Teosto’s COVID-19 funding applications are open 14–30 May 2021

Due to the restrictions imposed on culture and live music, copyright royalties paid to music authors and publishers have decreased. Teosto paid coronavirus financial support for the first time in late 2020. The restrictions were prolonged and it has become evident that the impacts of the pandemic on the distributions paid by Teosto will continue at least until late 2021.

That is why Teosto decided to open a new application round in its General Meeting.

The purpose of the funding is to alleviate the loss of income experienced by professional composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who can apply for financial support?

All creator and publisher members of Teosto are eligible to apply for coronavirus financial support this spring, including those members who received financial support during the first support round in December 2020 and those members whose application was rejected at the time.

Several changes have been made to the support round of this spring based on the feedback received by Teosto and its member organisations.

The total amount of the distributed coronavirus financial support has been increased to EUR 2 million. In addition, the scope of persons eligible for the support has been extended to acknowledge more consumption and distribution categories according to the areas that have been perceived to suffer from either direct or indirect impacts of the COVID-19 situation. The support criteria consist of remunerations paid to the applicant for these distribution categories between years 2018 and 2020.

Application criteria

• Teosto membership
• The amount of distributions paid during 2018–2020 must be at least EUR 1,500 (gross) for the selected distribution categories with the main categories of concerts and live events, commercial radio and television, background music, stage, cinema, Internet PVR services and Yleisradio (the Finnish Broadcasting Company).
• The support is intended for creative and artistic work in the music industry. That is why heirs or shareholders of a composer, lyricist or arranger cannot apply for the coronavirus financial support for music creators. Heirs or shareholders who publish music and are Teosto publisher members can apply for coronavirus financial support for music publishers.

Information about your distributions can be found on the web service of Teosto.

Information on the distributed financial support

• Based on similar criteria, publishers are paid financial support that is taxable income in accordance with the Act on the Taxation of Business Income.
• The lowest support amount is no less than EUR 300 and the highest is EUR 10,000.  Final amounts of support are determined by the number of applications received.
• The amount of support is applied to the previous distributions of the applicant in those distribution categories that are included in the support criteria.

How to apply

The financial support can be applied for through the Klaavi system at www.klaavi.fi (Teosto’s Coronavirus Support).

You don’t need to report your Teosto distributions on the application form. These will be automatically checked during the processing of applications. Other potential grants and financial support do not affect the coronavirus financial support.

You only need your Teosto member number in order to apply for the support. You can find your member number in our web service on the Customer Information tab after logging in. 

The support application is addressed to the Teosto member organisation fund through the Klaavi service, but the applicant does not have to be a member of any member organisation. The applicant only has to be a Teosto member.

The financial support is applied for as a person (music author) or company (music publisher). The support can only be applied for once using the same customer number. Several customer numbers cannot be combined in the same application (e.g. publisher catalogues); the support must be applied for separately with each customer number.

• A music authorcan apply for financial support from the Finnish Music Creators’ Association (Music Creators’ Fund) or the Sibelius Fund of the Society of Finnish Composers. The criteria for receiving financial support are the same for both funds.
• Music publishers can apply for financial support from the fund of the Finnish Music Publishers Association. The criteria for receiving financial support are the same as those of the funds that provide financial support to creators.
• A publishing company that is owned by a Teosto creator member and is a Teosto publisher member can apply for coronavirus financial support for music publishers. The applications of the creator member and the publishing company are processed and decided on separately.
• Creator members who use the “company model” can apply for the financial support for music authors.

Application processing and the payment of financial support

The applications are processed and approved by a committee appointed by Teosto’s Board of Directors that consists of composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers. The committee also includes Teosto office representatives.

The granted financial support will be paid by the end of June. We will inform each applicant of our decision personally over e-mail.

The funding will come from the Teosto Fund, which was established in 2009 to secure the continued promotion of Finnish musical arts.

Further information:

• Klaavi grant application system: www.klaavi.fi
• Customer service for coronavirus financial support: koronatuki@teosto.fi, tel. +358 (0)9 6810 1112. Open Mon-Fri 10 a.m.–8 p.m. and Sat 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Customer service is open 10 a.m.–8 p.m. on the last day of applications 30 May.