Finland lives on creativity!

Our objectives for the 2027–2031 parliamentary term

Culture plays a key role as a support for the vitality, comprehensive security and well-being of Finland as a whole.

Finnish culture makes us who we are and strengthens our sense of belonging in both good and challenging times. In addition, the growth of the creative industries accelerates economic renewal, creates new jobs and increases exports.   Music enriches the whole country – both large cities and small towns, as well as children and older adults alike.

Every euro invested in culture produces multiple times the added value to the national economy, not to mention the countless other benefits of arts and culture. An investment in Finnish culture is also an investment in the future of Finland. At the same time, the regulation of the sector should also be reformed with a forward-looking approach that safeguards the future of music and artistic freedom. This will ensure that people will continue to be able to enjoy Finnish music in Finland and abroad.

1. Secure the funding and structures of Finnish music

The music industry is changing in many ways. Listening, decision-making power and cash flows are concentrated on the platforms of global digital giants, which increases uncertainty and threatens to undermine the diversity of music and artistic freedom. This means that Finland must take action to secure the future of Finnish music and its creators.

The Cultural Policy Report and the growth strategy for the creative economy outline measures to secure the future of Finnish culture. It is essential to strengthen the funding base for arts and culture, as well as create more opportunities for creators to earn money and engage in business, and for Finnish creators to present their work.

• Strengthen the financing and growth measures of the creative industries in accordance with the Cultural Policy Report. This includes increasing the predictability of funding for arts and culture through funding plans that span multiple years. Draw up a long-term programme to increase the culture budget to one per cent of the national budget.
• Promote the implementation of the Cultural Policy Report and the growth strategy for the creative economy in various branches of government, such as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
• Reform the private copying levy system so that it complies with EU legislation and is similar to other EU Member States’ systems.
• Strengthen the role of established players and those receiving central government transfers as drivers of the entire cultural sector. Promote their cooperation with artists, freelancers and companies, focusing especially on today’s Finnish music.

2. Place the creative industries at the heart of industrial policy

The creative industries offer a great opportunity to improve the state of the Finnish economy. According to the OECD, the growth of the creative industries clearly exceeds the growth figures of most other industries. However, Finland still needs to do some work to catch up: in Sweden, for example, the turnover of companies in the creative industries is more than double that of Finland.

The objective of the growth strategy for the creative economy is for the creative industries to be one of the key industries that create growth and well-being. Copyrights are intangible assets that scale infinitely in the digital world. This potential should also be unlocked in Finland by placing the creative industries at the heart of industrial policy. Currently, growth is hampered by the inability to take into account the special characteristics of the creative industries and to invest in intangible value. Funding and development measures in the creative industries should therefore be directed towards concrete, value-creating activities.

• Continue the implementation of the growth strategy for the creative economy together with companies in the sector. Identify the special characteristics of the music industry and other content-driven industries, such as value creation through copyright.
• Facilitate the funding paths of creative industry companies by updating the criteria for business subsidies and their interpretation in cooperation with Business Finland. Draw up new funding solutions that take into account the valuation of intangible assets, sole proprietorship and network-like working methods.
• Develop a Finnish key project related to the creative content business that accelerates both public and private investments in the development, production, export and marketing of creative content.
• Increase the role of the creative industries as part of the country brand by launching a programme to promote cultural exports and making the creative industries a key objective of Team Finland’s export work.
• Boost domestic demand and improve the operating conditions of companies by returning the value added tax on culture products to 10%.
• Facilitate the growth of companies in the creative industries by reforming the taxation of copyright income and making it similar to that of Sweden. If this was done, the creator would be able to choose whether to receive the copyright income as earned income or as income from business activities for their business, which would allow them to use it to develop operations and employ people.

3. Ensure that the rights of creators are respected as technology develops

Music generates significant intangible benefits and economic value for a wide range of actors. However, the rapid development of technology is a challenge to keeping regulations up to date, which weakens the position of the creators of culture in relation to the companies that benefit from their work. In AI-based services in particular, creative works are often used without permission or compensation, breaching copyright regulations. This threatens the sustainability of the entire creative sector and the vitality of Finnish culture. For this reason, it is essential to ensure fair and clear rules for the creators of creative content in the digital operating environment.

The principle is clear: the use of the work requires the author’s permission and appropriate compensation. This right is only realised if regulation is up-to-date and enforcement is effective. Much of the regulation is done at the EU level, but Finland is responsible for ensuring its effective implementation and enforcement. Sufficient resources and expertise must be guaranteed to the public administration so that Finland can be a pioneer in EU influencing, cooperation between authorities and national regulation. Otherwise, we will be left behind in the midst of rapid technological development.

• Defend strong copyright protection and the realisation of creators’ rights both at the EU level and in Finland – also with regard to AI. Effectively monitor the implementation of regulation. Ensure sufficient resources for the development and enforcement of regulation.
• Ensure access to information and adequate investigative means in the fight against copyright infringement. Increase the maximum punishment for copyright infringement to the level of other Nordic countries. 
• Obligate content sharing services to measure and increase diversity and to diversify their content offering to include smaller genres and language areas.

4. Ensure that creative workers also have the right to social security

The welfare state’s social safety net must also support artists and cultural professionals, regardless of the way in which they practise their profession. A key challenge is the overly strict separation of unemployed people, employees and entrepreneurs, which results in many people falling through the cracks. Artists and creative workers tend to be categorised as entrepreneurs, which in practice prevents them from receiving some social benefits altogether. Even just looking for earning opportunities or accepting occasional commissions may lead to unemployment benefit being denied altogether. Such inactivity traps must be removed so that activity is always profitable.

The social security criteria must be updated so that the social safety net also supports people who do not work full-time – including Finns whose income comes from several different sources or is otherwise difficult to predict and irregular. In the future, there will be more people like this outside the creative industries as well.

• Guarantee equal access to unemployment benefits and pension security for small business owners and self-employed people by removing barriers to accessing social security. Specify benefits criteria that, for example, do not sufficiently take variable earnings and being a small business owner into consideration.
• Reform the pension system for entrepreneurs so that at least the YEL contributions of entrepreneurs with low or medium incomes would be based on actual income instead of calculated YEL income.
• Make all work profitable by ensuring that one’s own activity does not result in the loss of social security. Inactivity traps that make part-time entrepreneurship difficult must be removed and the exempt parts of unemployment benefit must be restored.
• Ensure that decisions on social security are based on information about the person’s actual employment and income – even in situations where income is accumulated from several different sources of income in an irregular fashion. The person’s own report should be trusted. This applies both to the determination of YEL contributions and to the interpretation of the accumulation of the work requirement.

Contact us for more information

• Iiris Suomela, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, tel. 050 514 4778, iiris.suomela@teosto.fi
• Vappu Aura, Director, Communications, Marketing and Public Relations, Teosto, tel. 050 560 4450, vappu.aura@teosto.fi
• Vappu Verronen, Executive Director, Suomen Säveltäjät, tel. 040 500 5905, vappu.verronen@composers.fi
• Pauliina Lerche, Chair, Suomen Musiikintekijät, tel. 040 736 3529, pauliina.lerche@musiikintekijat.fi
• Jari Muikku, Executive Director, Suomen Musiikkikustantajat, tel. 040 719 7480, jari.muikku@musiikkikustantajat.fi