More than 16,000 Norwegian businesses will benefit from a simplified licensing process as TONO and Gramo join forces to streamline their background music services. From 1 September 2025, companies and organisations will access all necessary services from a single source, with a joint invoice from both organisations starting 1 January 2026.
/ 25/06/2025 / Willy MartinsenToday, over 16,000 businesses are customers of both TONO, which represents composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers, and Gramo, which represents performing artists and producers of recorded music. As of 1 September, these users will only need to interact with one entity, as customer support, invoicing and guidance are consolidated into a single function at TONO. Starting in 2026, all customers will receive one joint invoice covering both organisations’ rights.
“This is an efficient and customer-friendly development – both for us as collective management organisations and for the businesses that create added value through the legal use of music represented by TONO and Gramo. By joining forces, we are simplifying the user experience, reducing costs across both organisations, and enabling a more forward-looking model for collecting royalties on behalf of songwriters, music publishers, producers, performers and musicians,” says Karl Vestli, CEO of TONO (left in the picture above).
“TONO and Gramo represent different categories of rightsholders in the music industry, but we share many of the same customers – for instance, restaurants, shops, hotels, gyms and hair salons that use recorded music in public. With this partnership, we’re taking a major step toward simplifying and streamlining the process – for our shared customers and for our organisations. For both TONO and Gramo, it is vital to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions, improving the quality and efficiency of our work. This collaboration brings clear benefits to the parts of the music industry we represent – and to the businesses we serve,” says Kim Skarning Andersen, Managing Director of Gramo.
TONO and Gramo have discussed closer cooperation for many years. Norway has been one of the few remaining countries in Europe where services related to public performance of recorded music have not been coordinated between organisations such as TONO and Gramo.
With this new initiative, a dedicated team within TONO will handle licensing, customer service, invoicing and follow-up on behalf of both organisations. The aim is to simplify processes, increase revenue, and strengthen marketing efforts to highlight the value of legal, hassle-free music use.
“Both Gramo and TONO are working to increase revenue from background music. Establishing a joint initiative is a concrete step toward achieving that goal,” says Kim Skarning Andersen.
“TONO is investing in new digital tools and automation to streamline the entire process – from case management to payment and compliance. We are establishing a new department at TONO, which will also include four employees from Gramo. This will be a specialised, highly skilled team with strong expertise, geared for growth and value creation in the years to come,” says Karl Vestli.
Among those joining the new team are two field representatives who will visit businesses across the country, provide guidance to new and existing customers, and help secure licensing agreements for the use of recorded music.
Although TONO will now handle services on behalf of both organisations, Gramo will retain ownership of its rights, set its own pricing, and continue to be responsible for distributing royalties to its rightsholders and to the Fund for Performing Artists (Fond for utøvende kunstnere).
TONO is a non-profit collective management organisation, founded in 1928 and owned by its members – composers, lyricists and music publishers. TONO manages the economic rights in musical works and licenses the public use of music on behalf of rightsholders. It represents more than 43,000 Norwegian members and millions of international rightsholders through reciprocal agreements. TONO’s distribution result in 2024 was NOK 848.8 million.
Gramo is a non-profit member organisation founded in 1989. It manages the neighbouring rights of producers and performing artists in accordance with section 21 of the Norwegian Copyright Act, and also collects levies on behalf of the Fund for Performing Artists. Gramo has 52,000 members, and its 2024 distribution result was NOK 221.9 million.
For more information, please contact:
• Kim Skarning Andersen, Managing Director, Gramo – kim.andersen@gramo.no, +47 908 58 000
• Karl Vestli, CEO, TONO – karl.vestli@tono.no, +47 932 56 020
• Rita Mamelund, Head of Communications, Gramo – rita.mamelund@gramo.no, +47 907 82 954
• Willy Martinsen, Director of Communications, TONO – willy.martinsen@tono.no, +47 909 65 254