Updates to Teosto’s membership agreement: A new category of rights concerning AI

A new AI-related category of rights will be incorporated into Teosto’s membership agreement effective from 17 September 2026. In the future, this new category of rights concerning AI use will include both audible music and lyrics in graphic form, approved for administration by Teosto in spring 2025 General Meeting. The new membership agreement will enter into force without the signing of a new agreement, and it will replace the previous agreement. Adaptation rights related to AI use will only be assigned to our administration if you give separate consent.

The new AI-related category of rights and assigning comprehensive rights related to the category make it possible for Teosto to conclude licensing deals with AI services and collect royalties on behalf of its customers for the AI-related use of their works. At the same time, it allows Teosto to protect your rights more effectively by reserving the rights related to works with regard to both music and graphic representations of lyrics. Reserving the rights means that the works cannot be used without permission for text and data mining (Copyright Act, section 13b), which is one of the limitations of copyright and may be part of the training of AI.

Notifications concerning the new AI-related category of rights will be made by the creators of works. Publishers will not need to give separate consent for the works they publish. However, a publisher may give separate consent concerning adaptation rights on behalf of a creator, or give advance notification of the removal of the AI-related category of rights before the change to the membership agreement takes effect.

Adaptation is one key way in which music is utilised in AI services. It is also an area that is expected to account for a significant share of royalties. Assigning adaptation rights to Teosto’s administration makes it possible to include works in licensing deals related to AI use when Teosto concludes such agreements in the future, either directly or through its licensing partners (such as ICE Core). When it comes to such agreements, Teosto always advocates for the collective interest of our rightholders.

If all of your rights covered by the new AI-related category of rights are administered by Teosto, we can also conclude agreements with AI services with regard to the training of AI models.

The adaptation rights assigned to Teosto’s administration only apply to AI-related contexts. Adaptation is one key way in which music is utilised in AI services. Assigning adaptation rights to Teosto’s administration is a prerequisite for Teosto to be able to conclude comprehensive agreements with AI services concerning the use of your works.

Adaptation means that works can be used in various ways to generate AI music in generative AI services. A service can produce AI music based on text prompts, and the music thereby generated may resemble the original work to some extent. For example, different works may be combined with each other, the genre may be changed, or the user’s own lyrics may be added to works.

At present, AI music generated by many generative AI services can only be used within the service. However, it is possible that, in the future, AI music generated by the users of the services may also be distributed outside the services. In such cases, separate royalties and other conditions will be agreed upon in connection with such distribution.

The new AI-related category of rights makes it possible for our members to remove the category of rights concerning AI use from Teosto’s administration with a single selection. The removal of the category of rights from Teosto’s administration can be carried out by using a form that will be available on Teosto’s web service starting from 17 August 2026. After the removal, the works will no longer be included in Teosto’s future licensing deals concerning AI use. This means that the works will be subject to the rightholder’s self-administration with regard to AI use, and the rightholder must personally see to agreements concerning the use of the works and the protection of the rights.

If you do not separately give your consent to assigning adaptation rights to Teosto’s administration, Teosto will not, at this stage, include your works in future licensing deals related to generative AI, and you will not receive royalties for them.

However, if you have not removed the AI-related category of rights from Teosto’s administration, Teosto will still ensure that it reserves the rights related to the works under its administration with regard to playing music and the graphic representations of lyrics. Reserving the rights means that your works cannot be used without permission for text and data mining (Copyright Act, section 13b), which is one of the limitations of copyright and may be part of the training of AI.

 When it comes to the new AI-related category of rights, the aim was to focus on the rights that are the most significant with regard to AI-related licensing at this stage. Lyrics in graphic form have been identified as a key area with regard to AI services, and bringing them under Teosto’s administration has been deemed to be necessary for Teosto to grant sufficiently comprehensive licences to AI services.

No. As is the case with other categories of rights, the category of rights related to AI cannot be broken down into multiple parts. If a rightholder does not want to assign the administration of rights concerning graphic representations of lyrics to Teosto, the rightholder must remove the AI-related category of rights from Teosto’s administration entirely. This means that Teosto will also not administer the AI use of the rightholder’s works in audio form.

No, you cannot. Assigning the AI-related category of rights to Teosto’s administration currently applies to the rightholder’s entire repertoire, and individual works cannot be separated from it. The same applies to the adaptation right in AI contexts. If you wish to remove individual works from AI use, you must remove them from Teosto’s administration entirely in accordance with Teosto’s existing self-administration arrangements. In this case, you will not receive any royalties for these works through Teosto for any other use either.

Yes, you can. You can remove the AI-related category of rights from Teosto’s administration even after the change to the membership agreement enters into effect by following the self-administration arrangements for categories of rights in accordance with the membership agreement.

