama series shown outside the Nordic countries

Always submit a work notification also for commissioned music, for which you agree on the commission fee and the synchronisation royalty yourself. Without a work notification, we cannot allocate and distribute to you the performing right and reproduction royalties we collect for the use of the work. Also make sure that the production company’s cue sheet is filled in correctly with regard to music-related information.

If you want to self-administer not only the synchronisation rights but also the performing and reproduction rights in the above-mentioned situations, you must separately remove these rights from Teosto’s administration.

We can also provide the automatic self-administration of synchronisation as a service

Teosto’s partner Nordisk Copyright Bureau NCB offers a service for music authors and publishers who do not want to agree on the use of their music themselves, even if this is a situation that falls within the scope of automatic self-administration.

You can separately ask NCB to handle the invoicing of licensing and synchronisation rights according to its public price list. For direct contact details, see the Contact us section.

NCB’s commission for the service is 18% of the synchronisation royalty. The commission is deducted at the time of distribution and it is not invoiced separately. See NCB’s price list.

For music used in advertisements, the granting of synchronisation and reproduction rights is, as a rule, self-administered, but its performing rights are still administered by Teosto. In other words, we collect royalties for the performance of your music even if you (or your publisher) have agreed on the incorporation of the music in an advertisement and the reproduction of the music.

The self-administration of synchronisation and reproduction rights applies to both existing and commissioned music.

Always submit a work notification also for music used in advertisements. Without a work notification, we cannot allocate and distribute to you the performing right royalties we collect for the use of the music. Also, make sure that the advertisement production company that uses your music reports the music-related information of the advertisement in Spotgate, a joint service for all commercial TV channels. Also ask for the Spotgate ID number, which is unique to the advertisement: you will need it if the production company for some reason does not enter the music-related information in Spotgate.

If you want to self-administer not only the synchronisation and reproduction rights but also the performing rights in the above-mentioned situations, you must separately remove these rights from Teosto’s administration.

Production music is theme or background music that is intended for professional use and that you can sell for any audio or AV production. It has been made for use in, for example, radio and TV advertisements, TV programmes, films, corporate videos and websites. Production music is also known as catalogue music or library music.

For production music, you administer the synchronisation rights of the work and the reproduction rights for physical reproduction (CD, DVD).

However, Teosto still administers the performing rights royalties for production music, in other words, we collect these royalties and distribute them to you even if you take care of the synchronisation licences and invoicing.

The online reproduction rights for production music (rights related to so-called server copies of operators’ network PVR services) also remain under Teosto’s administration. We collect the performing right and reproduction royalties of server copies from service providers for production music, too, and distribute them to you.

How do I register my work as production music?

1. Submit a usual work notification for the work you have created for use as production music.
2. Once the work notification has been processed and the work has been entered to the international work database (2–5 working days), register it as production music in our web service. Go to Works section and click the Self-administration tab and report the work as production music.

If the work has other authors in addition to you, you must ensure that all authors of the work and its publisher, if any, are aware of and approve the registration of the work as production music. When you register your work as production music, you

• negotiate the conditions and remuneration for the synchronisation of your music
• invoice the royalties when your music is used
• take care of debt collection, if necessary

In other words, Teosto/NCB does not collect or distribute to you any synchronisation or reproduction royalties for the physical copies of the work in question.

Catalogue sales concern the author’s entire music catalogue. In this case, all of the author’s commercial copyrights (performing and reproduction rights) to the works are transferred to the buyer of the catalogue.

In catalogue sales, the author first removes all their rights from Teosto and moves them to self-administration. The author then agrees with the buyer on the transfer of rights with an agreement. The sales transaction concerns the author’s entire catalogue, in other words, all of the author’s existing and potential future works.

After the sales transaction, the buyer of the catalogue can enter into a new agreement with Teosto, on the basis of which Teosto collects royalties for the catalogue’s music and distributes them to the buyer.

