Teosto’s December distribution totals EUR 12.2 million
Today, Teosto has paid a total of EUR 12.2 million in royalties to composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers in its December distribution. Of the total, EUR 4.9 million is paid to Teosto’s direct and domestic members. The effect of COVID-19 can still be seen in the distribution, but, all in all, the distribution is slightly larger than that of last December.
Teosto collects royalties from public performances, broadcasting and reproduction of domestic and foreign music and distributes them to the rightsholders of the music: composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers. The royalties being distributed now were mainly collected for music used in concerts, radio, television, as background music, in online services and in Yle Areena in April–June 2021.
The distribution also includes royalties from
- use of music abroad
- Video-on-Demand services
- In addition, Teosto distributes royalties that it was not able to pay earlier due to issues such as incomplete or missing work notifications (“unconfirmed works”)
The effect of COVID-19 is still evident, especially in royalties from live music and royalties from abroad
Just like last year, public performances, such as concerts, amounted to a very small share of all royalties as a result of COVID-19 – the share is only about a fifth of that for 2019, the last normal year. In early summer 2021, music events were still restricted to a large extent, which can be seen in the income of music authors.
On the other hand, royalties were increased by, for example, the growing use of music in Video-on-Demand and Online services. Video-on-Demand royalties are also increased by the royalties put aside in 2015–2019 due to incomplete information about the music used, which are now being paid in one lump sum.
“Even though the situation has been somewhat better in autumn 2021, the effect of COVID-19 on royalties paid to music authors and publishers will continue to be felt for a long time. The growing online use of music will not make up for the huge losses for live music caused by the COVID-19 restrictions,” says Teosto’s CEO Risto Salminen.
Distributions from abroad also show a significant decline compared to last year. In royalties from abroad, the effect of COVID-19 will become evident after a longer delay and is largely dependent of the schedules of Teosto’s international partner organisations. Some distributions from abroad are also missing from the December distribution due to unexpected technical problems in the distribution process. The problems are being dealt with and the missing amounts will be paid in the next distribution in March 2022.
The total distribution to music authors is slightly larger than last year
Despite the fall in distributions from abroad, the December 2021 distribution is slightly better than that of the corresponding period last year. The December 2020 distribution totalled EUR 11.8 million, of which EUR 5.4 million was paid to Teosto’s domestic and direct customers.
The royalties distributed in December 2021 have been collected for the following categories of rights:
| Category of rights | December 2021 M€ | December 2020 M€ |
| Radio ja TV | 5,3 | 5,2 |
| Public performance | 1,2 | 1,1 |
| Internet (online) | 4,0 | 2,7 |
| Reproduction | 0,6 | 0,8 |
| Multiple (foreign countries, corrections) | 1,1 | 2,0 |
| Total | 12,2 | 11,8 |
Distributions are made four times a year
You can find out more about Teosto’s distributions on the Distributions page
The total amount distributed by Teosto varies depending on how comprehensively royalties can be collected in each music use area, and how quickly these can be allocated to the work to which they belong. Allocating the royalties requires work notifications submitted by music authors to Teosto for their own work as well as performance notifications or music use reports submitted by music performers and users.
The amount paid to an individual author depends on how many times their works have been performed and the author’s share of the royalty to be paid for the work. The amount varies from a couple of euros to thousands of euros. Teosto is constantly working on speeding up the royalty collection process so that royalties can be distributed as soon as possible after the music has been performed.
Teosto distributes royalties to its member composers, lyricists, arrangers and publishers four times a year. After December 2021, the next distribution will be made on 24 March 2022.