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Nordic CMOs Discontinue Polaris Hub Alliance
The Nordic collective management organizations (CMOs) Koda (Denmark), Teosto (Finland) and Tono (Norway) have decided to discontinue their joint venture, Polaris Hub, established in 2019, to licence digital music services. Moving forward, the three CMOs will independently explore other solutions for the licencing of their repertoires to digital music services. “It is crucial for TONO to secure the best possible agreements with music streaming services, and we are already well underway in assessing new partners for licencing our rights to music streaming platforms”, says CEO of TONO, Karl Vestli.
/ 27/08/2025 / Willy MartinsenOn behalf of the three owner organizations as well as Icelandic STEF, the Polaris Hub has, since 2018, negotiated competitive licensing agreements, developed innovative solutions, and streamlined processes, resulting in strong agreements, reduced costs, and efficient administration.
The licencing agreements entered into under the joint venture include major global platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Apple Music, Tidal, SoundCloud, TikTok, and others.
After careful analyses, the organizations have nonetheless concluded that in today´s increasingly competitive, complex and scale-driven music ecosystem, cooperation on a Nordic scale is no longer sufficient. The Board of Polaris Hub has accordingly decided to initiate a phased wind down of the venture in an orderly manner around the turn of 2025–2026.
This also opens up the door to new strategic opportunities. It is crucial for TONO to secure the best possible aggreements with music streaming services and platforms. TONO is aready well underway in exploring alternative solutions. The goal is to strenghten our international licensing and to secure even better agreements.
“We are deeply grateful to Erik Brataas and his team at Polaris hub for securing the best possible terms for rights holders in agreements with the major streaming services and platform companies. Looking ahead, we will seek even stronger alliances, reaching well beyond the Nordics. Both we and our members will also depend on more and better data to track music usage across services, with greater precision. We are confident that we will achieve this through new and larger-scale collaborations”, says Karl Vestli, CEO of TONO.
As part of the Polaris collaboration, Network of Music Partners (NMP) has handled data administration, reporting, and invoicing for digital music services on behalf of the four rights organizations. NMP has carried out these tasks with great professionalism, for which the organizations are grateful. In connection with the discontinuation of Polaris Hub, the agreement will however also be concluded.
Although the Polaris Hub will be discontinued at the turn of the year, the licensing agreements entered into under the company will remain in effect until the expiry of their contract periods. The rightholders’ royalties will be collected and distributed in the ordinary manner by new partners.
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