Skip to content
Teoston toiminta
Sustainable operations

Our goal is to ensure that Finland offers good conditions for working in the the creative industries as well as making and using music professionally.

We manage the copyrights of music authors and promote Finnish creative music. We make sure that our rightsholder members – i.e. composers, lyricists and music publishers – receive royalties when their music is used.

We represent nearly 38,000 Finnish and around three million foreign composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers. Teosto has around 30,000 customers who use music: radio and TV companies, event producers, restaurants and other businesses and organisations.

Our everyday work is guided by our values

  • Openness: Transparency and efficiency are the cornerstones of our existence.
  • Boldness: We want to boldly reform our operations.
  • Goal-orientation: We aim to vitalise the creative economy and support new success stories.

OUR VISION: We increase the cultural and commercial importance
of music

We updated our strategy in autumn 2021 and published it in spring 2022. Our strategy combines three strategic goals closely related to our basic task and two enablers.

Teosto's strategy

We make sure that music authors can focus on their work. We collect royalties for the use of their music and then pay the royalties to them.

We protect music authors’ rights globally. We have reciprocal representation agreements with more than 80 foreign collective management organisations. We provide extensive sales channels and contracts with the industry’s largest operators in Finland and abroad. We efficiently collect and distribute royalties from music use. We also provide music authors with international cooperation networks as well as flexible services for administering their financial rights.

For music users, we provide a wide repertoire of famous and moving works of music that create additional value for their operations. We grant licenses for the public performance of music for various purposes. We collect royalties for the use of music, process music use reports and distribute royalties according to the reports to the music authors and music publisher who are our members.

The goal of our promotion of interests activities is to promote the interests of composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers in matters related to copyright and the music industry’s operating environment.

We actively monitor the music industry’s operating environment, take part in public debate and promote our rightsholders’ interests in both national and international arenas. We secure the music industry’s working conditions and provide high-quality information to decision-makers to support their decision-making. In Finland, we hold events and meetings where we make our rightsholders’ voice heard to decision-makers. We also take part in broader political events and campaigns.

We promote our members’ interests together with our member organisations – the Society of Finnish Composers, the Finnish Music Creators’ Association and the Finnish Music Publishers Association. We actively influence matters in collaborative bodies of collective management organisations and creative industry actors in Finland and abroad. In Finland, we take part in the advocacy efforts of Luovan alan tekijät ja yrittäjät ry, a Finnish cooperation network for creative industry professionals. Our international cooperation network includes CISAC, the global umbrella organisation for collective management organisations, and the European GESAC.

In 2021, our promotion of interests focused on mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with the rest of the music and culture industry, we seek to influence the government’s support packages, make sure that the restrictions are fair and provide decision-makers with up-to-date information about the losses of those who do creative work.

Another significant theme was the incorporation of the Copyright Directive (DSM) in the Finnish Copyright Act, which was prepared by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Together with other collective management organisations, we aim to ensure that the Finnish legislation complies with the wording of the European directive and is consistent with other Member States’ legislation.

One important theme in the promotion of interests was also the private copying compensation, the reduction of which was successfully rejected during the government’s budget session in autumn 2021. We also seek to make it so that royalties no longer lead to reductions in artists’ unemployment benefits. We made significant progress towards this goal at the beginning of 2022, when the government promised to amend the decree from the beginning of 2023.

Our operations are guided by Teosto’s statutes and the decisions made by our General Meeting.

Our operations are also guided by the legislation related to copyright and their collective management. Of these, they key pieces of legislation include the Copyright Act, the Act on the Collective Management of Copyright, competition law, the Associations Act and the legislation related to accounting, auditing and data protection.

We comply with competition rules in all our operations. Because we have a dominant position in the market in Finland, we have a special obligation to make sure that our actions do not limit competition. The practical guidelines are available in the competition guide, with which we have also familiarised our staff.

Matters related to data protection and information security are also a key part of our reliabilityIn all of our operations, we strive to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. Our data protection and information security operations support our business and reputation and meet the security requirements set out by the law, our members and customers as well as other partners. In our processing of personal data, we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation as well as other applicable data protection legislation. We have described how we process personal data in Teosto’s Privacy Policy. We have recorded the key information security principles in Teosto’s information security policy and its supplementary instructions, in which we have also trained all our staff. The principles of data processing have been recorded in Teosto’s Privacy Policy.

