Teosto’s online royalty processing partner changes on 1 January 2026 – remember to register your works in time

Teosto pays our copyright royalties to its members for music used on online services (e.g. Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and social media). From January 2026 onwards, these royalties will be processed by Teosto’s partner ICE Core Online. On this page, we have gathered everything you need to know as a rights holder.

Online royalty processing and distributions will continue normally in 2026

The change of partner will not interrupt the processing of royalties for music used on online services. Online royalties will be distributed as usual in 2026.

Our new licensing partner ICE has a broader and more comprehensive network of agreements than our previous partner. In January, we will update the list of services from which we collect royalties.

The only major change concerns works that include both published and unpublished shares. More information about registering such works can be found below.

Register missing works by Christmas

If you know you have works that have not yet been registered, register them in our web service by Christmas 2025. We hope that in January our new partner can start their first processing run based on as complete and up-to-date a work database as possible.

Also register works that will be published during 2025. Remember that you can register a work even before its release.

Registering works in time will become even more important – see the instructions for registering works in 2026

The partner change adds one more reason to make sure your work is registered before release or immediately afterwards.

What happens if a work is not registered in time?

ICE processes music usage reports from online services monthly. If a work is not identified in the first processing (e.g. January 2026), royalties for that period cannot be paid.

The same report will be processed one more time, but only after 18 months (in this example, July 2027). If the work is found in the database then, royalties for that usage period will be paid in the second processing. If the work is still missing, the collected royalties will be shared among all works that have royalties – they cannot be paid retroactively.

So register your works in time – preferably before release!

Instructions for registering works in 2026 – pay special attention to works with both published and unpublished shares

Fully published or fully unpublished works will continue to be registered in our web service as before:

• For published works, follow the procedure defined in your publishing agreement.
• For unpublished works, one work registration including all authors is sufficient.
• Special case: works with both published and unpublished shares.

ICE’s system cannot yet fully process publisher registrations that include unpublished shares of the work.

For such works, more than one work registration is needed:

• Each publisher registers the work as per usual, including their publishing shares.
• In addition, one unpublished author needs to register the work and include all unpublished authors.

We acknowledge that this is not ideal. Teosto and many other copyright societies are working to find a solution so that this temporary practice will be as short-lived as possible.

Frequently asked questions about the change of online royalty processing partner

What happens if my work is not registered? Will I lose royalties?

Teosto can only pay royalties for registered works. If a work is registered late, royalties will be delayed or, in the worst case, lost.

Why is the licensing partner changing?

To strengthen the licensing of international music services and respond to a rapidly changing market. Through the ICE agreement, works represented by Teosto will become part of one of the world’s strongest online repertoires.

Will I receive more royalties in the future?

Possibly – it depends on how much the work is used.

When must a work be registered?

Before release or immediately afterwards.

Where can I get help?

From Teosto’s customer service or your designated contact person.