If you wish, you can completely remove one or more categories of rights from Teosto’s administration. In this case, we will not represent your works in the category of rights at all. Instead, you can decide on the use of your works yourself or you can allow another party to administer that particular category of rights.

You may also remove your rights from Teosto’s administration to a limited extent, which means that Teosto may represent all of your rights in the geographical area, continent or countries of your choice, but another party – for example, a copyright society in another country – may represent the rights you remove in other geographical areas, continents or countries.

Consent from other rightholders is not required if the removed category of rights is transferred to an organisation that meets the criteria for reliable administration (generally other known copyright societies). In other cases, you are strongly recommended to get consent from the other rightholders in order to avoid claims from them.

Self-administration of categories of rights and geographical areas can also be done in a mixed way, i.e. you can self-administer certain categories of rights in the country of your choice and either handle licences and invoicing yourself or leave them to the copyright society of that country by becoming a member of the society. This may make sense if a significant portion of your royalties come from a country other than Finland.

The categories of rights are:

• Performing (public performance of music to an audience either as a live performance or from a recording)
• Radio and TV (transmitting music to the public by radio or television broadcasts, regardless of the technical method of the broadcast)
• Internet (transmitting music to the public online, excluding radio and television broadcasts)
• Reproduction (the right to reproduce music and distribute recordings)
• Synchronisation (adding music to a moving image for mass use)

If you remove a category of rights or a geographical area from Teosto’s administration, Teosto/NCB will no longer grant licenses for the use your works and will not collect and distribute royalties to you for the use of your music in that category of rights or geographical area.

If you wish to remove a category of rights or a geographical area from Teosto’s administration, please contact our customer service. Notifications of self-administration will take effect twice a year on 30 June (notification submitted between 1 January and 30 June) and 31 December (notification submitted between 1 July and 31 December).

If you wish, you can completely remove one or more of your works from Teosto’s administration. The complete removal of the work applies to all rights: performing, reproduction and synchronisation rights.

The option to remove the work completely applies only to composers, lyricists and publishers who are members of Teosto.

A work cannot be completely removed if one or more of its rightholders are author or publisher members of other copyright societies whose membership agreement does not allow the removal of an individual work from the society’s administration.

If your work has other authors or publishers, i.e. rightholders, they must all give their consent to the removal of the work. This means that you cannot remove rights to a work from Teosto’s administration just for yourself.

If you remove a work from the administration of Teosto, Teosto/NCB will no longer grant licences for the use of the work and will not collect and distribute royalties to you for the use of the work in Finland or abroad.

If you wish to remove the whole work from Teosto’s administration, you must notify us of the removal in the Self-administration tab of the Works page in our web service. The removal will take effect 30 days after all rightholders of the work have confirmed the removal. The removal of the work will remain valid until further notice.

The composer, lyricist and publisher of the work may, if they so wish, grant a licence for one or more of their works for a specific live music event or occasion.

If one or more works to be performed at the event have other authors or publishers, i.e. rightholders, in addition to you, they must also all give their consent to the granting of a licence.

When you remove your rights from Teosto’s administratin for an individual event and self-administer your rights, you must agree on the price and conditions for the use of your work for that event, and take care of the invoicing for royalties and any collection measures. Teosto will not collect or distribute to you any performing rights royalties for the use of your music at the event.

Report the granting of a licence in our web service in the Self-administration tab on the Works page. The licence granted by you applies only to the performance of the works. The licence will be valid only at the event for which it was granted and only for a specified period of time.

If you wish, you can grant a licence for one or more of your works to a specific AV production for those rights that are not already in automatic self-administration.

If your work also has other authors or publishers, i.e. rightholders, you can only grant licences to an individual AV production if all the composers, lyricists and publishers of the work consent to it and approve it.

Teosto/NCB will not grant licenses for the use of the work nor collect and distribute royalties to you for the use of the work in Finland or abroad when it comes to rights that are automatically self-administered or for which you grant licences yourself.

