Frequently Asked Questions

By signing Teosto’s membership agreement, you authorise us, as a rule, to administer all of your works globally. This means that we negotiate and agree on licences and royalties for the use of your music comprehensively in various contexts. Under this arrangement, you do not need to ensure whether parties that use your music have obtained a licence to use your music. We take care of this on your behalf under the terms of the membership agreement.

Subject to the terms of our membership agreement, music authors and publishers who are our members may remove categories of rights or geographical areas from our administration and administer their works themselves. If you notify us of choosing to self-administer your rights, you are responsible for negotiating the terms of use and royalties in question yourself.

Certain types of use are excluded from our membership agreement. These include game music and grand rights (e.g. opera, musicals) as well as the use of music in advertisements. Our membership agreement also does not cover graphic rights. This means that if your sheet music or lyrics are printed or shown visually, you — or, alternatively, your music publisher — are responsible for the licensing involved.

You need to submit a work notification and performance notification via our web service.  We also need your tax information, which you can update on our web service.

The membership fee is €100 + VAT (24%), or €124 in total. The membership fee is payable upon joining. The membership fee is a one-time fee. There are no annual fees.

Many enterprises and organisations use music created by others to promote their business or to entertain their target audience in connection with e.g. events and customer meetings. Royalties are a form of remuneration paid to music authors for their work and they represent an important source of income for professional music authors.

Creating music often involves various expenses, such as studio and production costs, equipment rental, the music author’s time or time spent together at a song camp, and marketing. The royalties paid for a piece of music are often divided between many different professionals; for example, the composer, lyricist, arranger, producer, singer and musicians.

As a rule, a licence for the use of music is required whenever music protected by copyright is performed in public at an event or in a media channel or when reproductions (recordings) are made of it. You can find more information on copyright on this page.

A licence is not required for the private use of music. Private use includes listening to music alone or with family and friends at home. People also do not need to obtain a licence for playing music in events attended by family and friends, such as weddings, birthday parties, naming ceremonies and funerals.

Band members get paid for their work by their employer, i.e. the restaurant or booking agency. A band may perform music created by many different music authors, including composers and lyricists.

Royalties paid for live music events represent an important source of income for music authors, i.e. those who created the music that is performed. Music authors may not perform live themselves. Instead, they make music for others to perform.

When a restaurant pays performing right royalties to Teosto, we divide the money between the music authors, i.e. the composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers whose music was performed.

In other words, the performers get paid directly by the restaurant and the music authors get paid through Teosto.

According to Spotify’s terms of use, Spotify is only intended to be used for personal and non-commercial entertainment. This means that music from Spotify cannot be played in public in companies, including webinars, restaurants, shops and dance schools.

Background music for offices and customer premises is provided by e.g. Soundtrack Your Brand and Streamec as well as the Finnish operators Maestro Pro, Audience First and Mood Media. To obtain a licence for background music from Teosto and Gramex, please visit the Musiikkiluvat.fi website.

Yes, you do. When a video with music is published by e.g. a company, non-profit organisation or education institution, a licence is always required for using music in the video. If the video is a news feature about an event or performance, you can request a licence from Teosto.

If a company or other organisation uses music in an advertisement, film or other video published on YouTube that involves monetisation, it is necessary to request a licence.

If you publish a video on YouTube with music that has been published digitally or as a recording (so-called phonogram music), you also need a licence from the publisher of the recording, which is usually the record label.

You don’t need a separate licence to use music in your video. As part of the agreement between Teosto and YouTube, you have a licence from music authors and publishers to use their music. YouTube and Teosto also ensure that the music authors and publishers receive their royalties.

Royalties are paid in accordance with the agreement signed by Teosto and YouTube. The payment of royalties is subject to the following conditions:

• YouTube’s Content ID system must identify the piece of music from videos uploaded on YouTube
• The Content ID must link the piece of music with a reference file uploaded by the YouTube Music Partner
• Teosto must identify the piece of music from music reports sent by YouTube

If no fee is charged from the audience for live streaming

If free live streaming takes place on for example on Youtube, Instagram or Facebook, no licence is required. Teosto already has an licensing agreement with those platforms.

If your free live stream is broadcasted on another platform, you will need a Minor Media Licence from Teosto. Read more: Minor Media Licence

What is the size of the audience for your performance?

Minor Media Licence covers gigs and concerts up to 2000 spectators. If your audience is over 2,000 people, then you should get Live-streaming licence

If you also intend to make a recording or video 

If the live stream is also recorded, permission is required for all platforms.

If live streaming is subject to a fee
Get a Live-streaming licence from Teosto. With the licence, you have the right to live stream content with music for consumers subject to a fee. Any donations requested from viewers and/or revenue from sponsors also fall within the scope of fee-based operations. For an additional fee, the licence provides the right to retain a live stream recording for on-demand viewing for 7 days.

For further information, please contact our media licensing team: medialicensing@teosto.fi

Teosto represents the creative authors of music, i.e. composers, lyricists and arrangers as well as music publishers. Teosto grants licences for the use of music on their behalf and collects royalties for distribution for the use of live and recorded music.

Gramex represents the artists who perform on a recording as well as the producers of the recording and collects royalties on their behalf.

In Finland, copyright covers the author’s life and 70 years from the end of the year the author passes away.

Arranging an existing composition is subject to the composer’s permission and translating lyrics is subject to the original lyricist’s permission. Copyright covers the author’s life and 70 years from the end of the year the author passes away. Teosto’s customer service can advise you on where to submit your request for permission in each case and help you find the necessary contact information. Decisions on arrangements of public domain works are made by Teosto’s Repertoire Committee.

Finnish works

• The licence is granted by: the author, publisher or the author’s heirs/shareholders
• If you are a Teosto member, you can find information on our web service under “General work search”.
• Please notify our customer service of the licence you have obtained and the royalty shares, if applicable: the publisher or composer of the work will submit a work notification for your arrangement.

Foreign works

Permission to arrange a foreign work, translate lyrics or produce new localised lyrics is usually granted by the publisher that holds the publishing rights for the work in question for the Finnish market. If there is no such publisher, you need to request permission from the original publisher of the work or directly from its authors.

• The permission is usually granted by the publisher of the work (compose your e-mail message in English)
• As a Teosto member, you can find more information on our web service under “General work search”
• You can find contact information on the publisher’s website.
• Provide as much information as possible in your permit enquiry: for what purpose is the arrangement or translation made (performance, recording, etc.), who has made the arrangement or translation and who will perform it. Also send the arrangement so the recipient can listen to it, or explain whether the translation corresponds to the original lyrics or it has been adapted, and if it has, to what extent has it been adapted.
• If you are a Teosto member, notify us of the permission you have received and any royalty shares, if applicable. Send the permission you have received to us by e-mail at omateosto@teosto.fi