We are a member of the industry’s global umbrella organisation CISAC, and we are committed to complying with its rules and resolutions (Professional Rules for Musical Societies and Binding Resolutions for Musical Societies). We are also a member of GESAC, the European grouping of collective management organisations.

Teosto’s General Meeting is the organisation’s supreme decision-making body. At the General Meeting, the members decide on the organisation’s operating guidelines and elect the Board of Directors. Our organisation has about 775 ordinary members. Over the past year, we got about 20 new ordinary members.  Our organisation also has institutional members, including the Society of Finnish Composers, the Finnish Music Creators’ Association, the Finnish Music Publishers Association and the Union of Finnish Writers. Each ordinary member has one vote at the General Meeting. The General Meeting is held twice a year.

The Board of Directors’ duty is to represent the organisation, direct the organisation’s general activity in promoting creative music, manage the organisation’s assets and take responsibility for the organisation’s finances, appoint and dismiss the organisation’s CEO and oversee the work of the organisation’s office. The Board of Directors consists of a Chairman and five other Members.

The duties and mandate of Teosto’s CEO are also determined by the Board of Directors. The CEO is in charge of the organisation’s day-to-day management and the work of the organisation’s office in accordance with the instructions and regulations issued by the Board of Directors. The CEO is supported by a management team in the planning and management of operations. The duties of the General Meeting, the Board of Directors and the CEO are described in more detail in the Statutes of Teosto.

Teosto’s continuity management is coordinated by a risk management group, which consists of representatives of Teosto’s various business areas. Our continuity management activities are based on our continuity management policy. We maintain documented continuity plans for key activities, and we update these plans regularly.  Our efforts to ensure the continuity of operations apply to all of our processes and functions, with a focus on the continuity of our basic tasks. We regularly train in, practise and test activities required by the plans. The achievement of continuity goals is also monitored and assessed regularly.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we focus on ensuring the continuity of basic functions, such as timely distributions. We have been successful in this. In addition, we have put effort into prioritising development projects in order to make progress with essential development projects, such as the revamping of our web services. Ensuring our staff’s well-being at work was an important prerequisite for the continuity of our operations when our staff was working from home. Employee turnover during the year posed a challenge to continuity management, but we were able to carry out key tasks with the help of our preparedness plans, which we had made earlier.

Teosto exists for its members and customers.  We bring together our two most important member and customer groups: music rightsholders and customers who use music. We also have other stakeholders that we need for developing and making progress with our operations.  For this reason, we engage in continuous dialogue with our stakeholders. By acting responsibly, we seek to meet our stakeholders’ expectations.

In 2021, we carried out an extensive survey about our promotion of interests activities as well as several smaller interview studies in order to develop our services. We also monitor the functioning of our services with a continuous NPS survey, which provides us with feedback on how easy it is to use our services through different channels. We interviewed a wide range of stakeholders as part of our strategy work. Through the interviews, we received valuable information about the needs of our rightsholder members and music user customers. In addition, we also survey the general public’s opinions annually.

OUR MOST IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDERS

________________________________________

 Rightsholders: composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers.

  • Taking care of matters openly, transparently and responsibly.
  • Licensing rights efficiently and extensively.
  • Efficient and reliable distribution of royalties.
  • Services are easy to use, easy communication, good reachability.
  • Understanding of and support for music publishers’ business.
  • Clear and understandable communication.
  • Active promotion of interests and advocacy.
  • Championing the industry in public life.

We strive for close, systematic and goal-oriented customer work and seek to actively develop our customer service and service channels. We build well-functioning and easy-to-use web services and present information clearly. We promote interests effectively and improve the conditions for making music.

________________________________________

Music user clients: radio and TV networks, event producers, online platforms and restaurants as well as other businesses and organisations

  • Taking care of contract matters openly, transparently and responsibly.
  • Lawfulness and even-handedness of licensing.
  • Understanding and promoting customers’ business goals.
  • Services are easy to use, easy communication, good reachability.
  • A well-functioning and efficient process for buying rights.
  • Clear and understandable communication.

