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 rightholders’ 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 rightholders’ 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 as part of creative industry collaborative bodies 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 copyright societies, and the European GESAC.

In 2022, Teosto’s promotion of interests focused on the national implementation of the Copyright Directive (DSM). We actively communicated about the process, gave statements and were heard in several parliamentary committees. Since 2019, our main goal has been that changes to the Finnish Copyright Act are made in line with the EU member states’ shared approach so that the national implementation serves the purpose of the Directive and strengthens the property rights of music authors. On 27 February 2023, the Finnish Parliament approved the reform of the Copyright Act, which is mostly in line with Teosto’s goals.

In early 2022, Teosto was able to reach its long-term promotion of interests goal when it was decided, on the basis of a proposal by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, that royalties would no longer affect the unemployment benefits of music authors. The changes took effect at the start of 2023.

As the COVID-19 pandemic eased up, influencing related to COVID-19 restrictions could be decreased. At the same time, we wanted to remind people of the long-term effects of COVID-19 restrictions on the creative industry.

We communicated the importance of the music industry in society through the new Musiikkiala.fi website, which we opened together with Gramex. Teosto also worked with other music industry organisations to hold the Flow Talks panel discussion and a discussion by a panel of politicians at the Music X Media event.

In spring 2022, Teosto started preparing for the next parliamentary elections. We drafted goals for the government programme together with our three member organisations (the Society of Finnish Composers, the Finnish Music Creators’ Association and the Finnish Music Publishers Association) and started working systematically to communicate these to the parties. We also cooperated extensively with other copyright societies and within the Luovan työn tekijät ja yrittäjät ry cooperation network.

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, 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 copyright societies.

The General Meeting is Teosto’s supreme decision-making body. It convenes for regular meetings twice a year. At the General Meeting, Teosto’s voting members decide on Teosto’s operating guidelines and elect the Board of Directors. Teosto has about 900 voting members. During the year, we received a record number of applications to become a voting member, amounting to more than 100.  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 voting member has one vote at the General Meeting.

Teosto’s 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 and support functions. The risk management group makes an assessment of the main risks and their development for the Board of Directors twice a year.

Our continuity management activities are based on our continuity management policy. 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 maintain documented continuity plans for key activities, and we update these plans regularly. We regularly train in, practise and test activities required by the plans.

Teosto exists for its members and customers.  We bring together our two most important member and customer groups: music rightholders 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 accordance with our strategy, we improve our services on the basis of customer insight. We regularly measure the ease of use of our services (CES) for rightholders and music user customers and survey our customer satisfaction annually. In 2022, we surveyed the needs and expectations of young music authors in particular and interviewed our music user customers. Through active dialogue, we also increased our understanding of the business of our major music user customers and music publishers. We survey the opinions of the general public annually with a survey conducted by Taloustutkimus.

OUR MOST IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDERS

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 Rightholders: 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.

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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.

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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.

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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 rightholders together. We take part in the advocacy efforts of European and international umbrella organisations (GESAC & CISAC).

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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.

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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.

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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.