Ground breaking initiative: Cross-border alliance lead the way for future rights management
A new cross-border alliance has seen the light of day in the Nordics. The three Nordic collective rights management organisations Koda, Teosto and Tono have formed the company Polaris Nordic, a ground-breaking initiative that aims to create higher value for music creators, and lead the way for the future of music rights management.
At Midem 2014, the CEOs of the three organisations signed an agreement, which sets a new standard of cross-border cooperation in the world of music rights managements. Through the company “Polaris Nordic”, Koda, Teosto and TONO have agreed to develop, and run, joint back-end systems for music reporting and distribution of the revenues collected by the organisations. The aim is to further reduce costs and create higher efficiency, resulting in greater value for composers, song-writers, lyricists and music publishers.
The future of rights management
“It’s the first time that collective rights management organisations are having such close and formal cross-border cooperation. We believe that the Nordic model of joining forces will be for the benefit of our members and rightsholders”, says Teosto CEO Katri Sipilä.
“Koda, TONO and Teosto are among the world’s most efficient and lean collective rights management organisations, and with Polaris Nordic we are leading the way to the future of rights management. By partnership we reduce cost, increase efficiency and increase revenue to best serve efficient copyright management”, says Koda CEO Anders Lassen.
The first two systems, Polaris REP and Polaris DIS, are used by all three organizations and the first distributions to rightsholders have already been made. Before Polaris Nordic will be fully operational, a thorough investigation on competition issues will be conducted.
“Joining forces with other collective rights management organisations with whom we share common goals, processes and values is a natural thing to do. Aside from developing a common backend processing, Polaris Nordic also gives us the possibility to negotiate deals for all three societies, regarding for example IT investments etc. This obviously provides added value for the rightsholders that we represent”, says TONO CEO Cato Strøm.