Your works will then no longer be part of Teosto’s repertoire, and the AI service will no longer have the right to use your works on the basis of its agreement with Teosto.  

Teosto can only include in its agreements and licences the shares it administers in the AI-related category of rights. If a co-creator removes their AI-related category of rights from Teosto’s administration, Teosto cannot conclude agreements on the use of works on behalf of the creator in question. When your AI-related category of rights is under Teosto’s administration, Teosto will, however, represent the works with respect to your shares.

Depending on the terms of your publishing agreement, it is possible that you are not able to assign all of the rights concerning your works covered by the new AI-related category of rights to Teosto’s administration without the publisher’s consent. If necessary, talk to your publisher to confirm that you can assign the administration of the rights covered by the new AI-related category of rights to Teosto.

Teosto’s role is to ensure that the interests of our rightholders are taken into account in licensing deals. Teosto agrees on your behalf on the relevant terms and conditions, such as where the AI music generated can be used, and royalties related to such use.

In its agreements concerning AI-related use, Teosto aims to ensure that the service provider provides reports appropriate for the purpose of distributions on the use of works in the service.

As the market is still in its emergent stage, the practices are not yet clear. At present, AI music created in many generative AI services can only be used within the service. However, it is possible that, in the future, AI music generated by the users of the services may also be distributed outside the services; for example, in social media. This requires that the matter is agreed upon in licensing deals concluded with AI services.

On the basis of the moral rights stipulated by the Copyright Act, the creator has the right to prohibit the use of their work in contexts that are offensive or prejudicial to the creator’s reputation. Whether a context is offensive or prejudicial to the creator’s reputation is assessed by objective criteria in accordance with the Copyright Act. As moral rights are not within the scope of Teosto’s administration of rights, the member must make any such claims directly to the platform in question. 

If you have removed your AI-related category of rights from Teosto’s administration, your works are not included in Teosto’s licensing deals concerning AI-related use, and AI services are, therefore, not licensed to use them. In this case, Teosto also does not monitor the exercise of your rights, and you are responsible for protecting your works yourself. 

The rights represented by Teosto and record companies concern the rights of different groups of rightholders. Each entity representing rightholders concludes agreements with AI services on the exercise of rights for their part. Agreements concluded by record companies relate to the recording rights of works, while Teosto represents the copyright of works, i.e. composers, lyricists, arrangers and publishers. The AI service in question is responsible for ensuring that it has secured licences for the use of protected content from all of the relevant rightholders. In order for an AI service to have all of the rights it is required to have, it needs to also sign an agreement with the entity that represents creators and publishers.

The key consideration is how the works are used in these contexts. For example, on Spotify, music represented by Teosto will continue to be licensed for normal streaming by our licensing partner ICE Core. If services with which we have previously concluded licensing deals want to introduce generative AI features that enable the production of AI music based on original works, they need to separately agree with us on such use.

Teosto is currently actively promoting discussions with AI services. As is typical of all contract negotiations, we cannot comment on them while the negotiations are ongoing.

Teosto negotiates licensing deals with AI companies either directly or through its licensing partners (such as ICE Core). The agreements cover the scope of the use of works, the royalties to be paid, and reporting.

The agreements may set out restrictions on how works can be used in the AI service and how royalties are paid for the works used. The agreements may also specify that AI music generated in the service can only be used within the service. Even if licensing deals in the first stage limit the use of AI adaptations so that they can only be used within the service, it is possible that future agreements will include more detailed provisions on the distribution of AI adaptations outside the service. The market practices related to AI licensing are still developing, and Teosto will keep a close eye on any developments.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to reliably estimate the level of royalties from AI-related use at this stage, as we have yet to conclude agreements with AI services. Only a small number of licensing deals have been concluded in the market, and they mainly involve major record companies and publishers.

At this stage, the change concerning the category of rights does not affect distributions, the Distribution Rules or royalties paid. When distributable royalties begin to accrue, we will need to make the necessary amendments to the Teosto Distribution Rules which govern the key principles of distributions. Such decisions concerning distribution principles will be made by Teosto’s General Meeting in due time.

Teosto’s distribution principles are set out in the Distribution Rules, which are decided on by the General Meeting. Any amendments to the Teosto Distribution Rules will be decided on separately by the General Meeting when distributable royalties have been accrued. At this stage, the change concerning the category of rights does not affect distributions, the Distribution Rules or royalties paid.

In its agreements concerning AI-related use, Teosto aims to ensure that the service provider provides reports appropriate for the purpose of distributions on the use of works, and these reports will be used as the basis for the distribution of royalties.