General principles for TONO’s deductions from rights revenues (including “cultural funds”) and any revenues from the investment of rights revenues

Last amended at the Annual Meeting on 10 June 2025

1. General principles for deductions for administrative costs

TONO deducts an amount from the collected remuneration to cover its administrative costs.  Pursuant to the Norwegian Collective Management Act, the deduction cannot exceed TONO’s justified and documented costs in connection with rights management.

These costs include TONO’s overall rights management activities, including licensing, distributions, documentation of works, staff functions and day-to-day operations.

The use of resources for the area and the associated processing must be in reasonable proportion to the revenue in the area or the specific performances.

Administrative costs are different for the different revenue areas. To reflect this, TONO can differentiate the deduction of administrative costs for different types of use and distribution areas according to the cost level for the individual areas.  This is stated in TONO’s annual transparency report.

2. General principles for deductions for cultural funds

a. Deductions for cultural funds

In accordance with Article 58 of TONO’s Articles of Association, up to 8% of TONO’s net income is set aside each year for cultural purposes.

Deductions for cultural funds are not made for income from abroad, mechanical rights or private copying compensation.

b. Allocation of the funds

Article 58 of TONO’s Articles of Association stipulate that the cultural funds are to be used as follows:

“a) Two-thirds are to be spent on promoting national music-culture objectives through the group associations. In order to carry out tasks to promote Norwegian creative music and Norwegian musical works, as well as for other special objectives, the funds are to be distributed according to the following ratio: Norwegian Society of Composers and Lyricists (NOPA) 45% – the Norwegian Society of Composers (Norsk Komponistforening) 35% – The Norwegian Music Publishers’ Association (Norsk Musikkforleggerforening) 20%.
Before the amount is paid out, the associations must provide a written account of the main features of what the funds will be used for and enclose their financial statements and directors’ report for the previous year. The Board may ask for additional information before payment takes place.

Control of the use of the funds falls to the Control Committee, see Article 53(5)(c).

b) One-third is to be used for scholarship funds, of which 1/8 is to be distributed through the Norwegian Music Publishers’ Association’s scholarship scheme, while the remaining 7/8 shall be distributed through TONO.”