Teosto from a DIY Artist’s Perspective
Do you write and publish your own music without a publisher or record company? You are one of a growing group of music authors known by different titles: DIY artist, independent author, indie artist… Regardless of which title you relate to, becoming a Teosto member will be worth it for you as well.
If you make music for your own artist project or for others, being a member of a copyright society is absolutely essential: without a membership, you will not receive royalties from streaming services and live performances, as well as the radio and TV play of your music.
How does a DIY artist benefit from being a Teosto member?
The most important service Teosto provides to its members is royalties, which we collect from music users and pay to the music authors who are our members.
Teosto collects and distributes royalties related a work, i.e. a composition, lyrics or an arrangement. If you have already received money from streaming services (e.g. through a distributor), these payments do not include performing right royalties.
Streaming services will only pay you mechanical royalties related to the digital reproduction (recording). The services only pay performing right royalties for the work to copyright societies.
If you are not a member of a copyright society, you will also not receive any personal royalties for the performance of your music on radio, television, social media videos, live gigs or other events.
Pay attention to the distributor’s publisher share!
Some music distributors, i.e. aggregators, offer you the option (either as part of a basic service or for an additional fee) to use the aggregator’s own Publishing/Publishing Administration service. If you choose to use this service, you will also make the distributor the publisher of your work, which means that the aggregator will receive a significant share of the royalties.
However, you can also use the aggregator as a distributor of your music without the publishing service. When you join Teosto, you will receive your full copyright income (including from abroad) – without deducting the publisher’s share that goes to the aggregator.
Help and support at every stage of your career
In addition to royalty distribution, you will also gain access to our customer service, which will help you navigate the world of copyright. Many of our members have thanked us for the information we have given them when, for example, someone wants to use their music in advertising – or if their music starts to be played abroad.
You can reach our customer service by phone on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in addition to which our web service is open around the clock. You can also send an email to customer service when the telephone service is closed.
As our members, you will also be the first to know about our events and research results.
How to join Teosto
You can become a member of Teosto once at least one of your compositions, lyrics or arrangements has been publicly performed or published as a recording. Busking is also considered to be a public performance.
When you join Teosto, we will register you as an author in international work databases. When you join, you will receive an international author ID, i.e. IPI number, which will identify you as the author.
We will also register your works in international work databases, which gives them unique ISWC identifiers that are used around the world.
When you become a Teosto member, we will provide you with a list of your works that are already registered in the work databases. When these works are linked to your IPI number, you will also be able to receive royalties for up to two years for radio and TV play.
If you are publishing your music on streaming services, it is a good idea to join well before the release date so that you will have enough time to submit work notifications for the works to be published. The membership process will take a few business days, and you will not be able to submit the work notifications needed to register your works before you are a member.