Teosto has distributed nearly EUR 10 million in royalties to music authors and publishers

Teosto made the March distribution to its members today on 24 March 2022. Royalties from live music concerts have increased slightly, but as a whole the March distribution amounts are similar to those of the COVID-19 year of 2021. In total, the March distribution to composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers is EUR 9.7 million

Teosto makes distributions once every quarter. This distribution mainly consisted of royalties collected in late summer of last year.

The easing of the COVID-19 situation last autumn increased the royalties from concerts and streamed concerts to EUR 0.45 million, but royalties from TV lacked the larger one-off payments that were distributed last year.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact was still very evident on live performances, whose share of the distribution was only about 5%, when they normally account for about one fifth of the royalties.  Other areas appear to have already recovered from the pandemic, and royalties from, for example, Yle and commercial radio increased from last year.

Teosto collects royalties for the public performance, broadcasting and reproduction of music and distributes them to the composers, lyricists, arrangers and music publishers. With this distribution, domestic music authors received a total of EUR 5.1 million in royalties. The rest of the royalties will be paid to foreign authors and publishers through international organisations.

The royalties paid in March 2022 were collected for the following categories of rights:

Category of rights	March 2022 EUR million	March 2021 EUR million
Radio and TV	5.0	6.3
Public performance and background music	1.6	1.2
Internet	1.6	1.3
Multiple (foreign countries, corrections)	1.5	1.0
Total	9.7	9.8

Teosto expects that it will take a long time for the music industry to recover from the pandemic

Teosto has strived to help lessen the impact of COVID-19 on its rightsholder members. COVID-19 financial support paid from the Teosto Fund has now been granted four times, totalling EUR 4.5 million.

“Royalties are always paid after a delay. For royalties collected abroad, it can take up to a year for them to reach their recipient. It is extremely important that restrictions are not reintroduced this year and that we can instead properly start the recovery process. Even though our forecast for this year is good, we expect that it will take a year for us to be back to normal.”

The amount paid to an individual author depends on how many times their work has been performed on various platforms and their share of the work. The amount varies from a couple of euros to thousands of euros.

The total amount distributed varies depending on how comprehensively royalties can be collected in each music use area and allocated to the work to which they belong. To allocate the royalties, Teosto needs both the work notifications by music authors for their works and the performance notifications or music use reports by music performers and users.

Distributions are made four times a year 

You can find out more about Teosto’s distributions on the Distributions page 

The total amount distributed by Teosto varies depending on how comprehensively royalties can be collected in each music use area, and how quickly these can be allocated to the work to which they belong. Allocating the royalties requires work notifications submitted by music authors to Teosto for their own work as well as performance notifications or music use reports submitted by music performers and users. 

The amount paid to an individual author depends on how many times their works have been performed and the author’s share of the royalty to be paid for the work. The amount varies from a couple of euros to thousands of euros. Teosto is constantly working on speeding up the royalty collection process so that royalties can be distributed as soon as possible after the music has been performed. 

Teosto distributes royalties to its member composers, lyricists, arrangers and publishers four times a year. After March 2022, the next distribution will be made on 6th June 2022.