Report the granting of a licence in our web service in the Self-administration tab on the Works page. The licence will be valid for a fixed period.

If you wish, you can grant a licence for the reproduction rights of your work for a specific recording. The licence will only apply to the reproduction rights of the work for a specific, named recording.

If your work also has other authors or publishers, i.e. rightholders, you can only grant a licence for the work’s reproduction rights for a specific recording if all the composers, lyricists and publishers of the work give their consent and approve it.

If you grant a licence for the reproduction of your work for a specific recording, you must agree on the price and terms for using your works, and take care of the invoicing for the royalties and any collection measures. Teosto/NCB will not collect and distribute royalties to you for the use of the work in Finland or abroad if you grant the licence yourself.

Report the granting of a licence in our web service in the Self-administration tab on the Works page. The licence will be valid for a fixed period of one year.

If you are a direct member of Teosto, you can grant a licence for the non-commercial use of one or more of your works.

However, this only applies to your rights: if the work has other authors or publishers, they have the right to decide whether or not they also wish to remove their own rights concerning non-commercial use from Teosto’s administration.

You must separately notify Teosto of the granting of a licence for non-commercial use and also notify any other authors and publishers of the work.

If you wish to grant a licence for non-commercial use for one or more of your works at a specific event, you must notify us of this no later than 30 days before the event. Please notify our customer service about the licence.

Learn more about licensing on music in stage performances

If you wish to return previously removed works or works we have not previously administered to Teosto’s administration, please contact our customer service.

• If you are the composer, lyricist or publisher of a work and a Teosto member, you can agree on the self-administration of your work by a joint decision of all the authors of the work. The arranger cannot move the work to self-administration.
• When you self-administer your works, you agree on the terms, conditions and prices of the use of your works according to the type of self-administration you choose. You also invoice the royalties for the use of your works and take care of any debt collection. Teosto does not collect or distribute to you royalties for your works’ rights that you administer yourself. We also do not take care of debt collection on your behalf, for example.
• The removal of a work from Teosto’s administration to self-administration applies to the performing, reproduction and synchronisation rights of the work – either all or some of them.
• All authors and publishers of the works must be Teosto members. Arrangers cannot remove works for self-administration.
• You can simultaneously be a Teosto member and administer some of your works, either entirely or on a use instance basis.

• You can move rights to self-administration when, in addition to you, all the other composers, lyricists and publishers of the work are Teosto members.
• You cannot move your work to self-administration if it also has other authors or publishers, some of whom have an agreement with another country’s copyright organisation.

• You can move your work to self-administration either entirely or on a use instance basis, when, in addition to you, all other composers, lyricists and publishers of your work consent to this.
• All composers, lyricists and publishers of the work must be Teosto members.
• Please notify Teosto of the self-administration of your work in writing by submitting a notification of self-administration to us in our web service no later than 30 days before the desired self-administration start date.
• If you wish to return your work to Teosto’s administration, please notify the Teosto customer service.

New works

As a rule, when you become our member, you assign the rights to all your works, including your future works, to Teosto’s administration.  As our member, you must submit a work notification to us for your new works even if you intend to move them to self-administration immediately afterwards or later. The operating model is the same for moving works to self-administration both entirely and on a use instance basis. We need this information in order to allocate the distributions correctly.

If you wish to move your new work to self-administration, first submit a normal work notification and then a notification of self-administration either in our web service. If you wish to return your work to Teosto’s administration, please contact our customer service to notify us.

Self-administration of the original work and all the different versions of the work should be requested separately. It is possible to move an arranged version under self-administration even when the original work remains under Teosto’s administration and vice versa. It is also possible to move a work with a joint decision of the composer, lyricist and publisher even when the arranger does not consent to self-administration.   ​

No, it is not. Licences cannot be granted for works whose rightholders include members of other copyright organisations, unless the membership agreements of these organisations also allow the granting of licences for individual works outside the organisation’s administration.