We strive for close, systematic and goal-oriented customer work and seek to actively develop our customer service and service channels. We build well-functioning and easy-to-use web services and present information clearly. We continuously develop our licensing products and buying processes.

________________________________________

Staff:

  • Responsible HR management
  • Good communication
  • Equality, good work atmosphere and working conditions

We proactively manage well-being at work and systematically improve leadership and supervisory work. We encourage our employees to develop their skills.

________________________________________

Political decision-makers: Members of Parliament, Ministers, the European Parliament and Commission

  • Good cooperation and open access to information and communication that makes preparing decisions easier.
  • A common goal of making decisions and reforms that benefit society as a whole.

We regularly communicate and hold meetings in connection with, for example, various task forces and events. We offer clear and understandable information. Our cultural ambassador activities bring decision-makers and rightsholders together. We take part in the advocacy efforts of European and international umbrella organisations (GESAC & CISAC).

________________________________________

Authorities: competition regulators, ministries, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office

  • Complying with laws and regulations in Teosto’s operations.
  • Lobbying and offering expert help with matters related to the industry.

We offer information and help openly and communicate well with the authorities. We respond to enquiries quickly. We participate in law drafting by giving statements and taking part in ministries’ working groups and committees.

________________________________________

General public: citizens, media

  • Open and active dialogue.
  • The responsibility and reliability of business operations.
  • Sharing Teosto’s expertise through various communication channels.
  • Minimising misuse and negative impacts.

We communicate openly and actively through various channels and are willing to engage in dialogue. We react quickly and actively to questions, for example on social media.

________________________________________

Copyright organisations: Finnish and foreign collective management organisations, music and cultural industry organisations, cooperation forums for the copyright sector, the international umbrella organisations GESAC and CISAC

  • Good and open cooperation.
  • Sharing Teosto’s expertise.
  • A common goal of ensuring the functioning and sustainability of the copyright system and collective management.

We actively take part in collaboration and various projects, work towards goals and events. We make our voices heard in various organisations’ Boards of Directors and decision-making bodies.

TEOSTO CREATES VALUE FOR SOCIETY & BUSINESS
VITAL SOCIETY

Music is an important part of people’s lives and society. We want to create an environment where music can be enjoyed in many different ways and created professionally. Collective management is an efficient way to promote the rights of composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers. We manage the licensing of their rights in various contexts and the distribution of royalties.

SMOOTH BUSINESS

We act as an intermediary between our members and the users of music: without us, everyone who wants to use music would have to make a separate agreement with each rightsholder. Thanks to our network, music users have access to not only all Finnish music but also foreign music.

CREATIVE ECONOMY

Music creates jobs, business, exports and tax revenue for Finland. Music also promotes public health and well-being and improves quality of life, which acts as a preventive element and reduces costs from health care and social welfare services.

CULTURE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

We carry responsibility for the diversity of music and for improving the working conditions of future generations of music authors. A diverse music industry also significantly supports the preservation of a nation’s identity and language, its mental resilience and its ability to overcome crises.

READ MORE:

Give us feedback!

Feedback from users is important when we develop our web services. Let us know your experiences of our service!

Change cookie settings

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer or other device and records information about your visit to the Website. Teosto uses cookies to improve the usability of its services.

Information collected by cookies is not usually connected with the personal data of an identified person, but some information collected by cookies may be indirectly connected with the personal data of an identified person.

Learn more by reading our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy

Cookie categories
Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to ensure the availability of our website. They do things such as load some of our website’s functions in advance to make the website load faster. Strictly necessary cookies are also used to determine and remember your settings. You can disable strictly necessary cookies in your browser settings, but please note that all of the website’s functions and parts may not work properly after that.
More information about cookies

Analytics cookies

We use analytics cookies to improve the functioning of our website. Analytics cookies collect information about things such as how visitors use our website and how they navigate from one page to another. The information is used in anonymous form.
More information: Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy

Functionality cookies

Functionality cookies allow us to offer various functions, such as playlists and a live chat service, on our website. If you disable functionality cookies, some or all of these functions may not work properly. More information about cookies

Marketing cookies

Marketing cookies help us tailor marketing and offer the users of our website more personalised services in the future. We use marketing cookies to collect information about the user’s behaviour and preferences on our website.
More information about cookies